ABSTRACT
In contrast to Gabriel Bonnot de Mably, Francois-Jean de Chastellux was no laudator temporis acti. The two men had, in long discussions, contended about the problem of the greatest happiness of the greatest number without reaching an agreement. Chastellux here shows himself to be a genuine aristocrat of the Ancient Regime. Chastellux here approaches for one moment the ideal of his time. Chastellux also shows that it is easier in the New World than in the Old to advance from the state of a wage-earner to that of a petty capitalist. Chastellux therefore felt that the great fact which characterized the society of the Old World must and would become a determining factor also in the New. Chastellux faithfully recorded the answer with which Samuel Adams tried to meet his objections. Thus Adams confirmed Chastellux in his conviction that the social harmony in the United States however great it might appear at the time would be of short duration.
