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Excerpt from The Genesis of the Massachusetts Town, and the Development of Town-Meeting Government England, I found absolutely nothing in the case of this town (braintree) to support the theories referred to. While nu doubtedly, as Mr. Freeman has observed in another connec tion, the institutions of every one of the older Massachusetts towns are part of the general institutions of the English people, as those again are part of the general institutions of the Teutonic race, and those are again part of the general institu tions of the whole Aryan family yet, while a general re semblance, however striking, is in itself no evidence of descent, it is easy to give altogether too great weight to simili tudes and analogies. In approaching an investigation of this sort, therefore, it is well to bear in mind a remark of Sir Henry Maine in his first lecture on Village Communities, that it is the characteristic error of the direct observer of nu familiar social or juridical phenomena: to compare them too hastily with familiar phenomena apparently of the same kind; and Sir Henry further adds that the greatest cau tion must be observed in all speculations on the inferences derivable from parallel usages. But while the Braintree records afforded no support to re mote genetic theories, the examination of them soon made it apparent that, for reasons presently to be stated, Braintree was not one of the towns in the history of which the subject could be advantageously studied. It was equally clear that it could be studied only in the original records of some properly selected towns; for the indications all were that the advo cates of remote descent had fallen into the not uncommon error of looking too far afield for that which was in fact close at hand. Accordingly, in order to secure a sufficiently wide basis for generalization, I examined the original records, church as well as town, of Hingham, Weymouth, Dorchester, Ded ham, and Cambridge, as well as those of Boston. All of the towns named, organized prior to 1636, are among the original Massachusetts towns; and the evidence on the subject of the genesis of the town and town-meeting government, to be de rived from their records, it is the object of this paper to set forth in detail. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

In this groundbreaking study, Zimmerman explores the town meeting form of government in all New England states. This comprehensive work relies heavily upon surveys of town officers and citizens, interviews, and mastery of the scattered writing on the subject. Zimmerman finds that the stereotypes of the New England open town meeting advanced by its critics are a serious distortion of reality. He shows that voter superintendence of town affairs has proven to be effective, and there is no empirical evidence that thousands of small towns and cities with elected councils are governed better. Whereas the relatively small voter attendance suggests that interest groups can control town meetings, their influence has been offset effectively by the development of town advisory committees, particularly the finance committee and the planning board, which are effective counterbalances to pressure groups. Zimmerman provides a new conception of town meeting democracy, positing that the meeting is a de facto representative legislative body with two safety valves—open access to all voters and the initiative to add articles to the warrant, and the calling of special meetings to reconsider decisions made at the preceding town meeting. And, as Zimmerman points out, a third safety valve—the protest referendum—can be adopted by a town meeting.

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