Having just discussed a work of
Jefferson’s, I’d like to turn now to an essay written by a
contemporary/rival/friend/enemy, the irascible, unsinkable John Adams.
Specifically, I’d like to look at Adams’ Thoughts
of Government, written in the spring of 1776 in response to a petition of
the North Carolina Provincial Congress and whose main points became the basis
of that state’s first constitution. It’s an interesting document, I think,
because it seems to predict the three-part structure that would eventually be
adopted by the United States Constitution in 1788/89, shows evidence of the
philosophies and historical examples that influenced its author, and
illustrates Adams’ at-times conflicted view of the relationship between
government and the governed. Neither as radical as Jefferson nor as restrained
as Washington, John Adams was a committed revolutionary who was at once
enthusiastic about the future he perceived for his countrymen and pessimistic
as to their capability of achieving it. Thoughts
on Government provides evidence of this contradiction, and shines a
spotlight on a turning point in early American history (after the beginning of
the Revolution but before the colonies declared their independence).
Since I’ve already discussed, at
length, the events that led up to the American Revolution and the drafting of
the Declaration of Independence, I’ll confine this post to a discussion of
Adams himself and the processes the various colonies went through in drafting
each of their first constitutions.
Though often viewed as a
relatively ineffective president, and derided by many of his contemporaries as
a blustery, egomaniacal monarchist, John Adams was one of the most active
figures of the early years of the American Revolution, whose efforts on behalf
of the fledgling United States are arguably unequalled. Legislator, lawyer, political
philosopher, farmer and diplomat, Adams was born in Braintree, Massachusetts in
1735. The son of a cobbler and Puritan Deacon, Adams was a member of one of the
oldest families in Massachusetts and from a young age felt the need to live up
to the legacy of his freedom-seeking ancestors. Though raised in relatively
modest circumstances he was able to attended Harvard College and graduated in
1755. After spending a few years as a school teacher in Worcester he decided on
the law, was apprenticed to local lawyer John Putnam, and was admitted to the
bar in 1758. Never as charismatic or popular as his second cousin Samuel Adams,
John achieved success through persistence, attention to detail, thorough study
of the law, and intense analysis of historical example.
Adams’ path to national
prominence began with his vocal opposition to the Stamp Act of 1765. As a
member of the Braintree town meeting he penned a series of instructions for the
community’s representatives at the Massachusetts General Court (the colony’s
legislature) directing them to come out against the Act on the grounds that it
violated elements of English law, and certain of the colonists’ established
rights. The “Braintree Instructions” were later published in the Massachusetts Gazette and the Boston Gazette, adopted by forty other
towns in the colony, and used as a basis for the instructions sent from
Boston’s own town meeting. Five years later, Adams lent his services to the
eight British soldiers accused of perpetrating the Boston Massacre in March,
1770. Though fearing the damage it would do to his growing reputation, he
conducted a thorough defense wherein he called strict attention to the facts of
the case (calling them “stubborn things”), asked the jury to disentangle
themselves from their lingering bitterness over the ongoing dispute between the
colonies and Parliament, and invoked English history and law and the principle
of protecting innocence. Adams was ultimately successful in securing an
acquittal for six of his clients (two were convicted of manslaughter) and was
elected to serve in the Massachusetts General Court.
During his tenure in the
legislature Adams continued to speak out against what he perceived as the
overreach of the British Parliament and the fundamental sovereignty of the
individual colonies, and in 1774 he was sent to preach these same views to the
assembled delegates of the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia. He returned
to the city in 1775 with the convening of the Second Continental Congress, and
during his tenure there he worked tirelessly to promote unity among the
colonies (aided by his recommendation of George Washington as
Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army) and pushed for their eventual
independence. Accordingly, he strongly supported the May, 1776 resolution of
Virginian Richard Henry Lee that recommended the colonies draft new
governments, a measure he saw as a major step toward complete autonomy from
Britain. Well-known for his promotion of republican values, Adams was
subsequently asked by a number of his colleagues in Philadelphia for advice on
the proper structure of their new colonial governments. In response to a
petition of the legislature of North Carolina Adams drafted as essay entitled Thoughts on Government, which was later
published and distributed and became a seminal influence on the state
constitutions that emerged in the months and years that followed.
Of the Thirteen Colonies that
were represented in Philadelphia in 1776 and which became the core of the
nascent United States, Connecticut and Rhode Island elected to keep the royal
charters they had been granted as colonies in the 17th century,
adhering to them in all matters that did not directly contradict their
independence from Britain. Connecticut only received a new constitution in
1818, and Rhode Island kept to its original 1663 charter until forced by a
popular rebellion to draft a new one in 1843. The eleven colonies that did set about drafting state
constitutions in the 1770s did so under different circumstances and by
different means.
Among his other instructions,
Adams recommended that the colonies convene special conventions for the purpose
of drafting their new charters, and that the resulting documents be submitted
to the people for ratification. The special conventions, he argued, were
preferable to leaving the task to the various state legislatures, as there
would be nothing to stop those same representative bodies from altering or
abolishing the constitutions at some later date. The calling of special
conventions emphasized how unique and important the constitutions were, and the
ratification process reinforced the ultimate authority of the general
population. His native Massachusetts followed this path in 1779, under his
guidance; as did Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland in 1776 (though
Maryland’s constitution wasn’t ratified by the people), and Georgia and New
York in 1777. Against Adams’ recommendation, Virginia’s constitution was
drafted and ratified by the state legislature in 1776. New Hampshire
accomplished the same in January of that year, as did South Carolina in March and
North Carolina in December. New Jersey’s constitution, intended as a stop-gap
measure in the face of imminent British invasion, was composed by a small group
of people over the course of five days and ratified by the legislature within
forty-eight hours. Interestingly, New Jersey was the only state to allow women
to vote (until it was rescinded in 1807, anyway), and in spite of its intended
status as temporary the 1776 constitution remained in force for a further
sixty-eight years.
These early state constitution
varied in their content as well. Some contained a bill of rights similar to the
one ratified by the British Parliament in 1689, suitably adapted to republican
principles, while others did not. A few, like Pennsylvania’s, described a
unicameral legislature (with only a single chamber of popularly elected
representatives), while most others were bicameral (containing also a second
chamber, usually referred to as a senate or council of state). None of the constitutions
allowed for a popularly elected executive, but rather mandated that the
legislature elect a president (usually for a single year-long term). Of these
eleven documents, most were replaced within a few decades or in some cases only
a few years, and Massachusetts’ 1779 constitution is the only one that remains
in force (after 120 amendments). That being said, while the influence of Adams’
Thoughts on Government was not always
strongly felt in the structure of the new constitutions, it played a
significant part in underlying the logic behind their existence and the principles
they sought to enshrine.
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