Overview
Fisher Ames was a leading Federalist statesman and skilled orator who emerged as a key defender of the Constitution and Alexander Hamilton’s financial policies. Known for his conservative outlook, Ames opposed Jefferson’s Democratic-Republicans, distrusted democracy, and feared the radicalism of the French Revolution. His writings and speeches, including his defense of Jay’s Treaty in 1794, made him a prominent Federalist voice. He remained influential through his essays after retiring from Congress until his death in 1808.
Personal Facts
- Born: April 9, 1758, in Dedham, Massachusetts.
- Parents: Nathaniel Ames (father) and Deborah Fisher (mother).
- Spouse: Francis Worthington (1792).
- Died: July 4, 1808, in Dedham, Massachusetts. 50 years old.
- Buried: Old First Parish Cemetery, Dedham, Massachusetts.
- Part Of: Federalist Party, New Nation Era.
- Significance: Fisher Ames is important to American History for his role in supporting the ratification of the United States Constitution, defining the ideology of the Federalist Party, and criticizing the Democratic-Republican Party.
Key Details
- Fisher Ames entered Harvard at age 12.
- He started studying law in 1779 and was admitted to the Suffolk Bar in 1781.
- Ames opposed price fixing during the American Revolutionary War.
- He condemned Shays’ Rebellion.
- Ames supported ratification of the United States Constitution with essays he published under the name “Camillus.”
- He served in the U.S. House of Representatives until 1797.
- Ames supported Alexander Hamilton’s economic programs and favored trade with Great Britain.
- He gave a speech in favor of Jay’s Treaty in 1794, for which he was burned in effigy by opponents in Charleston.
- Ames supported the Alien and Sedition Acts.
- After retiring, he continued writing against the policies of Thomas Jefferson and the Democratic-Republican Party.
Biography
AHC Note — This biography of the life of Fisher Ames is adapted from Dictionary of American Biography (1943). Please note that text corrections have been made. Spacing and headings have been added to improve readability.
Early Life
Fisher Ames was a statesman and publicist. He was a descendant of William Ames, a Somersetshire yeoman who emigrated to Plymouth in 1626, and from Captain Daniel Fisher, who arrested Governor Edmund Andros in the Boston Revolt of 1689.
Ames was born in Dedham, Massachusetts, third in a family of five, to Deborah (Fisher) and Nathaniel Ames. His father was an innkeeper, astronomer, and physician. After the death of Nathaniel in 1764, the medical practice and almanac business were taken over by his eldest son, Nathaniel Ames, whose diary records political opinions diametrically opposed to those of his more gifted brother, Fisher.
Fisher Ames showed such early promise of scholarship that his mother, who managed the family tavern, had him “lined” by the age of 12 for the class of 1774. Harvard College, where he was an active member of a new debating club (the Institute of 1770), a leading scholar, and a spotless youth.
From 1774 to 1779, he lived at home, occasionally teaching in the district schools, once turning out with the militia for a short tour of duty, but for the most part reading deeply in ancient history, Latin, English classics, and Greek classics in translations.
Legal and Political Career
In 1779, he was received as a law pupil in a Boston office, and in 1781 was admitted to the Suffolk Bar. He never liked the law, but was successful as a lawyer.
Elected as delegate to the Concord convention for regulating prices (1781), he argued against the wisdom of price-fixing. As “Lucius Junius Brutus,” in the Boston Independent Chronicle on October 12, 1786, when Shays’ Rebellion was at its height, he struck a note of stern repression; his “Camillus” essays of March 1787 furthered the movement for a federal convention, and fixed his reputation as a publicist.
Philadelphia Convention and Constitution
In defending the Philadelphia Convention, he wrote, “Anarchy and government are both before us, and in our choice. If we fall, we fall by our folly, not our fate.”
In the fall of 1787, he was elected a delegate from Dedham to the Massachusetts Ratifying Convention, where he delivered a powerful speech in favor of biennial elections “as a security that the sober, second thought of the people shall be law.”
The trend of his political thought was revealed by the declaration, “We cannot live without society…The liberty of one depends not so much on the removal of all restraint from him, as on the due restraint upon the liberty of others. Without such restraint, there can be no liberty.”
Elected to U.S. Congress
By this time, Ames was now a local celebrity and a young man whom the Federalists trusted. In April 1788, he was chosen a representative of Dedham in the General Court of Massachusetts.
