“Unlocking Humanity: The Surprising Secret Behind What Makes Us Truly Human”
This all brings us to the Father of the Constitution, James Madison. As noted, he also read Adams’ A Defence of the Constitutions of the United States, but dismissed it, writing to Thomas Jefferson on June 6,1787, “Mr. Adams’ Book… has excited a good deal of attention.” But that, “Men of learning will find nothing new in it. Men of taste find many things to criticize. And men without either not a few things which they will not understand… It will nevertheless be read, and praised, and become a powerful engine in forming the public opinion. The name and character of the Author, with the critical situation of our affairs, naturally account for such an effect.”
And, of course, he was correct on all fronts. As for it becoming a powerful engine in forming opinion, while, as mentioned, scholars still debate its influence to this day, with prominent advocates on both sides, historian Gilbert Chinard would note in 1933, “Even a casual glance at the records of the Federal Convention will show that Adams’ book was used as a sort of repertory by many speakers.”
So, why the debate today on its influence? As Madison wrote in his letter to Jefferson, none of the ideas proposed were original and thus already would have been debated by the delegates. But, once again hammering the point home, much like with the Massachusetts Constitution, the brilliance of John Adams’ work was not in its originality, but rather digesting basically all of human theory of government down to a single work that more or less tried to suggest the best of all worlds, while still living in the real world and not an idealized one.
