Republic, Democracy, and Monarchy

Miranda Jeyaretnam notes that the Founding Fathers were opposed to establishing a monarchy . She provide two quotes from John Adams, who in 1814 who warned that a democracy tends to devolve into a lesser form of government:

There never was a democracy yet, that did not commit suicide. It is in vain to say that democracy is less vain, less proud, less selfish, less ambitious, or less avaricious than aristocracy or monarchy. (“From John Adams to John Taylor, 17 December 1814,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/99-02-02-6371.)

Adams also warned that factions within democratic government typically gives rise to a yearning for a strongman or king:

They soon cry, ‘this will not do; we have gone too far! We are all in the wrong! We are none of us safe! We must unite in some clever fellow, who can protect us all — Caesar, [Napoleon] Bonaparte, who you will! Though we distrust, hate, and abhor them all; yet we must submit to one or another of them, stand by him, cry him up to the skies, and swear that he is the greatest, best, and finest man that ever lived!’
(“From John Adams to John Taylor, 12 December 1814,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/99-02-02-6368.)

I note that the desire to serve a chief or king has existed throughout human history, as documented in 1 Samuel 8:4-9:

4 So all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah. 5 They said to him, 'You are old, and your sons do not follow your ways; now appoint a king to lead[b] us, such as all the other nations have.' 6 But when they said, 'Give us a king to lead us,' this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the Lord. 7 And the Lord told him: 'Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king. 8 As they have done from the day I brought them up out of Egypt until this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are doing to you. 9 Now listen to them; but warn them solemnly and let them know what the king who will reign over them will claim as his rights.'

-DD