We’re excited to announce that the State Capitol will be hosting a rare exhibition of John Adams’s Thoughts on Government from July 21 through September 8, 2009. This original, handwritten document will be on display in the north hall of the first floor. Thoughts is one of Adam’s most influential writings and was the basis of many of the concepts adopted in December 1776 by the framers of our first state constitution.
In November 1775, Richard Lee, delegate to the First Continental Congress for Virginia, solicited fellow delegate John Adams’s thoughts on the ideal organization of American government, should the colonies actually separate from Great Britain. In response, Adams composed an outline of what a new American constitution should include. Five months later, William Hooper, delegate from North Carolina, approached Adams with the same request. Hooper planned to use his advice when structuring North Carolina’s constitution. Shortly thereafter, another of North Carolina’s delegates, John Penn, also requested Adams’s help. Adams sent Hooper a letter containing his thoughts, while sending Penn a slightly altered version. In all, Adams provided three additional handwritten copies to fellow delegates before consenting have the letter published as a pamphlet in Philadelphia.
Adams’s Thoughts on Government, as it would be known, describes his idea of an ideal republican government. His design, he said, “is to mark out a Path, and putt [sic] Men upon thinking.” In Thoughts, Adams explores fundamental questions about the making of a virtuous society, the powers and purposes of government, and the frailties of human nature. Adams concluded that the purpose of government was to ensure the happiness of the people; therefore, the best form of government was that which produced the greatest happiness for the largest part of the population.
Thoughts on Government is considered to be one of Adam’s most significant Revolutionary essays, at the time attracting considerably more attention from his colleagues in Congress than he had expected. By April 1776, Thoughts on Government: Applicable to the Present State of the American Colonies. In a Letter for a Gentleman to his Friend had been published and widely distributed throughout the colonies.
As for Adams’s original letter to Hooper, the North Carolina delegate delivered it to Thomas Burke, leader of the committee charged with framing a state constitution. It remained with Burke’s papers until it was transferred to the North Carolina Historical Society and, later, the State Archives. This will be the first time his letter has been on exhibit at the State Capitol.
