or of our own country, "was
rightfully killed for conspiring against his country; but it was not he
that destroyed the liberties of Rome. That work was done by the
profligate politicians without him, and before his time; and his death
did not restore the republic. There were no more elections: rotten
politicians had destroyed them; and the nephew of Caesar, as heir to his
uncle, succeeded to the empire on the principle of hereditary
succession."

"And here History appears in her grand and instructive character, as
Philosophy teaching by example: and let us not be senseless to her
warning voice. Superficial readers believe it was the military men who
destroyed the Roman republic! No such thing! It was the politicians who
did it!--factious, corrupt, intriguing politicians--destroying public
virtue in their mad pursuit after office--destroying their rivals by
crime--deceiving and debauching the people for votes--and bringing
elections into contempt by the frauds and violence with which they were
conducted. From the time of the Gracchi there were no elections that
could bear the name. Confederate and rotten politicians bought and sold
the consulship. Intrigue and the dagger disposed of rivals. Fraud,
violence, bribes, terror, and the plunder of the public treasury
commanded votes. The people had no choice; and long before the time of
Caesar, nothing remained of republican government but the name and the
abuse. Read Plutarch. In the 'Life of Caesar,' and not three pages before
the crossing of the Rubicon, he paints the ruined state of the
elections,--shows that all elective government was gone,--that the
hereditary form had become a necessary relief from the contests of the
corrupt,--and that in choosing between Pompey and Caesar, many preferred
Pompey, not because they thought him republican, but because they
thought he would make the milder king. Even arms were but a small part
of Caesar's reliance, when he crossed the Rubicon. Gold, still more than
the sword, was his dependence; and he sent forward the accumulated
treasures of plundered Gaul, to be poured into the laps of rotten
politicians. There was no longer a popular government; and in taking all
power himself, he only took advantage of the state of things which
profligate politicians had produced. In this he was culpable, and paid
the forfeit with his life. But in contemplating his fate, let us never
forget that the politicians had undermined and destroyed the republ