Page:John Adams - A Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America Vol. I. (1787).djvu/69

Rh or greatly multiply its numbers, it would oon find the neceity of giving the executive power to the land amman, in order to defend the people againt the enate; for the enate, although it is always the reervoir of widom, is eternally the very focus of ambition.

My dear Sir,

HE canton of Zug is mall, but rich, and divided into mountains and plains. The overeign is the city of Zug, and part of the country. It is divided into five quarters, which poes the overeignty; the city of Zug is two, and the country three, Mentzingen, Egeri, and Bar. The government is very complicated, and the overeignty reides in the general aembly of the five quarters, where each male peron of fifteen years of age has admittance and a voice. It aembles annually, to enact laws, and chooe their magitrates. Thus thee five quarters make a body of a democratical republic which commands the ret of the canton. They furnih alternately the land amman, the head or chief of the tate, who mut always reide at Zug with the regency of the country, although he is choen by the uffrages of all the quarters collectively. He continues three years in office when taken from the ditrict of Zug, and but two when choen from any of the others. The