Page:John Adams - A Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America Vol. I. (1787).djvu/33

Rh century; that of Romulus lated but two centuries and a half; but the Teutonic intitutions, decribed by Cæar and Tacitus, are the mot memorable experiment merely political, ever yet made in human affairs. They have pread all over Europe, and have lated eighteen hundred years. They afford the tronget argument that can be imagined in upport of the point aimed at in thee letters. Nothing ought to have more weight with America, to determine her judgment againt mixing the authority of the one, the few, and the many, confuedly in one aembly, than the wide-pread mieries and final lavery of almot all mankind, in conequence of uch an ignorant policy in the ancient Germans. What is the ingredient which in England has preerved the democratical authority? The balance, and that only. The Englih have, in reality, blended together the feudal intitutions with thoe of the Greeks and Romans; and out of all have made that noble compoition, which avoids the inconveniences, and retains the advantages, of both. The intitutions now made in America will never wear wholly out for thouands of years: it is of the lat importance then that they hould begin right; if they et out wrong, they will never be able to return, unles it be by accident, to the right path. After having known the hitory of Europe, and of England in particular, it would be the height of folly to go back