Page:John Adams - A Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America Vol. I. (1787).djvu/139

In Rome, from the time of Romulus to Julius Cæſar, the commons were growing by degrees into power, gaining ground upon the patricians, inch by inch, until at laſt they quite overturned the balance, leaving all doors open to popular and ambitious men, who deſtroyed the wiſeſt republic, and enſlaved the nobleſt people, that ever entered on the ſtage of the world. Polybius tells us, that in the ſecond punic war, the Carthaginians were declining, becauſe the balance was got too much on the ſide of the people; whereas the Romans were in their greateſt vigour, by the power remaining in the ſenate. The ambition of private men did by no means begin, or occaſion the war, between Pompey and Cæſar, though civil diſſentions never fail to introduce and ſpirit the ambition of private men; for while the balance of power is equally held, the ambition of private men, whether orators or commanders, gives neither danger nor fear, nor can poſſibly enſlave their country; but that once broken, the divided parties are forced to unite each to its head, under whoſe conduct or fortune one ſide is at firſt victorious, and at laſt both are ſlaves. And to put it paſt diſpute, that the entire ſubverſion of Roman liberty was altogether owing to thoſe meaſures, which had broke the balance between the patricians and plebeians, whereof the ambition of private men was but the effect and conſequence; we need only conſider, that when the uncorrupted part of the ſenate, by the death of Cæſar, had made one great effort to reſtore their liberty, the ſucceſs did notanſwer their hopes; but that whole aſſembly was ſo funk in ſts authority, that theſe patriots were obliged to fly, and give way to the madneſs of the people, who by their own diſpoſi-

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