Publisher's Synopsis
This book documents the unique and specific American principles for government. The bedrock principles are presented in Chapter One.
John Adams, vice president under George Washington, and second president of the United States: ". . . And liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people, who have a right, from the frame of their nature, to knowledge, as their great Creator, who does nothing in vain, . . . besides this, they have a right, an indisputable, unalienable . . . right to that most dreaded and envied kind of knowledge, I mean, of the characters and conduct of their rulers. Rulers are no more than attorneys, agents, and trustees for the people; and if the cause, the interest and trust, is . . . wantonly trifled away, the people have a right to revoke the authority . . .. And the preservation of the means of knowledge among the lowest ranks, is of more importance to the public than all the property of all the rich men in the country."
The Tea Party Colonists were objecting to taxes required by the British Parliament because their representatives had not been allowed to participate in tax enforcement decisions. When shipments of tea were in the Boston harbor the crisis came to a head. They liked their tea, but in the early evening of December 16, 1776 about 200 men descended upon the ships and dumped the shipments of tea into the harbor waters.
Pre-publication reviews are in the front of the book-". . . this is undoubtedly one of the best books ever written on the subject."
