SUPPLEMENTARY PAPERS . 



PROFESSOR MARSHALL S. SNOW, of Washington University, St. Louis, presented 

 a short paper on "Commerce and Discovery," in which he emphasized the "com- 

 mercial idea" as being the real force actuating the discoveries of the fifteenth 

 and sixteenth centuries, and criticised the undue importance which has often 

 heretofore been given motives which were secondary and not primary. From 

 the time of Columbus, Vespucius, and other navigators seeking new routes to 

 India, to the later English and European explorations, the desire for fame, the 

 love of adventure, and the wish to extend dominion, religious and temporal, 

 were much less powerful than the overwhelming desire to open gold-mines and 

 rival successfully competing nations in the pursuit of commercial supremacy. 



PROFESSOR EVARTS P. GREENE, of the University of Illinois, presented a paper on 

 " Some Aspects of Colonial Politics at the Beginning of the Eighteenth Century." 

 The speaker contrasted the government of the colonies during the early period, 

 ranging from the theocratic republic of Massachusetts to the semi-feudal palatin- 

 ates of Maryland and Carolina, with the marked change which had taken place 

 at the beginning of the eighteenth century. At this time the great majority of 

 American people lived in royal provinces, having a governor appointed by the 

 Crown and a representative assembly elected by the people, the governor 

 standing for prerogative, for imperial control, for British interests; the assembly 

 for constitutional privileges, for autonomy, and for local interests. The develop- 

 ment of various policies adopted by the Crown with regard to each of the colonies 

 was concisely set forth, and the conclusion reached that throughout the entire 

 first half of the century the influence of imperial government was being neutral- 

 ized and at the same time there was being asserted vigorously and successfully 

 the self-governing principle. 



DR. CHARLES E. FISKE, of Centralia, Illinois, presented a paper on " The 

 Township Government in Indiana." It had for its fundamental point the asser- 

 tion that the real basis of the liberties of the Anglo-Saxon race was the right of 

 the people to regulate their local public affairs. It is the failure to recognize 

 this fact that has kept the world wondering at the success of the Republic of 

 the United States. As an illustration of this the speaker gave an account of the 

 organization of Indiana from the Northwest Territory and the introduction of a 

 new atmosphere in reference to local government. The fact that the township 

 system of Indiana at present rests entirely upon legislative enactment, which 

 may at any time be rescinded, needs serious thought if we admit that the surest 

 safeguard of liberty is the power of the people to control their own local affairs. 

 The danger from imperialism is not from above but from below. We are not in 

 danger from the general government. The danger is when the people allow the 

 affairs of their local government to get into the hands of the general government 

 through sheer lack of attention. 



PROFESSOR FREDERIC L. PAXSON, of the University of Colorado, presented a 

 paper on "The Territory of Jefferson: A Spontaneous Commonwealth," in which 

 was set forth in an interesting manner the efforts of the mining districts of Pike's 

 Peak and the adjacent country to form a suitable government which should 

 preserve law and order, and protect property. Its short life of a year and a half 

 was only an episode in commonwealth building in the West, but it illustrated 

 the constant quality of frontier citizenship and the spontaneous instinct for self- 

 government that gives to American life so much of its distinctive character. 



