The political writings of John Adams / edited with an introduction by George W. Carey.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Adams, John, 1735-1826.

Contributor:

Carey, George W. (George Wescott), 1933-2013.

Series:

Conservative leadership series ; 6.

Conservative leadership series ; 6

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Political science.

United States--Politics and government--Sources.

United States.

Politics and government.

Genre:

Sources.

Physical Description:

xxxvi, 712 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Washington, D.C. : Regnery Pub. ; Lanham, MD : Distributed to the trade by National Book Network, [2000]

Summary:

This book is the most comprehensive single volume of John Adams's political writings ever published. All of his major political works and all of his most important political correspondence are collected here, making this volume unprecedented in the vast literature of the founding. Deftly edited by George Carey, professor of government at Georgetown University, The Political Writings of John Adams also includes headnotes and a substantial introduction. The introduction sets John Adams in historical context and illuminates the significance of his political philosophy within the American political tradition.

Just where is Adams within that tradition? Taken as a whole, his corpus of political writings, the essential parts of which constitute this book, surpasses in size and in quality of insight any other work on American politics and political philosophy. He was America's first genuine political thinker. But Adams was also nothing less than the father of American conservatism. "His learning and his courage made him great," wrote Russell Kirk in The Conservative Mind, "and he became the founder of true conservatism in America." Clinton Rossiter, author of Conservatism in America, placed Adams in "the first rank of American conservatives." A champion of law, piety, and learning, Adams defined the American experiment in ordered liberty. As the writings contained herein reveal, Adams was really the American Burke -- but even more prescient. In 1787, a full three years before Burke, and for similar reasons, Adams denounced the bloodthirsty political fantasies of the French ideologues in Defence of the Constitutions of the United States of America, and, as he honorably served in post after important post, Adams never tired of espousing true conservative principles to the body politic. The matter was simply one of practical efficiency: conservative principles worked because they were true.

Clearly then, this founding father challenges the assumptions of the reigning political philosophies of our day, and as The Political Writings of John Adams demonstrates, he does it ably and with power. Anyone hoping to understand the thought of America's second president, first political philosopher, and most trenchant conservative will find this book indispensable.

Contents:

I Major Political Works

A Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law 3

Novanglus 22

A Defence of the Constitutions of the Government of the United States of America 105

Discourses on Davila 304

II Major Political Correspondence

Letters to John Taylor, of Caroline, Virginia 367

Three Letters to Roger Sherman 445

III Essay, Letters, and Other Works

Essays: On Private Revenge; on Self-Delusion 459

Instructions of the Town of Braintree to their Representative 478

Thoughts on Government and Letter to John Penn 482

The Report of a Constitution or Form of Government, for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts 498

Letters upon Interesting Subjects Respecting the Revolution of America 552

Review of the Hillhouse Proposal 601

Entries from the Diary of John Adams 628

Selections from the Autobiography of John Adams 632

Inaugural Speech, March 4, 1797 635

Various Letters 642

To Richard Henry Lee, 15 November, 1775 642

Letter of the Earl of Clarendon to William Pym 27 January, 1766 644

To Abigail Adams, July 3, 1776 651

To Joseph Hawley, August 25, 1776 654

To Samuel Adams, September 17, 1776 656

To John Jebb, August 21, 1785 659

To Richard Price, April 19, 1790 663

To Samuel Adams, October 18, 1790 664

To Skelton Jones, March 11, 1809 671

To Samuel Perley, June 19, 1809 674

To Josiah Quincy, February 9, 1811 677

To William Plumer, March 28, 1813 680

To Thomas McKean, August 31, 1813 682

To James Lloyd, January 1815 683

To James Lloyd, February 11, 1815 689

To William Tudor, June 1, 1817 692

To William Tudor, June 5, 1817 695

To James Madison, June 17, 1817 699

To H. Niles, February 3, 1816 701

To William Tudor, September 23, 1818 708.

Notes:

"Conservative Book Club"--Cover.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN:

0895262924

OCLC:

43763326