Preface.


These chapters were originally prepared for and used as a manual in the
public schools of the District of Columbia. In a revised and amplified
form they are now published as one of Johns Hopkins University Studies
in History and Politics.

The aim of this revision is to furnish assistance to students beginning
the study of the history and practical workings of our political
institutions. It is not the purpose to furnish a complete text-book upon
the government of the United States and its administration, but, by a
clear, concise statement of the salient points of our federal system,
and a description of the actual workings of the characteristic features
of our institutions, to give to the student a better understanding of
the manner in which the same are administered, than is to be obtained
from the ordinary text-books on Civil Government.

These Outlines are intended as an aid to both teacher and pupil, and for
use in a class whose members are already familiar with the leading
events and names in United States history. The work is intended to
furnish such supplementary information as can be obtained only with
great difficulty by most teachers, and which for the most part cannot be
obtained at all by the pupils.

The authors have endeavored to make prominent the fact that our present
form of government is far from being contained in the written
constitution of 1787, and consequently, that a study of that instrument
alone will give a very inadequate idea of our government as it is. The
constitution was but a foundation upon which to build a government.