The Mire of a Democracy

Fisher Ames had a devastating wit and used it quite effectively against his opposition, often Southern members of Congress.

I don’t often agree with what Ames had to say, but even when I don’t, he could be very funny. Ames would have given Trump a run on Twitter.

Ames had two redeeming qualities: he detested democracy and he favored secession.

All of the our little Twitter historians who claim secession is treason really don’t understand the founding period very well. Not every member of that generation agreed that a State should secede, but the constant worry about “disunion” meant that they all believed a State could secede, even from a “perpetual union.”

Look no farther than Mr. Ames who thought New England needed to get out of the Union as early as the 1790s.

He despised his Jeffersonian colleagues and especially hated those from the South.

It makes you wonder why the decedents of these founders fought so hard to keep the South in the Union just eighty years later.

Ames published a wonderful critique of democracy in 1805 titled “The Mire of a Democracy.” I can only imagine what he would say about our “democracy” today.

I can think what he would have wanted to do, and it wouldn’t be rubbing elbows with a bunch of social justice warriors.

Ames despised slavery, but he never thought the rabble should have much power in government.

In fact, he thought it always led to a perversion of society and the establishment of tyranny.

We should worry as much about 500 tyrants in congress as one in the White House. And more importantly, we should always be suspicious of the person who wants to take away liberty and property by a “democratic majority.”

Not many people have ever read this little essay, so I decided to focus on it in Episode 434 of The Brion McClanahan Show.


Subscribe to The Podcast


Comments are closed.