Adams was, pretty much, writing from personal experience. In 1775 one of his clients was an habitual scofflaw, and he wrote in his diary how terrified he was with what they might be setting loose in the revolution.

I'd call him prescient, but clearly he was a student of history.

Adams' views are consistent with why America had a "revolution." It was really a war of independence meant to preserve the progress that Americans had made. They were convinced that King George and Parliament meant to destroy American prosperity and freedom. As Adams also said elsewhere, the American "revolution" had occurred long before the clash of arms. It happened in the minds of American colonists over a century of evolution from the early settlements to a land of prosperous, dynamic individuals.

Does that mean we need to wait until "it" next happens in the minds of space colonists as their early space settlements turn into a "land" of prosperous, dynamic individuals?

Cut to the chase:

"An armed society is a polite society. Manners are good when one may have to back up his acts with his life." ~ Heinlein