Organization and work of the grand jury.

How a trial jury is selected.

The citizen’s duty to serve on the jury.

Rights of an accused person.

Meaning of “bail,” “indictment,” “due process of law,” “counsel for defense,” “subpoena,” “true bill.”

Circumstances under which an appeal may be made.

The supreme court of your state.

The work of a juvenile court.

READINGS

State Constitution.

Reports of the several departments of the state government.

In lessons in community and national life:  Series B:  Lesson 18,
How state laws are made and enforced.

The Civil Administrative Code of the State of Illinois, compiled by Louis L. Emmerson.  Secretary of State, Springfield, Ill.

The Illinois Civil Administrative Code, by Charles E. Woodward,
The Academy of Political Science, Columbia University, New York
City.

Beard, Chas. A., American government and politics, Part iii, State government.

Hart, A. B., Actual government, Part iii, State governments in action.

Reed, T. H., Form and functions of American government, Part iii,
State government.

Bryce, James, the American commonwealth, vol. i, Part ii, The
State governments.

In Long’s American patriotic Prose:  Invisible government (Elihu
Root), pp. 261-264.

In Foerster and Pierson’s American ideals:  How to Preserve the
Local Self-Government of the States (Elihu Root), pp. 48-55

CHAPTER XXVII

OUR NATIONAL GOVERNMENT

THE REVOLUTIONARY GOVERNMENT

It was the necessity for team work in carrying on the War for Independence that led the thirteen American colonies for the first time to unite under a common government.  They had revolted to escape from an autocratic government, and they sought to avoid setting up another in its place.  Since it had been the king whom they distrusted most, they endeavored to get along without any executive head at all.  Their new government consisted solely of a Congress of delegates from the thirteen states.

THE CRITICAL PERIOD

This form of government was continued for several years after the Revolution under a constitution known as the Articles of Confederation.  It was, however, unsuccessful in securing anything like real national cooperation.  The Congress had no power to levy and collect taxes, it had little power to make laws, and it was without means to execute the laws that it did make.  The real governing power during this period was with the several states.  The result was a period of unutterable confusion which has been called “the critical period of American history.”  The question at stake was whether a number of self-governing state communities with a multitude of apparently conflicting interests could really become a nation.