Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1848-01-21

siderable or memorable instances-that oc om1
which we barely touched and those of Cartl,ar
= and Athens, which seemed worthy of n NOR
special attention. All three were: during th
better part of their public fortunes, common
Wcaits and present, therefore, apter lustra
IONS Tor us oil the benefits which not rulers q
leaders, but the governed, and not tho. great bu
'hc small. can draw from martial enterprises
whether such as are 10 shed historic splcndol
upon lew great names, or pour upon body Of
commissioned arstocrats the golden spoil of n
ravaged kingdom or paged province.
Nothing is better known than that. amo,o ,lo
Romans, the oppression, the wrctchedness' and
al last the degradation, the corruption. and the
lnsolencc oil tie inferior orders grew in propor.
t'oh 10 the grandeur ofthe empire Early after the
expulsion OF their kings began those incessant
wars upon their neighbors by which the wealth
pride, and dominion of the State or rather of
the patrcan cdr, who legsla,cd in peace and
commanded in ;frcld,vere carried so far. while
the people, constantly called out to fill the ranks,
lelt their families in indigencc, and became lit
tic less than the slaves of the mobiles, who. lend
ing them money at eyorhitant interest, seized on
their persons or stripped them of the part of con-
qucred lands assigned to them. BY and by, at
such distributions, they diverted from the peo-
pie, and even from the soldiery who had con-
!
lessly wrested from some unhappy neighbor on
whom they had fallen. Hence ncessant tu.
mults and sedtions, especially such as had for
their object the passage of so-called " Agrarian
Laws which were, in reality, not laws for the
equal division of all lands-not vote-voursclf
alarm y notions-but only Legitimate efforts to
recover by law for the people their fair proper
ton in each distribution Of conquered Chat is,
annexed) territory. All this was, however, foil.
ed by the superior policy and steadness of the
iew-the rich, the mobiles; until, at last left
powerless amidst the wide military strength
founded originally in their blood, the people of
Rome lost every thing but the right of voting
Tor Consuls their one-year Presdents( or rails
ing mobs; and, sinking lower and lower as their
empire became vaslcr and vaser, saw the VIC
torious army of CHINA and Marius or Sylla
poured upon their city. to bathe>t in the blood
of alternate prescriptions or beheld d Clodius
spread terror through their streets with armed
bands of gladators and slaves or witnessed the
almost successful conspiracy of Catiline to
give Rome to pillage and to flame embraced
with delight the usarpation of Julius Caesar =
drove out the patriot Brutus who had struck
down the self-lnade dictator-tor-te and becom-
ing, under the Emperors, bcggars well as
slaves, sought nothing of the tyrants whom the
PrTtorian guards made or unmade at will and
for largesses, but "panem a circenSes," gifts of
bread and public shows. Such was the popular
happiness and greatness under that conquering
Roman Republic whose name and example are
the main ones now held up by the Conquest Par
ty to allure our people to their own enslavenlent
in that of other nations.
But why do they not tell us of Carthage which,
guided by commercial rather than military
spirit, long pursued, not for glory but gain, IA
| rlV ike Sha had ROT chpI Ipr
sway far and w.'e -. stretched it III 1t snap
ped. Meantime ht'peoplc at home became the
mere subjects of Commercial Ogarchy, and
every right OF the citizen was swallowed up in
the necessity of suffering its Government to as
sumo such powers as are ever requisite to con-
tain wide, and especially ncw-Inate domnions,
in obedience. Led by the interest or the vanity
of subJugating foreign States, the Carthaginian
forgot, in those delusive passions, his jealousy OF
his own rulers. A war of aggrandizement be-
ing popular, the Government could, without pub
lic harn assume, az necessary to lis success
and as merely temporary, powers never before
permitted. These the continuation of the war
would always sanction. Perhaps it was long
and hard contested in which case Gas in ours
now pending with Mexico the Government
would ask Oike our Presidency still ampler dis
erection; and again it would be yielded, as one
| OF the necessities OF war, or even the means of
| " honorable Chat Is, successfully peace" All
| tins would be done, as mere momentarv ell
Iargcment OF the Executive authority: but it is
| never such. The powers lent to make a con-
quest must be continued, in order to retain il
and where the struggle against your invasion
! has been long and fierce, a hate of your sway,
consplraces and revots to shake it off will re-
main behind, to foil and finally to tame which
your Executive must be suffered to exercise TOR
| years absolute powers in his new dominion and
| nearly the same in his old For, when a ma
| ton has staked all that il must stake in war
| or on conquest, its usual care of its own free
dom is always set aside; so that in long wars
the spirit of constitutional freedom constantly
decays, and must at last cease altogether among
a people who are always attacking and subu-
eating somebody or other. Nothing Is more IN
evtabe than the process which we are tracing
especially when, after you have, As above,
governed a conquered country Tor years by The
arms and at the discretion of your Executive,
its spirit becomes completely broken, It's people
mere slaves then your Government to which
| you just now gave arbitrary powers and militia
ry strength to be welded against the conquered
nation, receives from them in turn arbitrary
powers to be welded against you; and as you
formerly helped your ruler TO make them slaves,
they will help him &. snake you slaves
OF Athens, which, being Il democracy, grew
ambitions of commanding armies and making
conquest from the midst OF its market place, lit
tie more need be said than TO remind our rea-
ders of 1'hucydides and plutarch the vain pro-
jects of the Peloponesan war; the gay and
grand expedition to Sicily its total defeat and
destruction; the siege, the plague, and finally
the capture of Athens and the demolition of heI
walls by lysander. Such was the price which
she paid for attempted EMPIRE for which, in
deed, by the most obvious reasons, free and es-
pecially popular Governments are, of all others
the most unfit. II is armies that must make
couquess; and, where large armies are con-
tinually employed, the Government itself must
become military.
So much for antiquity; let us now survey
modern times
We need not mention Aaric, Gcnscric, Atti-
/ ly, nor any of those savage conquerors who re-
yenged upon Rome the destruction of so many
nations, the blood OF her thrice-threc- hundred
triumphs." These wild invasons lett empty
the lands from which they went FORTH and car
ried dcsolaton and slavery to those upon which
they were directed. They all, however, served
/ Gas conquests must ever do) to make more des-
potic the kings who conducted them. Next
rising up amongst one of the races of the world
the most indomtabc TO arbitrary power-tho
Arabans-comes the conquering Mahommed
and his successors. They overran vast regions
and established despotsms, religious and civil
every where What is left of them Arabia
has shrunk back again into poverty, barbarism
lar. a.. 4 "a. 1.