Before our forefathers had “brought forth upon this continent a new nation,” there was no universal standard relationship in the colonies between the local and the general colonial or state governments. In Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut, the towns had begun as separate units; then they federated and gradually developed an organic unity; that is, the localities produced the general government. In the South, on the other hand, the local governments had more the semblance of creatures of the general government designed to meet the expansion of the earliest settlements into wide and therefore less wieldy units for administration.

By the time of the constitution of 1789, it became possible to standardize the division of labor of governing the continent. In the center of the scheme were placed the states, which reserved to themselves all the governmental power there was, except what the constitution specifically conferred upon the federal government. Henceforth, whatever may have been its historical origin or its ancient traditions, every local division of government was to content itself with such functions as were to be portioned out to it by superior state authority. It was to have no “inherent” powers. It was to act simply as an agency of the state, which had power at will to enlarge or diminish the local sphere of activity or wipe it off the map entirely.

Now the duties which state governments assumed in the early years of the republic were as simple as necessity would allow. This was preeminently the day of “as little government as possible.” The people of the states covenanted with themselves, as it were, to stand guard over life, liberty and property. It was a broad enough program, but it was the custom in those days to interpret it narrowly—no humanitarian activities beyond the crude attempts to deal with the more obvious phases of poverty; no measure of correction in the modern sense; no “public works.” As an incident in meeting these obligations, the constitutional convention and the state legislatures met and laid down statutes or codes of conduct affecting these elementary needs of a civilized people. They defined the various crimes (or adopted the definitions of the English common law); they legalized a civil procedure. It was definitely settled that the voice of the whole people should control in determining what the state should do for its citizens.

Then came the question of getting the means for applying these abstract principles to daily life, of bringing to every man’s own door the means for enforcing his rights. Had the American people proceeded from this point along logical lines they would have cut the administrative machinery to fit their state-wide policies. But it was not so ordered. The officers of the state had determined upon the policies; the officers of the localities were to execute the policies. The period of the American Revolution, with its deep-seated distrust of kingly power, was the beginning of an era of decentralized administration which gained rather than diminished in force for as much as two generations. For the purpose, the existing counties served as instruments ready to hand and their status now became fixed as the local agencies of the state government. New counties were formed from time to time as needs arose. In each of these counties was a loose, but more or less complete organization, which it will now be fitting to describe.

More important perhaps than any other enforcing agent of the county, in these still primitive days, was the sheriff, who sooner or later became a fixture in every American colony. This most ancient officer of the county had been perpetuated through the centuries from Saxon and Norman times. He had inherited nearly all of the powers and prerogatives of his historical prototype as they obtained in England during the seventeenth century. He did not preside over a court in the county, but he could make arrests for violation of the law, with or without a warrant. If his task was too much for one man, he could summon to his aid a posse comitatus of private citizens. And inasmuch as he was obliged not only to apprehend, but to hold his prisoner for trial, it very naturally fell to him to take care of the lock-up or jail.

There had been established, beginning with Connecticut, in 1666, a system of local courts, whose jurisdiction in most states came to be co-extensive with the county. Around this institution centered the official life of the county, so much so that the county capitol is universally known as the “court house.” The sheriff from its beginnings acted as the high servant of this court, in the disposition of prisoners, the execution of judgments, the service of warrants of arrest and in similar duties.

To the account of Connecticut is also to be credited the most unique, and in many ways most important county officer of modern times. In the development of its criminal law, England had never worked out a system of local prosecuting officers. The colonies in the early days had assigned the duty of representing the state’s interest to the magistrates. But in 1704 there was authorized for each county in Connecticut an attorney “to prosecute all criminal offenders ... and suppress vice and immorality.” From this beginning came the distinctively American officer who is variously known as district attorney, prosecutor of the pleas, solicitor, or state’s attorney.

Since the business of the county court (which formerly included administrative as well as judicial matters) was too important not to be recorded, there was established a clerk of court whose duties are summarized in his title. In more recent times, however, the functions of this officer have been both expanded and limited, according to the amount of the transactions in the county. So that, in the larger counties each court, or sometimes a group of courts, have a clerk whose duties are solely concerned with judicial matters, while in less important counties the “county clerk” finds it easily possible to serve in no less than a dozen different capacities. It is the county clerk who ordinarily issues marriage licenses and receives for filing, real estate deeds, mortgages and a variety of other papers.

And then, without apparent good reason, the colonists had brought over from England the coroner. In the days of Alfred the Great this officer had had an honorable and useful place in the realm. As a sort of understudy of the sheriff, he took the latter’s place when he was disabled. Meanwhile he was the King’s local representative, charged with the duty of laying hands on everything that seemed to be without an owner and taking possession of it in the name of the King. But through the lapse of time, the “Crowner” had lost both dignity and duties until there was little left except for him to take charge of the bodies of those who had died by violence or in a suspicious manner, seek the cause of death and locate, if possible, the person responsible for the circumstance.

So much for the organization to administer local justice, which is the irreducible minimum of county government. In early colonial times (and even yet in certain states), the judges and other judicial officers had performed important duties outside this limited field of administering justice. But in time the processes involved in the payment of salaries and the up-keep of a county building, created in sizable counties a “business” problem of no mean proportions. Since in most states these costs have been charged against the county, it has been necessary to install appropriate machinery of fiscal administration. In every county a board of directors, variously selected and denominated, has taken over the management of material things. With the help of a variety of minor administrative officers like the assessors, the treasurer and other fiscal officers, it raises and appropriates money; it audits claims against the county; it borrows money.

Around this judicial and administrative nucleus was built the universal American county. In the rural sections it expanded to meet the lack of any other local government. As an incident to the theory that the state is responsible for at least a minimum of protection of human life, the state government had taken upon itself the care of indigents. This duty it usually turned over directly to the county. The county authorities have also had control (often exclusively so) of rural roads and bridges.

In the performance of these various functions the American people seem to have thought it quite unnecessary for the county to be supplied with the proper apparatus for doing its own policy making. Or, to look at the matter from the other side, they deemed it quite appropriate that the policy-making part of the state government, which is the legislature, should not control the hands and feet, which in matters of local concern consist of the county officials. Elaborate general laws were enacted to prescribe in minute detail the daily round of routine of each officer. Why should he or why should the people think? It was not the purpose of the state that they should. And without thinking, there could be no differences of opinion; without differences of opinion, no “issues”; without issues, no real politics.