Mahoney V. County Of Maricopa

This was the general view of the distribution of relief in England during our early colonial history, and naturally the colonies took, to a great extent, the same point of view. It was universally held that relief was statutory only in its nature, and was, therefore, regulated solely by the terms of the local statute, and these statutes usually adopted the prevailing English theory to a great extent in language and to an even greater extent in administration. There was perhaps more excuse for that view in America in the eighteenth and early nineteenth century than in England. This country was not only an agricultural community, but one with what seemed to be boundless free land available to any man who had a strong body and willing hands. When such a man could no longer obtain work for wages, it was comparatively easy for him to secure a farm of his own, where he could at least make a decent living for himself and his family.