It is in vain to say that democracy is less vain, less selfish or less avaricious than aristocracy or monarchy. It is not true and nowhere appears in history. Those passions are the same in all men, under all forms of simple Government. When unchecked, they produce the same effects of fraud and cruelty. When clear prospects are opened before vanity, avarice, or ambition, for their easy gratification, it is hard for the most considerate philosophers and the most conscientious moralists to resist the temptation.    John Adams Second US President