Adams The Works of John Adams Vol. 5

Defence of the Constitution II and III (Annotated)
1. Auflage 2015
ISBN: 978-3-8496-4821-3
Verlag: Jazzybee Verlag
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 422 Seiten

John Adams was the second President of the United States, ruling the country from 1797 to 1801, and one of the Founding Fathers. He was also a major leader of American independence from Great Britain. This is volume five out of ten of his works, this book containing the Defences of the Constitution II and III. The text is annotated with more than 250 endnotes.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Adams, John

Leseproben

CHAPTER SECOND.: FLORENCE.

Guicciardini begins his history of the wars in Italy, where Machiavel concludes that of Florence, with the death of Lorenzo de’ Medici in April, 1492, the same year that the sagacity, fortitude, and good fortune of that ever memorable native of Coguretto, a village near Genoa, Christopher Columbus, of plebeian birth, but of noble genius, in the service of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, Endnote 073 laid the first foundation of the constitutions of the United States of America.

“The death of Lorenzo was a severe misfortune to his country, which had flourished under the influence of his prudence, reputation, and genius, in all the blessings and embellishments of a long and secure peace; and very inconvenient to all Italy, who regarded him as a principal counterbalance to Ferdinand of Naples, and Sforza of Milan, princes as ambitious as they were powerful.

“Peter II., the eldest of his three sons, who succeeded him without contradiction, was not qualified by experience or abilities for so important a station. Deviating early from the councils of his father, and without consulting the principal citizens, he was wholly directed by Orsino, a relation both by his mother and his wife, but a dependent of Ferdinand. This new connection, so prudently avoided by his father, excited the jealousy of Sforza, and was the source of all the ensuing evils.”

Without reciting the particulars of his vanity, rashness, and imprudence, especially a foolish treaty with France, which he made without consulting the magistrates, it is sufficient to say, “that, on the ninth of November, 1494, as he was going into the palace, Nerli, a youth of noble birth and great wealth, at the head of some others of the magistracy, stood armed at the gates, Endnote 074 and forbade him to enter. The populace, as soon as the  report of this insurrection spread in the town, instantly took arms. Peter, destitute of courage as well as advice, returned to his own house, where he was informed that the magistrates had declared him a rebel; upon which he fled with precipitation to Bologna, and was followed by his two brothers, Giovanni the cardinal, and Giuliano, who were likewise attainted. Thus, through the rashness and levity of a thoughtless youth, the family of the Medici fell, for the time, from a sovereign power which they had exercised for sixty years. From Bologna they went to Venice. After some time, the king, their ally, obtained a reversal of Peter’s attainder, and that of his two brothers, and a restitution of their effects, on condition that Peter should not approach within a hundred miles of the borders of the republic. This was designed to prevent him from settling in Rome; his brothers were not to come within a hundred miles of the city.”

After the exile of Peter and his brothers, the city of Florence attempted once more to reform its government; Endnote 075 “but,” says Nerli, “the citizens who ought to have reformed the state, fell into the same error with all who had preceded them in similar enterprises, and founded the new government, as others had done whose steps they followed, upon parties and civil factions, as may be seen in the whole history of Florence, and for the benefit and convenience of the superior party and more powerful factions, and not at all for the benefit of the generality, or the universal good; and therefore it was impossible that a pacific and quiet republic should succeed, or a durable government be established. They created, however, according to the ancient custom of the city, and by means of a parliament, always a scene of violence, and inconsistent with all civil modesty, twenty Accoppiatori, or associates, with authority to imborse the signori from time to time, and to create, with other restless disturbers of the public peace, the principal magistrates; and they resolved, that Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de’ Medici, who then declared himself one of the inhabitants, de’ popolani, Endnote 076 though under age, should be one  of the twenty; and this was accomplished by their extraordinary reputation and influence, and thus he was made the head of the new government; and this whole revolution changed nothing but the head, and not at all the nature of the government.”

