Page:John Adams - A Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America Vol. I. (1787).djvu/207

Rh and our enators have influence chiefly by the principles of authority, and very little by thoe of power; but this mut be potponed.

My dear Sir,

Y deign is more extenive than barely to hew the imperfection of Mr. Turgot's idea. This might be done in a few words, and a very hort proces of reaoning: but I wih to aemble together the opinions and reaonings of philoophers, politicians, and hitorians, who have taken the mot extenfve views of men and ocieties, whoe characters are deervedly revered, and whoe writings were in the contemplation of thoe who framed the American contitutions. It will not be conteted, that all thee characters are united in Polybius, who, in a fragment of his ixth book, tranlated by Edward Spelman, p. 391, at the end of his tranlation of the Roman Antiquities of Dionyius Hallicarnaenis, ays:—"It is cutomary to etablih three orts of governments; kingly government, aritocracy, and democracy: upon which one may very properly ak them, whether they lay thee down as the only forms of government, or as the bet; for in both caes they eem to be in an error, ince it is manifet,