Founding Issues
Democracy

  1. "Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide." - United States Founding Father, John Adams, "The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States", Charles Francis Adams, editor (Boston: Charles C. Little and James Brown, 1850), , Vol. VI, p. 484, to John Taylor on April 15, 1814

  2. "[T]he experience of all former ages had shown that of all human governments, democracy was the most unstable, fluctuating and short-lived." - United States Founding Father, 6th President of the United States, John Quincy Adams, "The Jubilee of the Constitution. A Discouse Delivered at the Request of the New York Historical Society, in the City of New York, on Tuesday, the 30th of April 1839; Being the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Inauguration of George Washington as President of the United States, on Thursday, the 30th of April, 1789", (New York: Samuel Colman, 1839), p. 53.

  3. "A democracy is a volcano which conceals the fiery materials of its own destruction. These will produce an eruption and carry desolation in their way." - United States Founding Father, Auther of House Language of the First Amendment, Fisher Ames, "Works of Fisher Ames", (Boston: T. B. Wait & Co., 1809), p. 24, Speech on Biennial Elections, delivered January, 1788.

  4. "The known propensity of a democracy is to licentiousness which the ambitious call, and ignorant believe to be liberty." - United States Founding Father, Author of House Language of the First Amendment, Fisher Ames, "Works of Fisher Ames", (Boston: T. B. Wait & Co., 1809), p. 384, ¡°The Dangers of American Liberty,¡± February 1805.

  5. "[D]emocracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security, or the rights of property; and have, in general, been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths." - United Stated Founding Father, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, James Madison, "The Federalist on the New Constitution", (Philadelphia: Benjamin Warner, 1818), p. 53, #10, James Madison.

  6. "We have seen the tumult of democracy terminate ... as [it has] everywhere terminated, in despotism. ... Democracy! savage and wild. Thou who wouldst bring down the virtuous and wise to thy level of folly and guilt." - United States Founding Father, Signer of the Constitution, Penman of the Constitution, Gouverneur Morris, "An Oration Delivered on Wednesday, June 29, 1814, at the Request of a Number of Citizens of New-York, in Celebration of the Recent Deliverance of Europe from the Yoke of Military Despotism", (New York: Van Winkle and Wiley, 1814), pp. 10, 22.

  7. "A simple democracy ... is one of the greatest of evils." - United Stated Founding Father, Signer of the Declaration of Independence, Benjamin Rush, "The Letters of Benjamin Rush", L. H. Butterfield, editor (Princeton: Princeton University Press for the American Philosophical Society, 1951), Vol. I, p. 523, to John Adams on July 21, 1789.

  8. "It may generally be remarked that the more a government resembles a pure democracy the more they abound with disorder and confusion." - United States Founding Father, represented Connecticut in the U.S. House from 1793 until 1797, judge of the Connecticut Supreme Court beginning in 1801 and served as the Chief Justice from 1806 to 1819, author of America's first legal text, Zephaniah Swift, "A System of the Laws of the State of Connecticut" (Windham: John Byrne, 1795), Vol. I, p. 19.

  9. "It is among the evils, and perhaps not the smallest, of Democratical Governments, that the people must feel before they see. When this happens, they are roused to action. Hence it is, that those kinds of government are so slow." - United States Founding Father, George Washington, "Maxims of Washington", John Frederick Schroeder, D.D., collector and arranger, 1854, p.21

  10. "It is one of the evils of Democratical Governments, that the people, not always seeing, and frequently misled, must often feel before they can act right; but then evils of this nature seldem fail to work their own cure." - United States Founding Father, George Washington, "Maxims of Washington", John Frederick Schroeder, D.D., collector and aranger, 1854, p.21

  11. "In democracy ... there are commonly tumults and disorders. ... Therefore a pure democracy is generally a very bad government. It is often the most tyrannical government on earth." - United States Founding Father, Noah Webster, "The American Spelling Book: Containing an Easy Standard of Pronunciation: Being the First Part of a Grammatical Institute of the English Langauage, To Which is Added, an Appendix, Containing a Moral Catechism and a Federal Catechism", (Boston: Isaiah Thomas and Ebenezer T. Andrews, 1801), pp. 103-104.

  12. "Pure democracy cannot subsist long nor be carried far into the departments of state - it is very subject to caprice and the madness of popular rage." - United States Founding Father, Signer of the Declaration of Independence, John Witherspoon, 24. Witherspoon, "The Works of the Rev. John Witherspoon", (Philadelphia: William W. Woodard, 1802), Vol. VII, p. 101, Lecture 12 on Civil Society.

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