It was in this convention, which Nerli calls a parliament, that those elegant speeches which Guicciardini Endnote 077 has preserved, or composed, one for Soderini and the other for Vespucci, are supposed to have been made; but it is surprising to see that neither orator, so eloquent and able, nor yet the historian who so elegantly reports the debate, appears to have once thought of the natural and necessary remedy. One is for a government simply popular, and the other for a form simply aristocratical; but neither thinks of an equal mixture of the three forms, nor even of the two; nor does an idea occur of separating the legislative from the executive power. Soderini admits that, “among all writers upon government, praises have been more liberally bestowed upon the administration of a single prince, and upon that of a few of the best citizens, than upon any popular government;” but he thinks that “the desire of liberty is so natural or habitual in that city, and the condition of the citizens so proportioned to that equality which is the necessary foundation of a popular government, that it ought, without any doubt, to be preferred to all others.” He even thinks a question could not be made of this, “as in all their consultations it had ever been determined, with universal consent, that the city should be governed in the name and by the authority of the people. But the diversity of opinions arose from this, that some would cheerfully consent in the regulation of the convention to that form of a republic with which the city governed itself before her liberty was oppressed by the family of the Medici; others, among whom he reckons himself, judging a government so ordered to have, in many things, rather the name than the effects of a popular government, and terrified with the accidents which frequently result from it, desire a more perfect form, which may preserve concord and security to the citizens; blessings which, neither from reason nor experience, can be expected in this city, if it is not under a government dependent entirely on  the power of the people. This must, however, be well ordered by two fundamental regulations. The first of these is, that all the magistrates and officers, both in the city and all its dominions, shall be distributed, from time to time, by a universal council of all those who, according to our laws, are qualified for a participation in government; without the approbation of which council new laws cannot be considered. Hence, it not being in the power of private citizens, nor of any particular conspiracy or intrigue, to distribute dignities or authority, none will be excluded from them by the passions or caprice of others, but they shall be bestowed according to the virtues and merits of men. By consequence, every one must endeavor, by his virtues, good manners, and by rendering himself agreeable both in public and private life, to open his way to honors. Every one must abstain from vices and injuries to others, and, in one word, from all those things which are odious in a well-constituted city. It will not be in the power of any one, nor of a few, by new laws, or by the authority of a magistrate, to introduce another government, or to pretend to alter this, but by the resolution of the universal council.

“The second fundamental regulation is this; that all the most important deliberations, as those of peace and war, the examination of new laws, and generally all those things which are necessary to the administration of such a city and dominion, shall be treated by magistrates particularly destined to this service, in a select council of the most experienced and prudent citizens, who shall be deputed by the popular council; for, as the knowledge of these affairs of state is not found in every understanding, precautions should be taken that the government may not fall into hands incapable of conducting it; and the celerity and secrecy which are often indispensable, cannot be consulted or preserved in the deliberations of a multitude. Neither is it necessary for the maintenance of liberty, that such things should be treated by large numbers; for liberty remains secure at all times when the distribution of magistracies, and the deliberations on new laws, depend on universal consent.

“These two points being secured, the government will be truly popular, the liberty of the city well founded, and a laudable and durable form of a republic established.”

He then compares his project with the plan of Venice,—to  which it has not, however, the smallest resemblance,—and proceeds: “This city of ours has never enjoyed a government like this, and therefore our public affairs have been constantly exposed to frequent mutations; at one time trampled down by the violence of tyranny; at another torn by the ambitious and avaricious dissensions of the few; now shaken by the licentious fury of the multitude; and although cities are built for no end but the tranquillity, security, and happy life of the inhabitants, the fruits of our government, our felicity, our repose, have been the continual confiscations of our estates, the banishments and the executions on the scaffold, of our miserable citizens.”

This is the substance of Soderini’s oration, in which he is fully sensible of the tyranny and slavery of alternate factions, and the...