"...there will not be morals without justice; and though justice might possibly support a democracy... a democracy cannot possibly support justice."
Fisher Ames, of Dedham in Massachusetts, was one of the most
eloquent Federalists at the time of America's birth. An ardent opponent of Jeffersonian
democracy, Ames feared the worst for the new nation, predicting spiritual decay
and social anarchy.
As a member of the Federalist contingent of American revolutionaries,
he strongly supported property rights and looked with favor upon the aristocratic
character of his party. He was, as John Quincy Adams remarked, a stern moralist-a
result of his Calvinist upbringing. Some of his colleagues in the Federalist
Party, among them Hamilton and Marshall, advocated economic and territorial
expansion inspired by a strong nationalist spirit, a program Ames vehemently
opposed.
In The Dangers of American Liberty can be found his
most articulate and closely-reasoned political apologia. Published posthumously,
his words prescribed the role of government to be the protection of property
and the maintenance of social stability. Such requirements, he wrote, could
not be fulfilled in a democracy because they are based on two fallacious assumptions:
the sufficiency of political virtue and the existence of a constant public morality.
Democratic politics requires an appeal to the passions and the simplicity of
men, creating conditions under which despotism can reign. Fundamentally, private
morality, not constitutions, establish and maintain political stability.
Despite his excessive fears of immanent tyranny, Ames' ever
present warnings serve to remind us of the centrality of public morality to
the preservation of liberty and maintenance of political and social harmony.
