6 



comparatively insignificant. The maintenance of schools and 

 roads and bridges, the support of the poor and many kindred 

 matters which in New England are town affairs, are there man- 

 aged countywise. The town organizations with the town meet- 

 ings where every citizen is the peer of any other, have been 

 one of the prime factors in developing the sterling traits of 

 'New England character. They have fostered that self-reliance, 

 independence and energy which have given strength and vitality 

 to our northern civilization and effectively aided in the main- 

 tenance of our free institutions. The influence and importance 

 of the towns of New England was early and ably set forth by 

 Samuel Adams. It was a sound motto of old John Adams, 

 that " the ownership of land is essential to individual self-respect 

 and thrift and to national dignity and prosperity." It is not 

 the landless, but farmers, who have been foremost as defenders 

 of liberty because they have been thus defenders of home. The 

 free land tenure, the system of small farms grouped into town- 

 ships from the early settlement of New England fostered the 

 free, liberty-loving spirit of our fathers, without which the Rev- 

 olutionary war would have been impossible, for these "little 

 democratic republics" nurtured that capacity for self govern- 

 ment to which was due the achievement of our independence. 



Says Professor Joel Parker : " It was through these organiza- 

 tions that an industrious yeomanry, while following the plow, 

 . and the diligent tenants of workshops while handling their 

 tools, were converted into an armed soldiery on the first news 

 that the British left the limits of Boston and were marching 

 into the country. The dragons' ibeeth that produced that har- 

 vest were sown in the shape of farmers and mechanics, who, 

 holding themselves in readiness as minute men, required but 

 the heat of warlike intelligence to burst into full life and vigor 

 as a patriotic army. It was through these town organizations, 

 and not through a want of patriotism elsewhere, that the sup- 

 port of the Declaration of Independence was more effectual in 

 New England than in any other of the colonies." 



Nothing analogous to our town system prevails in the South- 

 ern States or in England. The influence of these town organi- 

 zations and town meetings, where all meet on a level with- 

 out distinction of race or party or sect, has largely caused 



