For Edmund Randolph, the evils from which the new country was suffering had originated in the “turbulence and follies of democracy.” Regularly, Elbridge Gerry spoke of democracy as “the worst of all political evils,” and Roger Sherman hoped that “the people . . . have as little to do as may be about the government.” Hamilton, charging that the “turbulent and changing” masses “seldom judge or determine right,” fervently sought a permanent authority to “check the imprudence of democracy.” For Hamilton, the American People represented a “great beast.”
George Washington (remember him?) soberly urged the delegates not to produce any document, merely “to please the people.”
Today, as America prepares to vote again in November, we neglect that the country’s creators had displayed an immutable distrust of democratic governance. With literally no more than a half-dozen exceptions, the men of the Philadelphia Convention were scions of wealth and privilege. For them, any expectations of serious thought by the general population would have been simply unfathomable.
Source: America Becomes What Its Founders Feared | The National Interest
