Download or read book The Political Writings of John Adams written by John Adams and published by Hackett Publishing. This book was released on 2003-01-01 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The fundamental article of my political creed, declared John Adams, is that despotism, or unlimited sovereignty, or absolute power is the same in a majority of a popular assembly, an aristocratical council, an oligarchical junto, and a single emperor. Equally arbitrary, cruel, bloody, and in every respect diabolical. The consequences of this article for Adams' thought are nowhere better articulated than in this anthology, which presents his remarkable attempts at constructing a complete political system based on constitutional, balanced, representative government.