Norfolk County, Massachusetts - Chapter 8: The New England Township, 1918

INFLUENCE IN THE REVOLUTION - JEFFERSON ON THE TOWNSHIP FORM OF GOVERNMENT - TOWNSHIPS OF THE SOUTH AND WEST COMPARED WITH NEW ENGLAND UN STATE AND NATIONAL AFFAIRS.

Townships in the United States are of two kinds - civil and congressional. The congressional township did not come into existence until after the passage of the "land ordinance" by Congress in 1785, and is therefore unknown in New England. It is always six miles square, bounded by township and range lines, and is divided into thirty-six sections, each one mile square, for convenience in measuring, describing and conveying land. In the western states, where the public domain was surveyed under the new system, the civil and congressional township are often identical. In the older states the civil townships vary in size and shape, their boundaries in many instances being formed by natural features, such as streams, ranges of hills, etc., or by "direct lines'' between two given points. The civil township also differs from the congressional in that it is a political subdivision, possessing officers and powers for local government.

In England, during the reign of King Alfred, a minor political division called the "tunscipe" was established. It equaled as an ecclesiastical unit the parish, and as a political unit was governed by a popular assembly called the "tun moot," a term which in later English was developed into "town meeting," the oldest form of government known to man. Far back in the history of the human race, a few families, usually related to each other, would form a "clan" and in a mass meeting make rules for the regulation of their affairs. The principle was carried down to Rome in the meetings held in the forum, and in Greece the assemblages of the populace in the agora for the discussion and settlement of questions pertaining to the general welfare. Among the Germans and Scandinavians, the same principle is seen in the government of the minor political division called the "mark."

Under the Great Patent to the Plymouth Company, November 3, 1620. provision was made for issuing two kinds of patents to occupants of lands. First, for private proprietors of small plantations, who were to have certain lands at a specified annual rental, which lands they were not to abandon without permission, and who obligated themselves to settle a given number of persons within a stipulated time. Second, for "such parties as proposed to build towns, with large numbers of people, having a government of their own, with magistrates who were to have power to frame such laws and constitutions as the majority should think fit, subordinate to the state which was to be established, until other order shall be taken."

The first settlers of Massachusetts were dissenters from the Church of England, whose greatest desire was to bring about a reform in church affairs so that the congregation should have more power in church government, and the minister should be more independent than formerly of the bishop. It was therefore natural that they should come in congregations, led or accompanied by their pastors, and that they should settle in a body. These church congregations obtained grants or patents, according to the second plan above mentioned, and set up a local government similar to that of the "tunscipe" of King Alfred's time, with the "town" and the "parish" practically the same. Says Forman: "Their town meetings were at first religious assemblages acting as pure democracies, except in Rhode Island, where the civil authority did not interfere in matters of conscience. The meetings in the colonies where the theocratic principle prevailed were usually held in a church, and all the male church members of the town who were of age could attend, take part in the discussions, and vote upon any question that might arise."

Thus the early settlers of New England came to live in compact communities, which later took the name of townships or towns. They were generally people of a high degree of intelligence, almost equal in social rank and worldly goods, hence they were democratic in their ideas of government and unanimous in the belief that "authority in spiritual and temporal matters should flow from the same source."

For some time after the first settlements were established town meetings were held frequently. The records show that the Town of Boston held ten town meetings in the year 1635. As the number of farms increased and the settlement spread over a wider territory, officers were elected to manage the town's business between meetings, until many of the townships came to hold meetings but once a year, unless some unexpected occasion arose which might require a special meeting. The principal officers are the board of selectmen, clerk, treasurer and board of assessors. In early days there was a tithing-man, a sort of "Sunday constable," whose business it was to see that everybody attended church, and to keep them awake during the services ; a hog reeve, who was required to see that allhogs running at large had rings in their noses ; a field driver, who impounded stray animals ; and overseers of the poor. Some of these offices are still in existence, but the duties of their incumbents are not so arduous as in the old colonial days. The early town meeting overlooked nothing. It prescribed how the schoolmaster should use the rod upon unruly pupils, fixed the rate of taxation, designated the hours that men should labor, appropriated funds for schools and highways, etc. Most of this business is now transacted by the board of selectmen.

