The 250th Anniversary of John Adams’ ‘Thoughts on Government’

John Adams’ treatise called “Thoughts on Government,” published in April of 1776, was really a response to Thomas Paine’s Common Sense. As David McCullough has written: “Friends in Massachusetts reported to Adams that because of Common Sense, the clamor for a declaration of independence was never greater.… In a letter to Abigail… Adams said he…