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ElwoodBlues No... these guys read authors that looked at the classics. And some of them actually read the classics too. Aristotle, Plato, ... They all thought about democratic ideas and they all saw the dangers that "the few", that are better off in society, form inside a democratic system. An example that I was aware of, is again Adams who wrote too Thomas Jefferson concerning the subject of this problem he writes the following:
Our hopes however of Sudden tranquility ought not to be too Sanguine. Fanaticism and Superstition will Still be Selfish, Subtle, intriguing, and at times furious. Despotism will Still Struggle for domination; Monarchy will Still Study to rival nobility in popularity; Aristocracy will continue to envy all above it, and despize and oppress all below it; Democracy will envy all, contend with all, endeavour to pull down all; and when by chance it happens to get the Upper hand for a Short time, it will be revengefull bloody and cruel. These and other Elements of Fanaticism and Anarchy will yet for a long time continue a Fermentation, which will excite alarms and require Vigilance.
[...]
Some Parts of Some of his Dialogues are entertaining, like the Writings of Rousseau: but his Laws and his Republick from which I expected most, disappointed me most. I could Scarcely exclude the Suspicion that he intended the latter as a bitter Satyre upon all Republican Government,16 as Xenophon undoubtedly designed by his Essay on Democracy, to ridicule that Species of Republick. In a late letter to the learned and ingenious Mr Taylor of Hazelwood, I Suggested to him the Project of writing a Novel, in which The Hero Should be Sent upon his travels through Plato’s Republick, and all his Adventures, with his Observations on the principles and opinions, the Arts and Sciences, the manners Customs and habits of the Citizens Should be recorded. Nothing can be conceived more destructive of human happiness; more infallibly contrived to transform Men and Women into Brutes, Yahoos, or Dæmons than a Community of Wives and Property. Yet, in what, are the Writings of Rousseau and Helvetius wiser than those of Plato? “The Man who first fenced a Tobacco yard, and Said this is mine ought instantly to have been put to death” Says Rousseau. “The Man who first pronounced the barbarous Word ‘Dieu,’ ought to have been immediately destroyed,” Says Diderot.
In Short Philosophers antient and modern appear to me as mad as Hindoos, Mahomitans and Christians. No doubt they would all think me mad, and for any thing I know this globe may be, the bedlam, Le Bicatre of the Universe.
After all; as long as Property exists, it will accumulate in Individuals and Families, As long as Marriage exists, Knowledge, Property and Influence will accumulate in Families. Your and our equal Partition of intestate Estates, instead of preventing will in time augment the Evil, if it is one.
The French Revolutionists Saw this, and were So far consistent, When they burned Pedigrees and genealogical Trees, they annihilated, as far as they could, Marriages, knowing that Marriage, among a thousand other things was an infallible Source of Aristocracy. I repeat it, So sure as the Idea and the existence of Property is admitted and established in society, Accumulations of it will be made, the Snow ball will grow as it rolls.
- John Adams, Letter to Thomas Jefferson, 16th July 1814
SOURCE: https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/99-02-02-6321
The word "Olicharchy" might not have been in use. But the concept that wealth snowballs wasn't foreign. And Adams expresses his fears here, that the limitless expansion (or snowballing) of property, will turn people into Brutes, Yahoos, or Daemons. And that property, will create a new form of Aristocracy
(that he already saw as an issue with an oppressive nature in an earlier segment) through the institution of marriage. If you ever feel like reading the entire thing, the classics like: Plato, Cicero, Aristotle, ... are all mentioned here. The idea that wealth in the hands of the few, can be undermining for a democratic system, is not a new thing in the late 18th and early 19th century.
In other letter from 1813 Adams wrote too Jefferson:
I Should render the Greek into English thus.
Nor does a Woman disdain to be the Wife of a bad rich Man. But She prefers a Man of Property before a good Man. For Riches are honoured; and a good Man marries from a bad Family, and a bad Man from a good one. Wealth mingles all races.
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Now, my Friend, who are the αρiςτοι.? Philosophy may Answer “The Wise and Good.”But the World, Mankind, have by their practice always answered, “the rich the beautiful and well born.” And Philosophers themselves in marrying their Children prefer the rich the handsome and the well descended to the wise and good.
What chance have Talents and Virtues in competition, with Wealth and Birth? and Beauty?
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one truth is clear,; by all the World confess’d
Slow rises worth, by Poverty oppress’d.
The five Pillars of Aristocracy, are Beauty Wealth, Birth, Genius and Virtues. Any one of the three first, can at any time over bear any one or both of the two last.
Let me ask again, what a Wave of publick opinion, in favour of Birth has been Spread over the Globe, by Abraham, by Hercules, by Mahomet, by Guelphs, Ghibellines, Bourbons, and a miserable Scottish Chief Steuart? By Zingis by, by, by, a million others? And what a Wave will be Spread by Napoleon and by Washington? Their remotest Cousins will be Sought and will be proud, and will avail themselves of their descent. Call this Principle, Prejudice, Folly Ignorance, Baseness, Slavery, Stupidity, Adulation, Superstition or what you will. I will not contradict you. But the Fact, in natural, moral, political and domestic History I cannot deny or dispute or question.
And is this great Fact in the natural History of Man? This unalterable Principle of Morals, Philosophy, Policy domestic felicity, and dayly Experience from the Creation; to be overlooked, forgotten neglected, or hypocritically waived out of Sight; by a Legislator? By a professed Writer upon civil Government, and upon Constitutions of civil Government?
- John Adams, Letter to Thomas Jefferson, 2nd of September 1813
SOURCE: https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/03-06-02-0374
These people may not have the vocabulary that we have today... but there was an awarness and a discussion of those that were aware of the issues of accumulation of wealth/property brings to a system of "equals" that vote for their own leaders.
