In the lengthy descriptive chapters of his Defense of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America devoted to Athens and Florence, Adams briefly notes that those cities chose their magistrates by lot, but he does not reflect on the subject. When representative systems were being established, this method of choosing rulers was not within the range of conceivable possibilities. It simply did not occur to anyone. The last two centuries, at least up until the present day, would suggest that it had disappeared forever.