Joe:
The Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina, to which John Adams is referring and a document likely penned by John Locke and his patron, the Earl of Shaftesbury, is a strange and flawed plan to say the least. There are elements of quasi-feudalism and a failure to separate and balance powers. Some have even alleged that the plan was never meant to be taken seriously, and it is true that the colony was never really governed as suggested.
However, my understanding is that it should probably be understood as an early effort by two men (Locke and Shaftesbury) whose ideas would develop and mature significantly over the ensuing years. The Fundamental Constitutions does provide for more religious freedom in the Carolina colony that was typical at the time, a thread that gets developed into Locke?s fully woven advocacy of religious toleration within a decade or so. And his influence on the Founders and the U.S. Constitution really comes from Two Treatises of Government, published more than two decades after Fundamental Constitutions was penned.
