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The Influential Constitutional Writings of John Adams
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11406 |
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Section : |
MODERN THOUGHT
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11 / 1986 |
5,075 Words |
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Paul Edwards
Paul Edwards is professor of political science at Brigham
Young University. |
Most historians of the early national period agree that John Adams was "the most painstaking student of government, and the most widely read in political history of his generation," yet surprisingly little work has been devoted to his influence in framing the Constitution. Although Adams was absent from the Constitutional Convention, he was a prolific and influential political writer of the period. In his 1776 correspondence, Adams eagerly gave advice to southern statesmen who were reframing their state constitutions after the nullification of the colonial charters. One such letter, to George Wythe, was eventually published as the tract Thoughts on Government and was widely read and acclaimed as the most trenchant statement on republican government of the time. In 1779 he single handedly penned A Report of a Constitution or Form of Government for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, which was adopted with very few changes as the Massachusetts constitution. Finally, immediately preceding the Constitutional Convention of 1787, he completed the first volume of what became a three-volume work entitled A Defense Of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America. The conservative thinker Russell Kirk said of Adams' political writing, "this body of political thought exceeds, both in bulk and in penetration, any other work on government by an American." Indeed, in a thoughtful reading of the corpus of political documents of the period, the framing of the American Constitution makes sense only if we are willing to give a more generous consideration to the writings of John Adams.
Thoughts on Government
Months before the Declaration of Independence was adopted, it was clear to the Second Continental Congress that the colonial
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