Fisher Ames Quotes

Fisher Ames was a Representative in the United States Congress from the 1st Congressional District of Massachusetts. He was an important leader of the Federalist Party in the House, and was noted for his oratorical skill. Wikipedia  

✵ 9. April 1758 – 4. July 1808
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Fisher Ames: 12   quotes 0   likes

Famous Fisher Ames Quotes

“I consider biennial elections as a security that the sober, second thought of the people shall be law.”

Speech on Biennial Elections before the Convention of Massachusetts (January 1788), reported in Seth Ames, John Thornton Kirkland, Works of Fisher Ames with a Selection from His Speeches and Correspondence (1854) p. 7.

“The gentleman puts me in mind of an old hen which persists in setting after her eggs are taken away.”

Reported in Memoirs of Theophilus Parsons (1859). Ames is reported to have said this while opposing Parsons as counsel in a legal case.

“It was said by Fisher Ames that “falsehood proceeds from Maine to Georgia, while truth is pulling on his boots.””

Niles' Weekly Register (7 May 1831) 40:163 http://books.google.com/books?id=jhEbAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA163&dq=%22falsehood+proceeds+from+Maine+to+Georgia%22
Attributed

Fisher Ames Quotes

“The rights of conscience, of bearing arms, of changing the government, are declared to be inherent in the people. Freedom of the press, too.”

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.

“The known propensity of a democracy is to licentiousness, which the ambitious call, and the ignorant believe to be, liberty.”

The Dangers of American Liberty (1805), in [Ames, Fisher, and Seth Ames, Works of Fisher Ames: with a selection from his speeches and correspondence, 1854, Little, Brown, 349, Boston, http://books.google.com/books?id=fjoOAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA349&vq=known+propensity]

“But differ greatly in the sequel.”

--Fisher Ames, when confronted with the declaration that all men are created equal
Attributed

“Liberty has never yet lasted long in a democracy; nor has it ever ended in any thing better than despotism.”

American Literature (1805), in [Ames, Fisher, and Seth Ames, Works of Fisher Ames: with a selection from his speeches and correspondence, 1854, Little, Brown, 441, Boston, https://books.google.com/books?id=fjoOAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA441#v=onepage]

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