Part 5 (1/2)

--3. Counties in England were formerly districts governed by _counts_ or earls; from which comes the name of _county_. A county was also called _s.h.i.+re_; and an officer was appointed by the count or earl to perform certain acts in the princ.i.p.al town in the county, which was called _s.h.i.+re town_, and the officer was called _s.h.i.+re-reeve_, or _sheriff_, whose powers and duties were similar to those of the sheriff of a county in this country. The s.h.i.+re town is that in which the court-house and other county buildings are situate, and where the princ.i.p.al officers of the county transact their business. In a few counties there are two towns in which the courts are held alternately. Hence each division is called a _half-s.h.i.+re_.

--4. Counties and towns are bodies politic, or bodies corporate.

_Corporate_ is from the Latin, _corpus_, which means _body_. A _corporation_, or body politic, is an a.s.sociation of persons authorized by law to transact business under a common name, and as a single person.

The laws of the state give such authority to the inhabitants of counties and towns. The people of a town or county have power, to some extent, to manage their own internal affairs, and to make rules and regulations for their government; and they may buy, hold, and sell property, and sue and be sued, as an individual. Similar powers are given to rail-road, banking, insurance, and other incorporated companies. But there is in some respects a difference between these corporations and those which are created for purposes of government, as states, counties, towns, cities, and villages, which will be noticed in another place. (Chap.

XVI.)

--5. As a county possesses various corporate powers, there must be among its officers some in whose name these powers are to be exercised. In some states there is a board of _county commissioners_, (usually three,) who exercise corporate powers. In a few, these powers are exercised by and in the name of the _board of supervisors_, which is composed of the supervisors of the several towns in the county, of whom there is one supervisor in each town. These boards, or such officers in other states as exercise these powers, have generally the power also to examine and settle the accounts against the county, and to make orders and contracts in relation to the building or repairing of the court-house, jail, and other county buildings; and to perform such other acts as the laws require.

--6. There is in each county a _treasurer_ to receive and pay out the moneys required to be collected and paid out in the county. There is also, in some states, a county _auditor_ to examine and adjust the accounts and debts of the county, and to perform certain other duties.

The business of county treasurers and auditors in their respective counties, is of the same nature as that of state auditors and treasurers. In states in which there is no county auditor, the duties of auditor are performed by the treasurer, and some other county officer or officers.

--7. There is also in each county a _register_ or _recorder_, who records in books provided for that purpose, all deeds, mortgages, and other instruments of writing required by law to be recorded. In New York, and perhaps in some other states, the business of a register or recorder is done by a county clerk, who is also clerk of the several courts held in the county, and of certain boards of county officers. In some states, deeds, mortgages, and other written instruments, are recorded by the town clerks of the several towns.

--8. Another county officer is a _sheriff_, whose duty it is to attend all the courts held in the county; to execute all warrants, writs, and other process directed to him by the courts; to apprehend persons charged with crime; and to take charge of the jail and of the prisoners therein. It is his duty, also, to preserve the public peace; and he may cause all persons who break the public peace within his knowledge or view, to give bonds, with sureties, for keeping the peace, and for appearing at the next court to be held in the county, and to commit them to jail if they refuse to give such bonds. A sheriff is a.s.sisted by deputies.

--9. There are in each county one or more _coroners_, whose princ.i.p.al duty is, to inquire into the cause of the death of persons who have died by violence, or suddenly, and by means unknown. Notice of the death of a person having so died is given to a coroner, who goes to the place of such dead person. A jury is summoned to attend the examination; witnesses are examined; and the jury give their opinion in writing as to the cause and manner of the death. Such inquiry is called a _coroner's inquest_. In one or two states, the office of coroner, it is believed, does not exist; in which case the inquest is held by a justice of the peace, or some other officer.

--10. An attorney, elected or appointed for that purpose, attends all courts in which persons are tried in the county for crimes committed therein, and conducts the prosecutions in the trial of the offenders. In states where there is no attorney-general for the state, the prosecuting attorney for each county serves in this capacity, in trials in which the state is a party. As all crimes and breaches of the peace are considered as committed against the state, and prosecuted in its name, this attorney is sometimes called _state's attorney_.

--11. In some states there is a _county-surveyor_, whose duties within his county are similar in their nature to those of a state surveyor-general.

--12. County officers are generally elected by the people of the county.

Some of them are, in some of the states, appointed by some authority prescribed by the const.i.tution or laws of the state.

Chapter XV.

Towns and Town Officers. Powers and Duties of Town Officers.

--1. The districts of territory into which counties are divided, are, in some states, called _towns_. In others they are called, and perhaps more properly, _towns.h.i.+ps_; and the name of _town_ is given to an incorporated village, or a city. We shall, however, in this work, apply to these territorial divisions the shorter name of _towns_, as they are called in most of the old states.

--2. The electors of the several towns meet once a year for the election of town officers, and for certain other business purposes. The electors of a town have power, at their annual town meetings, to order money to be raised for the support of the poor, for the building and repairing of bridges, and for other town purposes; to make regulations concerning fences; to fix the compensation of town officers in certain cases; and to perform such other duties as come within the usual powers of towns.

The powers of towns, however, are not precisely the same in all the states.

--3. Among the town officers elected at town meetings, are the following; not all of them, however, are elected in any one state: One or more persons who have the general oversight and direction of town affairs, called by some name corresponding to the nature of their duties; a town clerk; one or more a.s.sessors; justices of the peace; overseers of highways; overseers of the poor; school officers; constables; a collector of taxes; a treasurer; fence-viewers; pound-keepers, &c. In some states there are also sealers of weights and measures; persons to measure and inspect wood, lumber, bark, and other commodities.

--4. The officers first mentioned in the preceding section, are, in the New England states, called _selectmen_, of whom there are at least three, and may in no state be more than nine, in each town. In a few states they are called _trustees of towns.h.i.+ps_, and are three in number.

In a few other states, there is in each town one such officer, called _supervisor_. The powers and duties of these officers are more numerous in some states than in others. They have power to lay out roads, and lay out and alter road districts; to do certain acts relating to roads, bridges, taxes, common schools, the support of the poor, &c.; and to examine and settle all demands against the town. In some of the states, some of these duties are performed by other officers.

--5. The _town-clerk_ keeps the records, books, and papers of the town.

He records in a book the proceedings of town meetings, the names of the persons elected, and such other papers as are required by law to be recorded. In some states, deeds and other conveyances are required to be recorded by the clerks of towns.

[For a description of the duties of _a.s.sessors_ and _justices of the peace_, see a.s.sessment and Collection of Taxes, and Justices' Courts.]

--6. For the repairing of _highways_, a town is divided by the proper officers into as many road districts as may be judged convenient; and a person residing in each district is chosen, called _overseer_ or _supervisor_, or _surveyor_ of _highways_, whose duty it is to see that the roads are repaired and kept in order in his district. In some states a tax is laid and collected for this purpose; and each person a.s.sessed may perform labor or furnish materials to the amount of his tax. In other states, road taxes are a.s.sessed upon the citizens in days' labor, according to the value of their property; every man, however, being first a.s.sessed one day for his head, which is called a _poll-tax_.