''A Defense of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America'' is a three volume work by

John Adams John Adams (October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, attorney, diplomat, writer, and Founding Father who served as the second president of the United States from 1797 to 1801. Before his presidency, he was a leader of t ...

published in 1787–1788. The work was written while Adams was serving as the American ambassador in London. In Britain and in previous postings in France and the Netherlands Adams had confronted several criticisms of the government systems used by the American states. Adams started the work prior to the writing of the

Constitution of the United States The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, in 1789. Originally comprising seven articles, it delineates the natio ...

and the work is not a defense of that document, but rather of the various state constitutions that were in place in 1787. The most prominent critic Adams confronted was

Anne Robert Jacques Turgot Anne Robert Jacques Turgot, Baron de l'Aulne ( ; ; 10 May 172718 March 1781), commonly known as Turgot, was a French economist and statesman. Originally considered a physiocrat, he is today best remembered as an early advocate for economic libe ...

. Turgot's works were read as criticizing the separation of powers found in the state constitutions. Turgot reject the idea of bicameral legislatures and governors with executive powers, arguing that the best republic was one with a single legislature with all powers and responsibilities. Turgot had died in 1781, but posthumously his ideas had been adopted by other European liberals including

Richard Price Richard Price (23 February 1723 – 19 April 1791) was a British moral philosopher, Nonconformist minister and mathematician. He was also a political reformer, pamphleteer, active in radical, republican, and liberal causes such as the Fren ...

and the

comte de Mirabeau ''Comte'' is the French, Catalan and Occitan form of the word 'count' (Latin: ''comes''); ''comté'' is the Gallo-Romance form of the word 'county' (Latin: ''comitatus''). Comte or Comté may refer to: * A count in French, from Latin ''comes'' * A ...

. Beyond Europe, Adams believed there were many supporters in the United States for this idea.Slauter, Will. “Constructive Misreadings: Adams, Turgot, and the American State Constitutions.” The Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America, vol. 105, no. 1, 2011, pp. 33–67. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/680752. Accessed 21 Nov. 2020. Turgot argued that the American system was simply a republican gloss over the structures inherited from Britain, a senate replacing the House of Lords and president replacing the king. The bulk of Adam's three volume book is describing various republics from across history to argue that the American system is designed to take the best parts of all of them. The republics covered include those of Europe in Adams time, the Netherlands, the city states of northern Italy, and he has discussions of each of the Swiss cantons and their diverse republican systems. He also looks at what he calls the monarchical republics of Britain and Poland, and the classical republics in Greece and Rome.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Defense of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America, A John Adams 1787 non-fiction books 1788 non-fiction books Documents of the American Revolution Political history of Massachusetts State constitutions of the United States Books about politics of the United States