During the past summer, the State Text-Book Commission, created by act of the Thirtieth Legislature, met in Austin and adopted a set of text-books for use in the public schools of Texas during the next five years. The Civil Government adopted by the Board was in the strictest sense a local product. It was written by Judge John C. Townes, Dean of the Department of Law in the University of Texas, and was published by the Austin Printing Company, of Austin, Texas. The work was largely prepared for publication while its author was absent from the University on leave during the Fall Term of 1907, but came from the press in the spring of 1908.
Since the book was written for use in the public schools of Texas, as the author tells us in the preface, it deals with Civil Government in the dual form in which it exists in this country. The general plan adopted seems simple and logical. The subject is presented in five parts. Part One presents the general principles underlying all governments. Part Two is historical and gives a brief account of our early colonial governments, and the Confederacy, and narrates briefly the events leading up to the adoption of the constitution of the United States. Part Three analyses the constitution of the United States and describes the governmental machinery that has grown up under it. Part Four gives an account of the State governments, with particular reference to Texas, while Part Five deals with "Municipal Law" and is, in substance, a brief statement of the general principles of elementary law.
In setting forth the general principles of government, the author takes as his point of departure the necessity of government in any civilized society, and points out that the act of governing implies the existence of two persons, one the governor, or sovereign, who exercises control, and the other the subject, or citizen, over whom the control is exercised. This calls for a brief examination of the nature of sovereignty. The author rejects the contention of the theorists to the effect that sovereign power is absolute and indivisible. In our dual arrangement in this country, says he, "We have two peoples and two governments operating in the territory and over the inhabitants of each State; yet each people and each government is limited as to the matters over which its powers extend. Each within the sphere of its political activity is the highest and uncontrolled power, subject to no other authority and accountable to no other for its conduct. * * * This is the practical condition in which the citizens of the United States are placed, and from which there is no escape except by revolution."
Passing from the consideration of this abstract question, the writer classifies governments according to form into the usual classes, as monarchies, aristocracies, and so forth, and points out the necessity for the separation of the three departments of government as a means of preventing the tyrannical use of political power. A chapter is devoted to the most important powers and duties of governments, another to the relation of the citizen, or subject, to the sovereign, and a third to political parties and the part they play in all representative government.
In the chapter on the relation of the Federal government to the States, the question of the rights of the States receives a brief notice. On the subject of secession we find it stated that "so long as the argument was confined to the historical development leading up to the government and its establishment, and to the language of the instrument and its contemporaneous construction, the advocates of the rights of the States had decided advantage. But later there came a time in our history when this question was left to the 'arbitrament of the sword,' and the result of battle was against the States' right of secession and in favor of a centralized government. It is too late to reopen the question, and all are alike agreed that since the surrender of General Lee at Appomatox no State has a right to secede from the Union." The writer recognizes that there are many questions still unsettled which involve the relative rights of the State on the one hand and the Federal government on the other, but they are not sectional questions and will probably never become sectional and need give little real cause for alarm.
The fifth part of the book, which deals with the elementary principles of law, is a departure from the beaten path in presenting the subject of Civil Government. This departure is certainly justified by the imporance of the subject and the great value to the citizen of even a meager knowledge of the most common precepts of the law. Besides classifications and definitions of law and legal rights, the following important subjects receive brief but excellent presentation: the family, master and servant, principal and agent, partnerships, corporations, common carriers, property, contracts, and torts.
There are two topics omitted from the book that, in the view of the present writer, might very well find a place in a text-book on Civil Government. One is some account of the committee system which plays such an important part in our legislative bodies in this country. No intelligent grasp of our legislative process is possible without an understanding of the work of our numerous committees. The other topic omitted is an account of the English governmental arrangement. Such an account would necessarily be very brief, but it would present the relative positions occupied by the King, the Lords, and the Commons, and, what is probably more important, would give the student some general notion of the working of cabinet, or ministerial government. There is no better way to discover our own faults than by instituting a comparison between our own system and the systems worked out by other free peoples.
As may be inferred from what has already been said, the subject is presented from the view point of the lawyer, rather than that of the publicist. It is an excellent analysis of our American governmental machinery, and in the hands of a ccmpetent teacher will undoubtedly prove a most excellent text-book. But, as many of the discussions are somewhat abstract, there is some danger that, in the hands of a weak or inexperienced teacher, the class work may degenerate into memory work on the part of the student, and to a process of "hearing recitations" on the part of the teacher. But up to this time no unfavorable reports have been received.
C. S. POTTS.How to cite:
"Civil Government in the United States and in the State of Texas: a Text-Book on Civics", Volume 012, Number 3, Southwestern Historical Quarterly Online, Page 244 - 246. http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/publications/journals/shq/online/v012/n3/review_8.html
[Accessed Wed Dec 3 22:23:40 CST 2008]
