John Adams and the Fear of American Oligarchy

191 Pages·2016·2.6 MB·English

by  Luke Mayville

J A F A O
OHN DAMS AND THE EAR OF MERICAN LIGARCHY

John Adams
AND THE FEAR OF
American Oligarchy
LUKE MAYVILLE
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS
Princeton & Oxford
COPYRIGHT © 2016 BY PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS
PUBLISHED BY PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS,
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The quotation on page v is copyright © 2014 by Garry Wills and was first published in the New
York Review of Books.
Frontispiece and jacket art from The New York Public Library. Miriam and Ira D. Wallach
Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Print Collection, The New York Public Library. “John
Adams,” New York Public Library Digital Collections. Accessed June 13, 2016.
http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47da-2fd6-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99
All Rights Reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Mayville, Luke, 1985– author.
Title: John Adams and the fear of American oligarchy / Luke Mayville. Description: Princeton :
Princeton University Press, 2016. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016003613 | ISBN 9780691171531 (hardcover : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Adams, John, 1735–1826—Political and social views. | United States—Politics
and government—1783–1809. | United States—Politics and government—1775–1783. |
Oligarchy—United States.
Classification: LCC E322 .M36 2016 | DDC 973.4/4092—dc23 LC record available at
http://lccn.loc.gov/2016003613
British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available
This book has been composed in Adobe Caslon Pro
Printed on acid-free paper. ∞
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
TO MY MOTHER
The proof that we live in a plutocracy is not that the
wealthy get most of the prizes in our society, but
that majorities think that is how it should be.
—GARRY WILLS, New York Review of Books,
January 2014
Or do you suppose that the regimes arise “from
an oak or rocks” and not from the dispositions
of the men in the cities, which, tipping the scale
as it were, draw the rest along with them?
—SOCRATES, in Plato’s Republic
The Distinction of property will have more
influence than all the rest in commercial countries,
if it is not rivalled by some other distinction.
—JOHN ADAMS, notes on Mary Wollstonecraft’s
Historical and Moral View of the Origin and
Progress of the French Revolution
Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
ONE
A Perennial Problem
23
TWO
The Goods of Fortune
58
THREE
Sympathy for the Rich
95
FOUR
Dignified Democracy
124
CONCLUSION
American Oligarchy
148
Notes 155
Bibliography 193
Index 205