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Fisher Ames

Fisher Ames Books

Former United States Representative

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“We are, heart and soul, friends to the freedom of the press...It is a precious pest, and a necessary mischief, and there would be no liberty without it.”

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Book:The influences of democracy on liberty, property and the happiness of society, considered, by an American [F. Ames], to which is prefixed, an introduction by H. Ewbank
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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.”

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Book:Works of Fisher Ames: With a Selection from His Speeches and Correspondence
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“Our liberty depends on our education, our laws, and habits . . . it is founded on morals and religion, whose authority reigns in the heart, and on the influence all these produce on public opinion before that opinion governs rulers.”

HeartLawLibertyMoralOpinionVirtueInfluenceProduceDependsHabitAuthorityRulersReignPublic OpinionMorality And ReligionMoral Virtues
Book:The influences of democracy on liberty, property, and the happiness of society, considered
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“[Why] should not the Bible regain the place it once held as a school book? Its morals are pure, its examples captivating and noble. The reverence for the Sacred Book that is thus early impressed lasts long; and probably if not impressed in infancy, never takes firm hold of the mind.”

IfsShouldMindLongBookSchoolLastsMoralSocietyExampleMoralityPureSacredNobleFirmReverenceImpressedInfancyFounding Fathers ChristianCaptivatingNot Impressed
Book:Works of Fisher Ames: With a Selection from His Speeches and Correspondence
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“I am commonly opposed to those who modestly assume the rank of champions of liberty, and make a very patriotic noise about the people. It is the stale artifice which has duped the world a thousand times, and yet, though detected, it is still successful. I love liberty as well as anybody. I am proud of it, as the true title of our people to distinction above others; but . . . I would guard it by making the laws strong enough to protect it.”

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Book:Works of Fisher Ames: Memoir, by J. T. Kirkland. Letters
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“We have a dangerous trend beginning to take place in our education. We're starting to put more and more textbooks into our schools. We've become accustomed of late of putting little books into the hands of children, containing fables and moral lessons. We're spending less time in the classroom on the Bible, which should be the principal text in our schools. The Bible states these great moral lessons better than any other man-made book.”

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Author:Fisher Ames
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“A large portion of our citizens, who will not believe, even on the evidence of facts, that any public evils exist, or are impending. They deride the apprehensions of those who foresee, that licentiousness will prove, as it ever has proved, fatal to liberty.”

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Book:Works of Fisher Ames: With a Selection from His Speeches and Correspondence
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“The House is composed of very good men, not shining, but honest and reasonably well-informed, and in time will be found to improve, and not much inferior in eloquence, science, and dignity, to the British Commons. They are patriotic enough, and I believe there are more stupid (as well as more shining) people in the latter, in proportion.”

PeopleMenBelieveWellsEnoughGovernmentFoundHouseI BelieveHonestStupidDignityShiningVery GoodBritishProportionLatterGood ManPatrioticInferiorsEloquence
Book:Works of Fisher Ames: With a Selection from His Speeches and Correspondence
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“[O]ur sages in the great [constitutional] convention... intended our government should be a republic which differs more widely from a democracy than a democracy from a despotism. The rigours of a despotism often... oppress only a few, but it is the very essence and nature of a democracy, for a faction claiming to oppress a minority, and that minority the chief owners of the property and truest lovers of their country.”

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Author:Fisher Ames
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