Page:John Adams - A Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America Vol. I. (1787).djvu/34

xxvi back to the intitutions of Woden and of Thor, as they are advied to do: if they had been counelled to adopt a imple monarchy at once, it would have been les myterious. Roberton, Hume, and Gibbon have given uch admirable accounts of the feudal intitutions, and their conequences, that it would have been more dicreet to have referred to them, perhaps, without aying any thing more upon the ubject. To collect together the legilation of the Indians, would take up much room, but would be well worth the pains. The overeignty is in the nation, it is true, but the three powers are trong in every tribe; and their royal and aritocratical dignities are much more generally hereditary, from the popular partiality to particular families, and the upertitious opinion that uch are favourites of the God of War, than the late writers upon this ubject have allowed.


 * Grovenor Square,
 * January 1, 1787.