John Adams: Thoughts on Government | Primary Source Close Reads Explained
What is the purpose of government? In this episode of Primary Source Close Reads Explained, Kirk examines John Adams’ ‘Thoughts on Government,’ written in April 1776, just before the Declaration of Independence.
In it, Adams explores what type of government is best and how happiness can be ensured through it. According to Adams, how do we form the best kind of republic? What is the key to its success? Were these ideals on government included in the Articles of Confederation, or the US Constitution?
0:00 the American Revolution was fought to secure the independence of the United States from the British Empire but with Independence came one major question what kind of government would replace the Empire the opportunity to answer this question led the Revolutionary generation to think about a very foundational question what is the purpose of government one of the members of this generation who sought to answer
0:22 this question was John Adams in a letter he wrote entitled Thoughts on Government he laid out his Logic for answering this foundational question in examining this document we can see the kinds of ideas circulating at the time and use those ideas to help us better understand this our system of government so let’s take a [Music]
0:43 look so in his letter Adams is grappling with this foundational question what is the purpose of government and how do you go about founding a government so he opens his letter with sort of a self-deprecating comment or one that shows us hum humility he says my dear sir if I was equal to the task of forming a plan of go for the
1:04 government of a colony I should be flattered with your request and very happy to comply with it but because as Divine Science of politics is the science of social happiness in the blessings of society depend entirely on the constitution 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
1:26 the best lots of language there but what he’s saying is this is a very important thing that we’re going about doing and to go about doing it is good because Society the happiness of society or he says social happiness and the blessings of society depend upon this what does that mean it means that government for Adams is essential to society achieving
1:47 its best or being in the best situation possible and so he’s going to go through the opening of this letter outlining how it is that we get to an understanding of what this best is he says research after the best meaning what is the best form of government well we’ve got to kind of dig in and find out what that is so he starts with this question what kind of government is best and he says Pope flattered tyrants too much when he said
2:08 for forms of government let fools contest that which is best administered is best so Pope is Alexander Pope who is an English poet and here he’s quoting him to say Pope argues that the government that is best administered is best and Adam says nope no chance and he goes on to describe why he says this isn’t true so nothing could be more fallacious or false than this but poets
2:30 read history to collect flowers not fruits they attend to fanciful images not the effects of social institutions so what he’s saying is just because a government is well administered or well-run doesn’t mean it’s necessarily good because the ends that that government is trying to achieve or the goals it’s trying to advance could be bad and if that’s the case then just because it’s well administered doesn’t
2:51 mean it’s good it again takes kind of digging in a little bit further before we can figure out what kind of government is best so he goes on to say we want 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
3:12 philosophers will agree that the happiness of the individual is the end of man from that 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 in the greatest degree is best all right let’s unpack that a little bit first of all what is the end
3:33 of government so earlier he said just because the government is well administered doesn’t mean it’s good it has to have a good goal in mind that is what he’s referring to as the end of government so what is that goal that goal it turns out is really important if we’re going to figure out what the best form of government is this is again going to the purpose of government government’s purpose is its goal right
3:55 so it’s established to do something what is that something Adams unpacks that further and he says that happiness of the individual is the end of man right meaning that our lives are targeted toward us being happy and happiness in this sense isn’t just sort of an emotional feeling of Happiness he
4:15 says that it is uh Ease comfort security so in other words it’s sort of a well-ordered life that is directed uh by one own one’s own uh choices one’s own uh ability to freely kind of operate that’s kind of what he’s getting to with happiness and if the end of man or the purpose of man’s life is happiness then
4:37 the best kind of government is going to be one that secures that happiness for the most number of people possible so going back again what is the goal of government the goal of government is to create a is to have a system in place that is allowing the greatest number of people to have that happiness so in that phrase happiness you may be thinking
4:58 life liberty and the pursuit of happiness right that’s that line from the Declaration of Independence with Adams along with Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin um pulled together and that would be in a couple months here in July of 1776 but here he’s talking about that same kind of thing how what kind of government is best that which is securing that life liberty in the pursuit of happiness that is or that is
