John Adams, for example, came to accept the inevitable presence of diverse interests in the society, though he believed they all could be reduced to two—“persons and property” or “democracy and aristocracy.” These competing private interests might then be embodied in the two separate houses of the legislature, with the governor or executive, the only truly disinterested figure left in the state, holding the balance between the two. No wonder people accused Adams of being a crypto-monarchist: his conception of an independent disinterested executive standing above and balancing all the interests
...more