The following winter, he was elected to the First U.S. Congress, defeating Samuel Adams by a vote of 818 to 521. He was reelected to the Second, Third, and Fourth Congresses (1791–97) with a larger majority and a heavier total vote.
He was not a monarchist, even in the sense that John Adams was. Ames’ model was that ideal Roman republic which never existed in fact. Like Hamilton, he believed that the Federal Government was inherently weak and needed to lean on an aristocracy of talent and virtue, reach out for power, and acquire popular prestige through vigorous, energetic policy.
In Congress, he expected to find like-minded gentlemen and was dismayed at the “yawning listlessness” of many, and the adherence of some to what he considered the mischievous nonsense that the best government is that which governs least.
During the first session, he labored, and not in vain, to adjust the tariff bill to New England interests, to uphold the President’s power of removal, and to strike out discrimination in the first tonnage act between British and French vessels.
- AHC Note — This refers to the Tariff of 1789.
Ames shared the opinion of leading Boston merchants that their profitable commerce with England must not be placed in jeopardy by retaliation.
Support for Hamilton’s Financial Plan
Hamilton’s appointment to the Treasury Department provided both the leader and the vigorous impulse that Ames wanted, and he became one of the Secretary’s consistent supporters in the House, though never his close friend.
Ames had a large share in shaping important legislation. He endeavored to fix an organic connection between Congress and the executive, considering the heads of departments as a recognized ministry, “imparting a kind of momentum to the operations of the laws.” In 1795, Congress created the Ways and Means Committee, which broke the connection and led Ames to predict that “our government will be, in fact, a mere democracy, which has never been tolerable, nor long tolerated.”
As brilliant intellectually as Hamilton, Ames was wholly devoid of vanity, a most fortunate circumstance for his effectiveness in debate. Erect in stature, pleasing in voice and appearance, conciliatory in manner, he impressed the House as much by candor as by ardor, and with wealth of knowledge no less than oratorical grace. His lively imagination drew forth striking metaphors, which his good taste kept within bounds. The intellectual contempt that he felt for many of his fellow members was reserved for confidential letters, and Attic salt (a refined wit) was sprinkled through his speeches in such a way as to arouse the admiration rather than the resentment of his colleagues. His formal speeches were concise and pointed, well supplied though never overloaded with facts, and often reserved for the close of a debate when they could clear a confused issue.
Ames never openly questioned if Hamilton’s policies were intended to benefit New England at the expense of the rest of the nation. However, in a letter he wrote on November 30, 1791, he did mention the “equally unpleasant and lasting” causes of political party differences. Peace and prosperity, he hoped, would reconcile the South to the Federalist Party and the strong central government.
Jefferson considered Ames one of the “paper men” in Congress, and the Republican press denounced Ames as a speculator, financially interested in the funding system. Ames retorted that the interest on the Massachusetts members’ funds would not pay for the oats of the Southern members’ coach horses.
- AHC Note — The “funding system” refers to Hamilton’s Financial Plan, including the First Bank of the United States.
The Boston Columbian Centinel, October 22, 1794, published an article that said Ames had invested his savings in twelve shares of the Bank (of which he was a director for a short time) and in $600 worth of public funds, and had neither bought nor sold other securities.
In 1796, he sold eight of the Bank shares for $4,149.60 and used the money for East India ventures. His income was derived largely from these ventures, his law practice, and the property of his wife. He married Frances Worthington, the daughter of Colonel John Worthington of Springfield, Massachusetts, on July 15, 1792.
In the summer of 1793, Ames started to suffer from an ailment that is believed to be marasmus, or atrophy, from which he never recovered.
- AHC Note — Marasmus is a form of malnutrition that leads to muscle atrophy.
The Jay Treaty
Tensions with Great Britain in 1793–1794 led James Madison to propose resolutions to begin a commercial war. On January 2, 1794, Ames delivered a speech in opposition to Madison. He exposed the spurious (false)economics of the policy and the doubtful diplomacy of endeavoring to “quarrel ourselves into their good will,” ending with the words, “I hope we shall show, by our vote, that we deem it better policy to feed nations than to starve them, and that we shall never be so unwise as to put our good customers into a situation to be forced to make every exertion to do without us.”
In consequence of this speech, Ames was burned in effigy in Charleston, South Carolina, together with Benedict Arnold and the Devil. The more important result was that the speech made it possible for John Jay’s mission to Britain to negotiate a treaty, which was signed on November 19, 1794.
