Discourses on Davila. No. XIII.
John Adams
John Adams wrote this in the shadow of the French Revolution, an era when balance of power was not just theory but survival. The chaos in France illustrated what he feared: unchecked rivalries breeding despotism. Adams saw political equilibrium as the cornerstone of liberty. Without it, even the loftiest ideals crumble into tyranny. His concern was practical, not abstract—how to engineer a republic that could withstand the inevitable clash between the rich and the poor, the legislative and the executive.