SOURCE: “The New England Federalism of John Adams,” in Polity and the Public Good: Conflicting Theories of Republican Government in the New Nation, UMI Research Press, 1980, pp. 33-55.

In the following essay, Wharton explores the apparent ideological split between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson in the years following the American Revolution and maintains that, contrary to popular belief, Adams's political philosophy remained fundamentally consistent throughout this period.

John Adams, like Taylor and Jefferson, was concerned with establishing a form of government in America that would ensure the happiness, prosperity, and liberty of the American people. Like his southern colleagues, Adams desired a republican form of government. As early as January 1776, Adams confessed that, in spite of the talk in Philadelphia of erecting an American monarchy, he would prefer a republican government.¹ Though many contemporaries, and, retrospectively, historians, have claimed that Adams changed his political beliefs in the course...