THE ADAMS CANTOS

The tragedy of the U.S.A. over 160 years is the decline of Adamses. More and more we cd., if we examined events, see that John Adams had the corrective for Jefferson.

Ezra Pound. Guide to Kulchur 254

The writings of John Adams, done in a variety of circumstances for a number of different reasons, reveal that he seldom missed an opportunity to record his observations or those of people with whom he associated. He kept a diary; he kept notes of the debates of the Continental Congress. For newspapers he wrote controversial papers on behalf of the cause of independence, signing his name now as “Novanglus,” now as “Clarendon.” In correspondence he was a tireless explainer, here and abroad, of the patriot cause and of the concept of government which he believed gave the best hope for a stable public order. The latter concern led him finally to write his major work, A Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States, his answer, in three volumes, to an attack by Turgot (who preferred a simple central authority) upon the idea of a distribution of governmental power through a system of checks and balances, which idea Adams had labored so hard to see incorporated in the new state constitutions. He wrote an account of his European diplomatic missions; he wrote an autobiography. All these writings come together to tell one story: the commitment of John Adams to the survival and success of the new nation he had helped create. 

Frederick K. Sanders. John Adams Speaking 42.