A DEFENCE OF THE CONSTITUTIONS OF GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. BY JOHN ADAMS, LL. D. MEMBER OF THE ACADEMY OF ARTS AND SCIENCES AT BOSTON. VOL. III. Some philofophers have been foolish enough to imagine, that improvements JOHNSON'S ADVENTURER, N° 45° LONDON: PRINTED FOR C. DILLY, IN THE POULTRY; AND JOHN STOCKDALE, PICCADILLY. M.DCC.LXXXVIII. A DEFENCE OF THE Conftitutions of Government of the UNITED STATES of A MER I CA. My dear Sir, TH * PISTOIA. October 4, 1787. HE Roman republic, according to its cuftom of placing judges in all places under its dominion, fent to Piftoia a pretor, who had the whole jurifdiction, civil and criminal, over the city; referving always, according to the tenor of the Roman laws, the obedience to the magiftrates of that commonwealth. This jurisdiction, acquired by the Roman republic over the city of Pistoia, paffed to the Roman emperors, and from thefe into the power of the Goths and the Lombards, and fucceffively in thofe who, from time to time, were the lords (fignore) of Tuscany; and has continued, down to our times, under the fame tie and obligation of dependence. It is very true, that the province being liberated from the government of foreign nations, and its governors (dominatori) having permitted the people to make laws Memorie Storiche della citta di Pistoia, raccolte da Jacopo Maria Fioravanti, nobile Patrizio Piftoiefe. Edit. Lucca. 1758, cap. ii. p. 15. VOL. III. B and and create magiftrates, the authority became divided: hence, when the conceffion was made to the Pistoians to create magiftrates, take the name of confuls, and form the general council of the people, they were permitted to expedite, by the authority of these, many things in their city; referving always, nevertheless, the fovereignty to their lords. This conceffion of governing themfelves by their own laws, obtained by the provinces of Italy, was the mere liberality of Charlemain, at a time when, having delivered them entirely from the government of the barbarians, he placed them under the command of one of his royal minifters, with the title of marquis, or of duke. Under this fyftem of government was comprehended Tufcany, which had its dukes and marquiffes, who governed it. But as it was the custom of Charlemain, and, long after him, of his fucceffors, to fend to the cities of this province two fubaltern minifters, one with the name of caftaldo, or governor, and the other with that of count, which is as much as to fay, judge of the city, who held his courts of juftice either alone, or in conjunction with the caftaldo, and very often with the bishop of the place, as the bishops were affeffors and officers, deputed as vaffals of the king or the emperor; fo the city of Piftoia was a long time ruled and governed by this order of caftaldi and counts. Otto the Second, having afcended the Imperial throne, and having conducted, with little good fortune, the affairs of Italy, the people began to think it lawful to lofe their refpect, and to fail in their veneration, for the imperial commands, and the cities advancing in their inclination for liberty, many of them began to Sigonius, de Regno Italiæ, lib. iv. re-affume re-affume the title of confuls, which had been extinct under the Longobards; and if these had fomewhat of a greater authority, they were not, nevertheless, exempt from the jurifdiction of the dukes and marquiffes, or from the fovereignty of the kings and emperors. A greater fpirit of independence arifing in the minds of the Italians, in the time of thofe great discords between the empire and the church, diminished to fuch a degree the efteem of the people towards the emperors, folemnly excommunicated by the pontiffs, that a great part of the cities of Italy, eftranging themselves by little and little from their obedience, began to conduct themselves like independent ftates, in entire freedom. This happened in the time of Henry the Fourth and the Fifth; and the difobedience increased still more, when all the Tedefque forces were engaged to fuftain, in Germany, the competition between Lothario the Second and Conrad the Swede for the throne of Cæfar. Then the cities, taking advantage of the diftance of those who had power to bridle their arrogance, began to be infolent *: then they began to lift up their heads, and to do whatever feemed good in their own eyes: then they thought it lawful to appropriate to themselves many of the regalia belonging to their fovereign; and believing themselves able to fhake off the yoke of fuperiority, they attended to nothing but to their prefent advantage, and to dilate the limits of their ufurped liberty. But with all this, they were never able to extinguifh the quality of their subjection, nor the obligation of dependence; for Frederick the First paffed over to establish and re * His diebus, propter abfentiam regis, Italiæ urbibus, in infolentiam decedentibus. Ottone Frifingenfe. |