John Adams's A Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America, originally published in London in 1787, was a pivotal document in the development of American political theory. Excerpted here in the second selection of the Akashic U.S. Presidents Series, Adams's Defence advocates for the separation of powers, a system of checks and balances, and a bicameral legislature. In his introduction to this volume, acclaimed satirist Neal Pollack analyzes some of the second President's key precepts and argues that American society is currently experiencing a "De-Enlightenment" that gives short shrift to the principles espoused by Adams.