"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"
About this Quote
Ames doesn’t argue against democracy with spreadsheets; he paints it as geology: beautiful on the surface, doomed by the pressure it generates below. The volcano image is a political mood in miniature - an early American elite’s fear that popular rule isn’t just messy, it’s chemically unstable. “Conceals” is doing a lot of work here. The danger isn’t an invading army or a bad king; it’s internal, latent, self-made. Democracy, in this framing, carries its saboteur in the womb.
The intent is cautionary, but also strategic. Ames, a Federalist, is writing in a moment when the new republic is still improvising its guardrails: parties forming, mass politics accelerating, the French Revolution turning “the people” into a spectacle of both emancipation and bloodletting. His metaphor smuggles in a theory of human nature: crowds are combustible, passions are fuel, and leaders who flatter the majority are irresponsible engineers poking at magma.
Subtext: democracy’s promise of self-rule contains a temptation toward short-term gratification and moral certainty, and that temptation can override institutions designed to slow things down. “Fiery materials” suggests not just anger but ideology - purity politics, scapegoating, the thrill of direct vengeance - the kind of heat that can melt procedural norms. “Desolation” is the endpoint that makes the warning feel less like a debate and more like an omen.
Why it works rhetorically is its inevitability. Volcanoes don’t need villains. They just erupt. Ames is trying to make democratic instability feel natural, not political - which is precisely how you win an argument for restraint, elite mediation, and stronger checks without having to say “less democracy” out loud.
The intent is cautionary, but also strategic. Ames, a Federalist, is writing in a moment when the new republic is still improvising its guardrails: parties forming, mass politics accelerating, the French Revolution turning “the people” into a spectacle of both emancipation and bloodletting. His metaphor smuggles in a theory of human nature: crowds are combustible, passions are fuel, and leaders who flatter the majority are irresponsible engineers poking at magma.
Subtext: democracy’s promise of self-rule contains a temptation toward short-term gratification and moral certainty, and that temptation can override institutions designed to slow things down. “Fiery materials” suggests not just anger but ideology - purity politics, scapegoating, the thrill of direct vengeance - the kind of heat that can melt procedural norms. “Desolation” is the endpoint that makes the warning feel less like a debate and more like an omen.
Why it works rhetorically is its inevitability. Volcanoes don’t need villains. They just erupt. Ames is trying to make democratic instability feel natural, not political - which is precisely how you win an argument for restraint, elite mediation, and stronger checks without having to say “less democracy” out loud.
Quote Details
| Topic | Wisdom |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
More Quotes by Fisher
Add to List