Beginning with the first settlements, the town system grew with New England and the town meeting soon became deeply rooted in the minds of the citizens. During the Revolution and the years immediately preceding it, the town meeting was the distinguishing feature of New England life. When the war began these little democratic communities proved to be the most powerful aids to the cause of liberty. In the town meeting it was easy to determine who was the patriot and who was the tory. Through their work military stores were provided, the cele- brated "minute men" were organized, and the resolutions of many of the town meetings expressed in no uncertain language the sentiment of the people that afterward found utterance in the Declaration of Independence.

And their influence did not end with the Revolution. On December 22, 1807, Congress passed what was known as the "Embargo Act," to prohibit trade with England. Town meeting after town meeting in New England passed resolutions denouncing the act, which led President Jefferson to say afterward: "How powerfully did we feel the energy of this organization (the town) in the case of the Embargo. I felt the foundations of government shaken under my feet by the New England townships. There was not an individual in their states, whose body was not thrown with all its momentum into action, and although the whole of the other states was known to be in favor of the measure, yet the organization of this selfish community enabled it to overrule the Union."

While this may sound like a criticism of the town meeting and the manner in which New England defeated the purposes of the Embargo Act, it does not express Mr. Jefferson's real sentiments as to the value and importance of the New England form of government. When his own State of Virginia adopted the county as the chief political unit, Air. Jefferson advocated the division of the counties into townships, and in referring to the New England system said : "Those wards, called townships in New England, are the vital principle of their governments and have proved themselves the wisest invention ever devised by the wit of man for the perfect exercise of self-government and for its preservation."

Most of the southern states followed the example of Virginia and adopted the county system, with the result that in those states the civil township is little more than a name. In the West the two systems are combined. Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota, and those counties in Nebraska and Illinois that have adopted township organization, hold town meetings very similar to those of New England. In other states of the Middle West questions of incurring indebtedness for public improvements are submitted to the voters of the township at a general election instead of at a town meeting, though the principle is the same in general effect.

When the first grants were made to church congregations or companies of immigrants, the thickly settled portion of the grant was known as the "town" and the outlying, uninhabited portion as the "township." In time, as settlement was extended to these outlying lands, the last syllable was dropped and the name "town" was adopted for the entire district. The towns were incorporated by the colonial legislature, which was the only authority with power to create new towns, and this system has been in operation in Massachusetts for nearly three centuries. As a matter of experience, local government in New England has undergone some changes with the constantly changing conditions. Thickly settled parts of the towns in some of the New England states have in many cases been incorporated as villages or boroughs, the people surrendering a portion of the business to municipal authorities or agents, though in Massachusetts the town meeting is still the chief source of power in the adjustment of local public affairs.

Not only has the township been the dominant force in local government, but it has also been an important factor in shaping the destinies of the state and nation. In the old Anglo-Saxon "tunscipe" the principal officer - the "tun reeve"' - the parish priest and "four discreet laymen" were delegates to the "shire moot" or county meeting, at which the views of the people regarding county affairs were ascertained through their chosen representatives. This system was extended by the Parliaments of 1265 and 1295, concerning which Fiske says: "These dates have as much interest for Americans as for Englishmen, because they mark the first definitive establishment of that grand system of representative government which we are still carrying on at our various state capitals and at Washington. For its humble beginnings we have to look back to the 'reeve and four' of the ancient townships to the county meetings."

In the early history of New England the township was not only the dominant force in questions of a local nature, as a self-governing body politic, but it was also the unit of representation in the colonial legislature or General Court. In modern times the unit of representation has been modified to some extent, but in many localities the township forms the basis of representation in the conventions of political parties, thus the township, besides managing its own affairs, wields ?.n influence upon state and national politics.

In Norfolk County there are twenty-eight towns, to wit : Avon, Bellingham, Braintree, Brookline, Canton, Cohasset, Dedham, Dover, Foxborough, Franklin, Holbrook, Medfield, Medway, Millis, Milton, Needham, Norfolk, Norwood, Plainville, Ouincy, Randolph, Sharon, Stoughton, Walpole, Wellesley, Westwood, Weymouth and Wrentham. A history of each of these towns is given in the succeeding chapters.