From The Founding Fathers & the Classics.

by Dr. Joe Wolverton II

As the Founders read the histories of the rise and fall of the Greek and Roman republics recorded by Herodotus, Livy, Tacitus, Sallust, Plutarch, Polybius and others, they learned that the liberties enjoyed by the citizens of those commonwealths were quite often targeted by conspiracies of men determined to enslave the people an establish themselves as tyrants. The Founders recognizes that the conspiratorial view of history was not a theory–it was a fact.

Ancient historians were straightforward in their eports of the secret plots. Surveying the library of British monarchial abuses, our Founders rightly perceived that the shrouded hand of evil conspiracy was at work in America and England. Just as it had been in the Roman republic they so admired. Famed patriot Charles Carroll of Carrollton invoked the record of Roman historian Tacitus when he wrote that the conspiracy of this own time had led America and England to “that degree of liberty and servitude which Galba ascribes to the Roman people in the speech to Piso; those same Romans, a few years after that period, deified the horse of Caligula.”

The equally eminent and historically minded John Adams also applied analogies from the Roman republic to the increasingly open threat to the foundations of English liberty by corrupt legislators. The government of England, he said, “quoting Roman historian Sallust), had descended to the level where “the Roman republic was when Jugurtha left it, and pronounced it a ‘venal city, ripe for destruction if it can only find a purchaser.’” SSallust was a valuable and oft-cited source of warnings in the consquences of government corruption and intrigue.

Our Founders heeded these warnings about power elites who used corruption, intrigue, and personal immorality to neutralize public concern and dampen zeal for the protection of liberty. From the 18th to the 21st century, ti would seem, times have changed very little.

James Madison insightfully noted that most of the tyrants of history masqueraded as democrats, and over time, revealed themselves to be power hungry dictators and shameless demagogues. Alexander Hamilton, an astute student of classical history, devoted his first contribution to the Federalist Papers to a writing against tyrants of “men who have over-turned the liberties of republics, commencing as demagoguges and ending as tyrants.”

From such statements, it is evidence that Adams, Madison, Hamilton and other Founders understood that, throughout the history of the Greek and Roman republics, tyrants were more likely than not to begin their political careers as populists and democrats and end them as despots. Such demagogues were men of prominence who used their popular support to force their will upon an unsuspecting and trusting populace. As greek historian Thucydides remarked, “You may rule over anyone whom you can dominate.”

Madison’s study of the ancient Greek confederacies revealed to him that almost every one of these republics came to an end as a result of conspiracy among domestic demagogues and foreign allies. Hamilton called these insiduous cabals the “Grecian Horse to a republic.” Both men worried that the same scheme would eventually destroy the American union. This fear, coupled with a thorough understanding of history, made the Founders vigilant guardians against the rise of such combinations in their own nascent republic.

Madison, James Wilson and others, who systematically studied the ancient republics and confederacies, noted that conspiracies were rampant among them. Those who were successful in carrying out such evil designs would expose and vehemently rail against similar acts on the part of others, thus painting themselves as guardians of liberty. The source of all this evil was an unquenchable thirst for power. Power was the end, and conspiracy was the means commonly used to satisfy the rapeicious appetitie for domination.

From Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War, Jefferson, Adams, Dickinson, Madison, Hamilton and other diligent patriot-scholars, learned of a particularly permicious deception practiced by tyrannically minded conspirators. These instigators would place their fellow cinspirators in leadership positions on both sides of a controversy, constantly inciting the “opposing” factions against one another until the innocent citizens didn’t know what to believe. Our American republic in the 21st century is little different, as Democrats and Republicans adamantly “oppose” on another, while between their rival policies lurks not a dime’s worth of difference.

A companion of evil to the conspiracies that contaminated and eventually annihilated the ancident commonwealths was the gradual erosion of liberty by seemingly harmless and legal acts. In Demosthenes’ writings, the Founders read of how Philip of Macedon–by slow and nearly imperceptible means–dismantled Athenian freedom. Philip was an enemy even to those who fancied themselves his allies. He used “legal” means to subvert the constitution and rob Athens of her liberty. His favorite tactic was to create frivolous diversions and provide luxuries to lull the Athenians into a false sense of security and distract them from noticing Philip’s usurpations.

Unfortunatley, Philip succeeded in gaining control of Athens and in making her formerly freedom-loving citizens slaves to his will. Jefferson described such gradual and planned usurpations this way:

“Single acts of tyranny may be ascribed to the accidental opinion of the day, but a series of oppressions, began at a distinguished period and pursued unalterably through every change of ministers, too plainly prove a deliberate and systematical plan of reducing us to slavery.”

Will we prove wiser and more zealous protectors of our sacred liberties?

One of the best ways of demonstrating our respect for our Founding Fathers, and our dedication to the principles of liberty they bequeathed to us, is to study the books they studied. By doing so, we will come to appreciate, as they did, that republics are as fragile as they are glorious. We will also more fully recognize that unassailable personal virtue and vigilant loyalty to constitutional principles are the only hope for perpetuation of the freedom that our forebears bought with their blood. May we learn from successes and failures of the ancients and not allow the “lamp of experience” to be extinguished in our lives.