"By appealing to the people...elite families and factions were not trying to create [democracy]; they were simply using whatever weapons they had at their disposal...to get at their opponents. All of their appeals to the people were merely tactical devices for gaining office...Those who opposed these measures were labeled 'enemies of the people.'

"Democracy in America thus began not as the result of the people arousing themselves spontaneously and clamoring from below... Instead, democracy was initially created from above. The people were cajoled, persuaded, even sometimes frightened into getting involved."

-The Idea of America, Gordon S. Wood 196-7 (2011)