University of Virginia Library

TO JOHN ADAMS.[132]

Dear Sir,—I have received your favor of April
22d, with the two volumes bearing the name of
Condorcet. If the length of time they remained
in your hands had been in the least inconvenient
to me, which was not the case, the debt would have
been overpaid by the interesting observations into
which you were led by your return of them.

The idea of a Government "in one centre," as

expressed and espoused by this Philosopher and his
theoretic associates, seems now to be every where
exploded. And the views which you have given
of its fallacy will be a powerful obstacle to its revival
anywhere. It is remarkable that in each
of our States which approached nearest to the
theory changes were soon made, assimilating their
constitutions to the examples of the other States,
which had placed the powers of Government in
different depositories, as means of controlling the
impulse and sympathy of the passions, and affording
to reason better opportunities of asserting its
prerogatives.

The great question now to be decided, and it is
one in which humanity is more deeply interested
than in any political experiment yet made, is,
whether checks and balances sufficient for the purposes
of order, justice, and the general good, may
not be created by a proper division and distribution
of power among different bodies, differently
constituted, but all deriving their existence from
the elective principle, and bound by a responsible
tenure of their trusts. The experiment is favored
by the extent of our Country, which prevents the
contagion of evil passions; and by the combination
of the federal with the local systems of Government,
which multiplies the divisions of power,
and the mutual checks by which it is to be kept
within its proper limits and direction. In aid of
these considerations much is to be hoped from the
force of opinion and habit, as these ally themselves

with our political institutions. I am running,
however, into reflections, without recollecting that
all such must have fallen within the comprehensive
reviews which your mind has taken of the
principles of our Government, and the prospects
of our Country.

I have always been much gratified by the favorable
opinion you have been pleased occasionally
to express of the public course pursued while the
Executive trust was in my hands, and I am very
thankful for the kind wishes you have added to a
repetition of it. I pray you to be assured of the
sincerity with which I offer mine, that a life may
be prolonged which continues to afford proofs of
your capacity to enjoy and make it valuable.