Monday, April 04, 2005
- The John Adams Year UvA lecture series. FIRST LECTURE SERIES: John Adams and the Early Republic.
Eduard van de Bilt, Universiteit van Amsterdam. John Adams' Political Thought: Towards a "government of laws not of men".
In the seventh lecture of the John Adams Year 2005 Celebration Series, Mr. van de Bilt discussed John Adams' political thought within the framework of his most important remark, which comes up in several places: Americans have a "government of laws, and not of men."
What follows are some of the notes I took during the presentation.
. Contemporaries were not too kind about John Adams. Historians, more or less, have adopted the same, and largely negative, view.
. John Adams' career is usually seen as consisting of two parts: a revolutionary period, and a more conservative period, the latter resulting from his 10-year long stay in aristocratical Europe. Because of its "conservative" turn, his political thought became less relevant -- and people started to pay more attention to his excentricities.
. A quote from Bernard Bailyn's Faces of the Revolution (I will post it next week.)
. Major Works. Prof. van de Bilt briefly presented Adams' major works: "A Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law" (1765), "Thoughts on Government" (1776), A Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America (1787), and the Discourses on Davila (1791). Prof. van de Bilt strongly suggested to read Adams's diary and his letters to Thomas Jefferson.
. The Defense and the Discourses. The Defense, arguably Adams's most important work, resulted from his discussions with Dutch Patriots and from his readings in French pre-revolutionary pamphets and books. Dutch Patriots in particular urged him to write his thoughts on how to write constitutions in a free republic. The Discourses contain rather bleak remarks about human being -- a trace of his Calvinistic upbringing.
. Constitutional issues. In order to thrive, a republic needs an impersonal, a written document to safeguard the liberties of the people. John Adams helped to institutionalize the tradition of the division of powers, and that was one of his major contributions to political thought. The idea itself was not not new; what was new was its institutionalization through a written constitution. It came to Adams from his extensive readings in history.
. The Private & the Political. The other building bloc of Adams' political ideas came not from history but from ... psychology. Mixed ideas about himself were somehow turned into a political system that contained all the forces inside his own psyche. If either the mind or the government is dominated by a single force, problems will surface. In politics, that means a strong executive power, always ready to act as a counterweight against an all-powerful legislature.
. A Freudian avant la lettre? Passions are useful, but they have to be checked by other forces. By the same token, aristocrats are needed -- but they too can be dangerous. (By élites, Adams meant something like a "meritocracy", that is to say, he did not favor European-sytle élites.)
Eduard van de Bilt, Universiteit van Amsterdam. John Adams' Political Thought: Towards a "government of laws not of men".
In the seventh lecture of the John Adams Year 2005 Celebration Series, Mr. van de Bilt discussed John Adams' political thought within the framework of his most important remark, which comes up in several places: Americans have a "government of laws, and not of men."
What follows are some of the notes I took during the presentation.
. Contemporaries were not too kind about John Adams. Historians, more or less, have adopted the same, and largely negative, view.
. John Adams' career is usually seen as consisting of two parts: a revolutionary period, and a more conservative period, the latter resulting from his 10-year long stay in aristocratical Europe. Because of its "conservative" turn, his political thought became less relevant -- and people started to pay more attention to his excentricities.
. A quote from Bernard Bailyn's Faces of the Revolution (I will post it next week.)
. Major Works. Prof. van de Bilt briefly presented Adams' major works: "A Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law" (1765), "Thoughts on Government" (1776), A Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America (1787), and the Discourses on Davila (1791). Prof. van de Bilt strongly suggested to read Adams's diary and his letters to Thomas Jefferson.
. The Defense and the Discourses. The Defense, arguably Adams's most important work, resulted from his discussions with Dutch Patriots and from his readings in French pre-revolutionary pamphets and books. Dutch Patriots in particular urged him to write his thoughts on how to write constitutions in a free republic. The Discourses contain rather bleak remarks about human being -- a trace of his Calvinistic upbringing.
. Constitutional issues. In order to thrive, a republic needs an impersonal, a written document to safeguard the liberties of the people. John Adams helped to institutionalize the tradition of the division of powers, and that was one of his major contributions to political thought. The idea itself was not not new; what was new was its institutionalization through a written constitution. It came to Adams from his extensive readings in history.
. The Private & the Political. The other building bloc of Adams' political ideas came not from history but from ... psychology. Mixed ideas about himself were somehow turned into a political system that contained all the forces inside his own psyche. If either the mind or the government is dominated by a single force, problems will surface. In politics, that means a strong executive power, always ready to act as a counterweight against an all-powerful legislature.
. A Freudian avant la lettre? Passions are useful, but they have to be checked by other forces. By the same token, aristocrats are needed -- but they too can be dangerous. (By élites, Adams meant something like a "meritocracy", that is to say, he did not favor European-sytle élites.)
# posted by Agustin @ 7:30 PM 
