Ames, Fisher (1758–1808)

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AMES, FISHER (1758–1808)

An extreme Federalist, Fisher Ames published his "Camillus" essays to promote the idea of the constitutional convention of 1787. The French Revolution inspired his suspicion of democracy—"only the dismal passport to a more dismal hereafter"—and led him to call for a government run by an "aristocracy of talent." Ames also opposed the bill of rights as unnecessary and unwise. Representing Massachusetts in Congress from 1789 to 1797, he vigorously defended jay ' streaty and the alien and sedition acts, but, by 1802, his radical partisanship left him an embittered states ' rights advocate.

David Gordon
(1986)