5:19 helping the most number of people accomplish that that is the best kind of end for government so if that’s the case if the securing of happiness for the most number of people is the best form of government how do we ensure happiness through government how do we go about doing that and he says all sober inquiries after truth ancient and modern Pagan and Christian have declared that the happiness of man as well as his
5:40 dignity consists in virtue all right so how do we get to this happiness this sort of security and comfort he was talking about before through virtue virtue is what allows us to have that kind of happiness that he’s talking about he says if there’s a form of government then whose principle and Foundation is virtue will not every sober man acknowledge it better
6:01 calculated to promote the general happiness than any other form all right so going back we’re saying what government’s best the best government is the kind that secures the most happiness for the most amount of people well how do you secure happiness through virtue so therefore the best kind of government is built on virtue in order to secure that happiness that’s kind of the
6:22 formation he’s making so he says the foundation of every government is some principle or passion in the minds of the people the noblest principles and the most generous affections in our nature then have the fairest chance to support the noblest and most generous models of government so what is he saying he’s saying we have to orient our government around the principle and passion that
6:44 best Orient towards virtue to establish the kind of government that is going to be best so how do we do that what kind of government does this so now we know all right we need to secure the most happiness for the most amount of people we’re going to do that by grounding our government on some kind of virtue um what kind of virtue is going to allow that to be possible what kind of government is going to allow us to do
7:04 that he says there is no good government but what is Republican he says that the only valuable part of the British constitution is so because the very definition of a republic is an Empire of laws and not of men that a as a republic is the best form of government the best of governments so that particular arrangement of powers of society in other words that form of government
7:26 which is best contrived to secure an impartial and exact execution the laws is the best of republics all right what is he saying a republic is an Empire of laws so the best government is that which secures the most amount of happiness for the most amount of people that is grounded in virtue how do you create a system that is securing that happiness by grounding it in virtue well
7:48 you have laws that are impartial and allow for the exact execution of it and so that’s what he’s laying out an Empire of laws that are impartial in exact EX extion of the laws that’s the kind of government that we need to form right and that government is he argues Republican so how do we form this best kind of government that’s what comes
8:09 next so now we know what the best kind of government is it’s the government that secures the most amount of happiness for the most amount of people we’re going to do that by grounding it on virtue we’re going to ground it on virtue by having an Empire of laws that are exact and impartial and fairly executed and so now we have to go about forming those laws and forming those institutions so here he goes on and this is what the rest of the letter is about
8:31 which I’m not going to go into right now but because of that big question now a whole bunch of other questions come about says of republics there’s an inexhaustible variety because the possible combinations of the powers of society are capable of innumerable variations in other words there’s lots of ways you can form a republic that’s going to form these laws but if we’re going to do this well we’ve got to
8:51 really think about what this is going to be so how should your laws be made and in a large Society over an extensive country it’s impossible that we can all get together so if we can all get together then we have to figure out who is going to so he says you know by what rules shall you choose your representatives and agree upon the qualifications of persons who shall be
9:11 the benefit of choosing so who’s going to vote for these people how are they going to be chosen and on what terms are you going to sort of lay this out and build this together that’s what the rest of his letter is about but again it’s all pointing back to and starts with this foundational question what is the purpose of government what is it that we are trying trying to establish the government to do so as we dive into
9:33 unpacking this letter let’s remember again the purpose of doing this is to help us better understand our own system of government and so we start by doing that by just asking what is the purpose of government or better when we’re looking at a historical document what was the purpose of government that the founding generation was attempting to create what were their uh ideals what
9:54 were they trying to form it around or were they attempting to do that can help us understand not only what kind of Institutions they uh put forward or tried to create but what the purpose of those institutions was why they had the kinds of checks and balances they had why it is that they tried to orient things in the way that they did because
10:14 that can then help us better understand the functioning of those institutions so if you enjoyed this video please don’t forget to like And subscribe so you can find out when we have more videos coming out we continue to explore the different ideas and consequences of what it means to live within self-governing constitutional republic thank you so much wow I didn’t know history was so relevant kind of makes you think think
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