Published in 1787, John Adams’ Defense of the Constitutions of the Government of the United States refuted prominent European intellectuals’ criticisms of state constitutions. French political theorists, like Anne Robert Jacques Turgot and the Comte de Mirabeau, had criticized these constitutions as excessively complex and inefficient. In his rebuttal, Adams defended the state constitutions’ bicameral legislatures and systems of separated powers. His work made a case for many of the features that would soon distinguish the United States Constitution from other republican experiments, like checks and balances and a quasi-independent executive. He examines various historical and contemporary republics on the European continent and compares how the American system fares when held up to their standard. The first volume of his work was published in January 1787 and was often cited at the Constitutional Convention later that year. Though Adams himself would not be present at the Convention, his ideas would permeate its discussions through this work.