PURPOSES.--The State keeps power near the people, and thus makes them
more secure in their liberty. "The powers not granted to the United
States, nor prohibited to the States, are reserved to the States
respectively or to the people." If the whole country were a single
republic without State divisions, power would be withdrawn from the
people and become centralized in the national government.

Our political system leaves the various functions of government to the
smallest political communities that can perform them efficiently. The
county has charge of all public interests that can be managed by it as
well as by the State. Many public affairs, such as popular
education,[1] private corporations, and the organization of the smaller
political divisions, can be better managed by the State than by the
National Government, and are therefore properly left to the State's
direction.

Parts of the country widely separated differ in climate and soil,
giving rise to different industries and occupations, which require
different laws, made and administered by different States. The State
serves as a convenient basis for the apportionment of members of both
houses of Congress, and State institutions preserve and develop the
local individuality and self-reliance of the people.

FUNCTIONS.--The functions of the State are very extensive, including
the greater part of those acts of government which preserve society by
affording security to life, liberty, property, and the pursuit of
happiness.

The State government touches the citizens at most points; that is, all
those laws that concern the body of the people in their ordinary daily
life are made and enforced by the State, or by the smaller political
divisions of the State, acting under the State's directions. Officers
discharge their duties, arrests are made, courts are held, offenders
are punished, justice is meted out, and taxes are collected, by the
authority of the State.

The National Government has similar functions to perform in every part
of the country, but they are far less frequent than those of the State.

INSTITUTIONS.--The State maintains a number of charitable and other
institutions for the public welfare. It makes appropriations of land
or money for the support of asylums, prisons, reformatories, scientific
institutions, schools, colleges, and universities. The support of
these institutions, the payment of salaries, the administration of
justice, and the