John Adams, Cicero and the Traditions of Republicanism

Abstract

ABSTRACTJohn Adams' approach to republican politics emphasizes the need to check and balance powers in a republican constitution, but also the need to check the power of the ‘aristocracies' that arise in society. The need for checks on power is explained in terms of the weakness of human reason relative to the passions, and in terms of the need for harmony and justice to promote happiness in society. Adams retains a Ciceronian view of the origins of human society and of republican government, and relies on Cicero's definitions of ‘people' and ‘republic' to help frame his Defense of the Constitutions of the United States of America. His approach is conservative in that part of his defense is to stress that the colonial governments that existed before Independence were republican, and that the institutions of the colonial governments were the primary models for the new state constitutions after Independence. The study suggests that historical interpretations of the ‘republican tradition' are better understood in terms of a ‘traditions of republicanism.’