John Adams

Table of Contents:
(Works On Government)

A Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America. Volume Ii
Chapter First.: Italian Republics of the Middle Age. Florence.
Chapter Second.: Florence.
Chapter Third.: Florence.
Chapter Fourth.: Machiavel’s Plan of a Perfect Commonwealth.
Chapter Fifth.: Siena.
Chapter Sixth.: Bologna.
A Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America. Volume Iii
Chapter Seventh.: Italian Republics. Pistoia.
Chapter Eighth.: Cremona.
Chapter Ninth.: Padua.
Chapter Tenth.: Mantua—montepulciano.
Appendix.
Postscript.: to the AbbÉ De Mably.

an excerpt from the introductory:

A

DEFENCE

of the

CONSTITUTIONS OF GOVERNMENT

of the

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,

AGAINST THE ATTACK OF M. TURGOT, IN HIS LETTER TO DR. PRICE, DATED THE TWENTY-SECOND DAY OF MARCH, 1778.

by

JOHN ADAMS.

“As for us Englishmen, thank Heaven, we have a better sense of government, delivered to us from our ancestors. We have the notion of a public, and a constitution; how a legislative, and how an executive is moulded. We understand weight and measure in this kind, and can reason justly on the balance of power and property. The maxims we draw from hence are as evident as those in mathematics. Our increasing knowledge shows us every day more and more what common sense is in politics.”

Shaftesbury’s Charact., vol. i. p. 108.

“ ’T is scarce a quarter of an agessince such a happy balance of power was settled between our prince and people, as has firmly secured our hitherto precarious liberties, and removed from us the fear of civil commotions, wars, and violence, either on account of the property of the subject, or the contending titles of the crown.”