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  • The people as a body cannot deliberate. Nevertheless, they will feel an irresistible impulse to act, and their resolutions will be dictated to them by their demagogues... and the violent men, who are the most forward to gratify those passions, will be their favorites. What is called the government of the people is in fact too often the arbitrary power of such men. Here, then, we have the faithful portrait of democracy.

    Fisher Ames, John Thornton Kirkland (1854). “Works of Fisher Ames: With a selection from his speeches and correspondence”, p.393, Burt Franklin
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