Quote#Politics & Power
The rights of conscience, of bearing arms, of changing the…
Quote byFisher Ames · 1758–1808
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Letter to George Richards Minot (June 12, 1789), reported in Fisher Ames, Seth Ames, John Thornton Kirkland, Works of Fisher Ames: With a Selection from His Speeches and Correspondence (1854), p. 54..
English (original)
The rights of conscience, of bearing arms, of changing the government, are declared to be inherent in the people. Freedom of the press, too.
— Fisher Ames
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The known propensity of a democracy is to licentiousness, which the ambitious call, and the ignorant believe to be, liberty.
I consider biennial elections as a security that the sober, second thought of the people shall be law.
The gentleman puts me in mind of an old hen which persists in setting after her eggs are taken away.
[The framers of the Constitution] “intended our government should be a republic, which differs more widely from a democracy than a democracy from a despotism.”
The House is composed of very good men, not shining, but honest and reasonably well-informed, and in time they will be found to improve, and not to be much inferior in eloquence, science, and dignity, to the British Commons. They are …
Liberty has never yet lasted long in a democracy; nor has it ever ended in any thing better than despotism.