§2. The electors of the several towns meet once a year for the election
of town officers, and for certain other business purposes. The electors
of a town have power, at their annual town meetings, to order money to
be raised for the support of the poor, for the building and repairing of
bridges, and for other town purposes; to make regulations concerning
fences; to fix the compensation of town officers in certain cases; and
to perform such other duties as come within the usual powers of towns.
The powers of towns, however, are not precisely the same in all the
states.

§3. Among the town officers elected at town meetings, are the following;
not all of them, however, are elected in any one state: One or more
persons who have the general oversight and direction of town affairs,
called by some name corresponding to the nature of their duties; a town
clerk; one or more assessors; justices of the peace; overseers of
highways; overseers of the poor; school officers; constables; a
collector of taxes; a treasurer; fence-viewers; pound-keepers, &c. In
some states there are also sealers of weights and measures; persons to
measure and inspect wood, lumber, bark, and other commodities.

§4. The officers first mentioned in the preceding section, are, in the
New England states, called _selectmen_, of whom there are at least
three, and may in no state be more than nine, in each town. In a few
states they are called _trustees of townships_, and are three in number.
In a few other states, there is in each town one such officer, called
_supervisor_. The powers and duties of these officers are more numerous
in some states than in others. They have power to lay out roads, and lay
out and alter road districts; to do certain acts relating to roads,
bridges, taxes, common schools, the support of the poor, &c.; and to