a p p e ndix g
Thoughts on Government
Boston, 1776
[By John Adams]
My dear Sir,
If I was equal to the task of forming a plan for the government of a
colony, I should be flattered with your request, and very happy to comply with it; because, as the divine science of politics is the science of social
happiness, and the blessings of society depend entirely on the constitutions of government, which are generally institutions that last for many
generations, there can be no employment more agreeable to a benevolent
mind than a research after the best.
Pope flattered tyrants too much when he said,
‘‘For forms of government let fools contest,
That which is best administered is best.’’
Nothing can be more fallacious than this. But poets read history to collect
flowers, not fruits; they attend to fanciful images, not the effects of social
institutions. Nothing is more certain, from the history of nations and nature of man, than that some forms of government are better fitted for being well administered than others.
We ought to consider what is the end of government, before we determine which is the best form. Upon this point all speculative politicians
will agree, that the happiness of society is the end of government, as all
divines and moral philosophers will agree that the happiness of the individual is the end of man. From this principle it will follow, that the
form of government which communicates ease, comfort, security, or, in
one word, happiness, to the greatest number of persons, and in the greatest degree, is the best.
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