John Adams, writing as “Novanglus,” Boston Gazette [1774] no. 7. Incorporated in Article 30 of the Declaration of Rights in the Massachusetts Constitution [1780].
“A government of laws, and not of men.”
Source: The John Adams Historical Society website
John Adams, Second POTUS , official portrit (Source: White House Historical Association)
According to Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations:
“Adams credits this formulation to James Harrington [1611-1677], with those work The Commonwealth of Oceana [1656] he was familiar, Adams’s use of the phrase gave it wide circulation in America.” (p. 337)
A few years earlier, Adams had written notes for a speech he gave in the spring of 1772. He wrote:
There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty.” [Bartlett’s p. 337; John Adams Historical Society]
