A government by the passions of the multitude, or, no less correctly, according to the vices, and ambitions of their leaders is a democracy.
Fisher AmesA large portion of our citizens, who will not believe, even on the evidence of facts, that any public evils exist, or are impending. They deride the apprehensions of those who foresee, that licentiousness will prove, as it ever has proved, fatal to liberty.
Fisher AmesI consider biennial elections as a security that the sober, second thought of the people shall be law.
Fisher AmesLiberty is not to be enjoyed, indeed it cannot exist, without the habits of just subordination; it consists, not so much in removing all restraint from the orderly, as in imposing it on the violent.
Fisher Ames