ABSTRACT
The true test of a good government is its aptitude and tendency to produce a good administration'. The roots of Americans' profound suspicion of executive authority are deeply sunk, and are apparent in the nation's earliest influences and origins. One such influence was the Native Americans, who surrounded the early European settlers. The Indians and the English set a governing tone that, in the eighteenth century, expressed itself in three formats that outlined Americans' enduring social contract, or that unwritten agreement between the governed and their governments, often more understood than expressed, that defines and limits the responsibilities of each. One such format was the woefully misnamed Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, which, from 1781 to 1789, provided the first framework for the new nation and exemplified Americans' contempt for princely prerogatives. Americans' perspective on the proper place of government differs radically from that of Europeans.
