"Where Rome Failed With Hers" Fisher Ames, the Classics, and the Louisiana Purchase
In March of 1803, an ailing and disgruntled Fisher Ames proclaimed, "I renounce the wrangling world of politics, and devote myself in future to pigs and poultry." Once a leading voice of Federalism in the U.S. House of Representatives, Ames had doggedly promoted his party's agenda with his magisterial orations. Though his failing health forced him into early retirement in 1797, he nevertheless attempted to aid his party through a newspaper campaign that lambasted Thomas Jefferson and the Republicans. By early spring of 1803, however, Ames doubted he could halt his adversaries' unceasing political triumphs. Over the next few months, as the enervated Federalist tended to his New England farm, news of the recently acquired Louisiana territory spread throughout the inchoate republic. Worried that the Louisiana Purchase would have negative consequences, a rejuvenated Ames resumed his public opposition with remarkable fervor. In his eyes, the annexation of Louisiana placed the new republic on a path similar to that of ancient Rome. He wrote, "we now set out with our experimental project, exactly where Rome failed with hers: we now begin, where she ended." Ames was not alone in his anti Purchase sentiment. The acquisition of Louisiana raised a number of ideological and partisan concerns for the waning New England Federalists. In the halls of Congress, the former looseconstructionists decried the unconstitutionality of the purchase, fretted over the