Ames went to Philadelphia in February 1796, where the U.S. House of Representatives debated whether ot not to ratify Jay’s Treaty. He remained silent until the end. Although he was weak from his illness, he summoned all his strength and rose to speak. His voice was faint and weak at first, but as he warmed to the subject, it seemed to call forth latent energies, until his physical ability equaled his mental powers.
Dr. Joseph Priestley, who was present and who had heard the great English and Irish orators, called it “the most bewitching piece of parliamentary oratory he had ever listened to…He addressed himself to every faculty of the mind, and awakened every feeling and emotion of the heart…The effect produced was absolute enchantment.” It was necessary for the treaty opponents to carry an adjournment in order to break the spell, but the next day, the House, by a majority of three, voted to execute the treaty.
Later Years
Declining reelection in 1796, Ames retired to Dedham at the end of the Washington Administration. The only office he held subsequently was a seat on the governor’s council in 1799–1801.
In 1805, the Harvard Corporation broke the clerical tradition of the Harvard presidency by electing him to that office, which he declined on the grounds of his feeble health and “advancing age” of 47.
“Squire” Ames was known as a cheerful neighbor, easy of access, and interested in town affairs. A liberal in religion, he joined the local Episcopal Church, partly to escape the theological contentions in the Congregational Church, partly because ritual meant good order.
His estate, with a model piggery (pig farm), dairy, and orchard, was constantly improved; his house was a center of hospitality and good conversation. Popular rumor made Ames a member of the Essex Junto; George Cabot and Christopher Gore were his closest friends, but henceforth his political role was largely that of a sage (wise person).
- AHC Note — The Essex Junto was a group of New England Federalists.
Crisis with France During the Adams Administration
Ames shared John Adams’ view of the French Revolution and the poisonous effect of Gallomania (obsession with France and French culture) on American politics. Hence, he hailed the dispute of 1797–98 with France as an occasion to purify the country of “Jacobinism,” and strengthen the Federal Government by a bold and spirited policy.
Although in 1794 he would have dealt with “self-created societies” by “the gentle power of opinion,” in 1798, he highly approved the Sedition Act and was instrumental in the prosecution of David Brown for erecting a Liberty Pole at Dedham with a “seditious” inscription.
The President’s peace mission of 1799 disappointed him, but he refused to be drawn into the intrigue against the reelection of Adams.
- AHC Note — This peace commission led to the Convention of 1800, which restored peace with France.
Jefferson Presidency
After Jefferson’s election, Ames became consumed by the catastrophic theory of democracy, which was common to other New England leaders, and to Federalists elsewhere such as Carroll, Hamilton, Morris, and Rutledge. Since the “wise and good and opulent” had lost power to jealous, ignorant, and enthusiastic democracy, the Republic must sink into anarchy, from which military despotism would emerge.
In 1802, Ames wrote a letter and argued that the Federalists needed to maintain control of the New England states, saying, “The Federalists must entrench themselves in the State governments, and endeavor to make State justice and State power a shelter of the wise, and good, and rich, from the wild destroying rage of the Southern Jacobins.”
Ames devised no constitutional doctrine of States’ Rights and rejected Timothy Pickering’s secession proposals of 1804.
However, his writings did much to build up a sectional consciousness which almost became New England nationalism. That the British navy was the only remaining barrier against French conscription of American boys for Santo Domingo (Haiti) was roundly asserted in his last essay, “The Dangerous Power of France.”
Death and Legacy
Ames died at Dedham on July 4, 1808, too soon to witness the revival of Federalism after Jefferson’s embargo acts. His imposing funeral in Boston was a political demonstration, and his works were promptly published as a political testament.
- AHC Note — See Maritime Causes of the War of 1812 for the causes and effects of Jefferson’s embargo acts.
After his death, his friends published his essay “The Dangers of American Liberty,” which he wrote in 1805. In this, he criticized democracy, saying:
- “It is the almost universal mistake of our countrymen, that democracy would be mild and safe in America.”
- “The most ferocious of animals when his passions are roused to fury and uncontrolled, is man; and of all governments, the worst is that which never fails to excite, but was never found to restrain those passions, that is, democracy. It is an illuminated hell…”
Fisher Ames stands out from other New England Federalists as a man of singularly pure and unselfish character, humble in spite of his great talents, zealous and active through his chronic illness. As an orator, he had no equal in the generation between Patrick Henry and Henry Clay. In the formative period of the Federal Government, he had a strong and wholesome influence, but his very virtues were a bane to New England. An intellect enriched but not disciplined by scholarship, accepted from the legacy of Rome and Greece, was only a political formula, invalid for American society.
