American Indian Culture and Research Journal

Robert L. Berner does not tell us whether he has actually read Exemplar of Liberty (1991), or whether he has merely fished through the book’s index in search of debating points. Berner’s latest rebuttal indicates that he has not read the book in its entirety. He complains, for example, that we have committed a “howler” by placing John Adams at the Constitutional Convention. The “howler” is actually Berner’s, because on page 199 of Exemplar of Liberty we write: “Although Adams had been selected as a Massachusetts delegate to the Constitutional Convention, he chose not to attend, and published his lengthy essay, Defence of the Constitutions of . . . the United States, instead.” Johansen’s wording in his first reply to Berner (American Indian Culture and Research Journal 24:2) stating that Adams discussed such things “at the Constitutional Convention” could be misread. Had he completely read Exemplar, Berner would have understood that this was a reference to Adams’s book, not to his physical presence. When Berner asserts that “No founding father knew what the Iroquois structure was,” he commits a rather astounding “howler”by writing out of the record Benjamin Franklin, who was probably the most influential founder of them all. It was Franklin who printed treaty accounts from 1736 to 1762, and who started his diplomatic career by attending Iroquois councils during the early 1750s. Franklin was present at the Constitutional Convention, and published actively in the Philadelphia press on questions of political theory. Thus, Berner cannot dismiss the influence idea by dismissing John Adams’s role. It was Franklin who merged European and Native American political precedents in his Albany Plan and Articles of Confederation.