New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1857-03-18

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,,...;~e AID putilsted CensthutsoD, though be FOO
IA And 6sssered Octavns. Neither Of tie fao-
s.n, had Any definite or settled plans, beyond the
maintenance Of Themselves 10 power Cicero, in
letter 10 Brutus says: "Of all the civil war; tia.
"have been in my memory there was not one IN
which, Whatsoever sde got the better, there would
rot have remained some form Of common
wealth; yet 10 this, what sort Of republic We are
like 10 have, even if We conquer, cannot say;
Though il We are conquered we ere quite sure 10
"have none" II Wa general fight in the dark,
and Cicero more dsinterested perhaps, than any OF
tie rest-cer.sinly the mos. experienced-was yet
altogether lacking in sagscity, judgment and
courage.
His pet among all the ambitious leaders, We have
said, wss Octsvius, the worst Of the batch.
Antony was reckless, but open; Brutus wu suriy
ard morose, but be was straightforward; while
Ociasius, no Tess sraspiDg than any Of the Others,
was more subtle, and BY position and Inheritance
the most dangerous to the cause Cicero had es-
poured. Yet up almost to the very last moment,
Cicero hesped him with favors and forwarded his
plans. "Ahr replies enc critic, he was such
"hypocrite that he deceived Cicero" DID he
That shows badly for the gscy of the greatest Of
the Romans" Octavius was young chap eighteen
years of sge, just out OF school; Cicero, a
veteran sta:esrnen of about sxty-tSo, who had
been all bis life among men. Is it true, how
IA n.sor Id h.s
The frst thing he did, On landing in Italy, was
to assume the name of Cesar and to send word to
Cicero that be should come forward as his uncles
heir. Whenever he appeared in public, be used
Casar's state chair. His speech in the forum
dwelt almost exclusively on his uncle's services,
"whose greatness" he said, "he hoped to arrive
at" his personal advisers were the known follow.
ers of Caesars policy. He many times expressed a
wish to svtDge bis uncles murder; and, as we see
the events now, we cannot conceive how any one,
less blind than mole, could have failed 10 penetrate
the whole drift Of bis conduct, which was to get
rid of Antony by joining the aristOcrats, and then
70 revive the power Of Casar in bis own person.
Brutus did not mistake bis purposes, and wrote
vehement letter to Cicero against him. yet Ciceros
;Dfatuation was proof against all advice. lie did
no, discover hu error till octavus openly joined
Antony and Lepidus; arc then, instead of meet
ing them o. man and hero, staining with his
blood the forum which had so often rupg with bis
fed
But even in fight his fatal indecison betrayed
him; be was taken, when he might just as easily
have escaped; and he died, martyr not to Liberty,
but to the personal revenge Of AntOny-whose assas-
sination he had often counseled-or rather of Anto
ny wife, Fulvia, whom be had offended. His match
lees powers, his beautiful writings, and the amiab
lty Of his private character, in spite Of his incur
able want of will, touch us with profound sym
patty for bis fate; but he can be enrolled on the
of the martyre 10 Liberty only by tho
strongest abuse of words. Had Mr.. Sumner been
killed, he would have died in his place, in the
of bis duty, and for the sake Of grand
principle; but Cicero was not in his Place, and
the most that he had contenied for was the
restoration Of a very bad Constitution, and Of
privileged order, whose fame was stained with
the foulest membranes.
II is scarcely fair, in the Boston print, to rep
resent Us a. wishing to blaeken the fame of good
republican; We sought merely to vndicate the
truth of h.tory. Cicero was not republican, in
our sense of the word-he was an arstocra.; be
acted with the aristocrats, when he dared act de-
esively; he may have thought himself right 10 his
cause, but it was poor cause; and we advise HE
champions, in the neighborhood of Bunker Hill,
when they want "an enthusiasm for Liberty, not
to recur 70 "his sehoolaught notions, but to the
purer and better sources immortalzed by their own
monument. At any rate, don't be imposed upon by
names, nor imagine that brilliant rhetoric IS al
ways accompanied BY profound wisdom and man.
y heart