The Nature of Democracy

The Nature of Democracy “To act with entire honesty and self-respect, one should always live in a pure atmosphere, and the atmosphere of politics is impure”(Adams, 44). And with such words, the essence of Democracy by Henry Adams, is captured through the words of character Senator Silas Ratcliffe. For Ratcliffe, democracy represents a political playground that excludes human emotion and morals, and abides by Machiavelli’s notion of the end justifying the means. Democracy is …

…offer for appointment and moves to Mexico. Madeline and her sister likewise have enough of this charade and are happy to return to their life of “paupers and her prisons, her schools and her hospitals” (175). Yet despite all the corruption, Madeline realizes that although “democracy has shaken my nerves to pieces,” it still is an institution that will exist and be perpetually refined, the only hope is that men of higher morals will refine it.