This Is a term which covers several states of society; it is relative, and has not a fixed sense, but it implies an improved and progressive condition of the people, living under an organized government, with systematized labor, individual ownership of the soil, individual accumulations of property, humane and somewhat cultivated manners and customs, the institution of the family, with well-defined and respected domestic and social relations, institutions of learning, intellectual activity, etc. Roche v. Washington, 19 Ind. 50, 81 Am. Dec. 370.
Black’s Law Online Dictionary
