Bradford reporter. [volume] (Towanda, Pa.) 1844-1884, 1860-03-15

! iol OOoA slA, ChaPteF seven, OF Dis History
of Rome, volume two, page 522
" From the earliest times of Rome II had
been the custom of the Romans, when thev
subdued any Of the nations in Haiy, to deprive
them of part of their territory. A portion
of these lands was sold, and the rest given to
the poorer citizens on conditions, says Ap-
Plaa, of their paying annually a tenth of the
corn and a fifth of the fruits of trees, besides
a number of great and small cattle. In pro-
cess of time, the rich by various means, got
possession of the lands destined for the subsis
tence Of the poor"
"The rich and the mighty contrived to pos.
sess themselves of the lands of their poor
neighbors. At first they held these acquisi-
tions under borrowed names afterwards OPEN
| y in their own. To cultivate the farms they
/ employed foreign slaves so that Holy was 10
! danger Of losing its inhabitants of free condi-
| ton, (who had no encouragement to marry,
no means TO educate children and of being
Overrun with slaves and barbarians, that had
neither affection for the Republic nor interest
in her preservation.
TJ5srius GraccAus, now Tribune of the
people, undertook to remedy these disorders
d
more mild and gentle against iniquity and op-
preston yet the rich made mighty clamor
/ about the hardship of being stript Of their
houses their lands, their inheritances the bu
rialpaces of their ancestors" "The
poor, on the other hand, complained of the
extreme indigence to which they were reduced,
and of their inability to bring up children
They enumerated the many battles where they
| hal in n liz
withstandng which "they were allowed no
share of the public lands nay, the usurpers,
to cultivate them, chose rather to employ
foreigners and slaves than citizens of Rome
GraCckuS'S view was not to make poor men
rich, but to strengthen the Republic, by an in
crease Of useful members, upon which he
thought the safety and welfare of Italy de-
pended The inSurrection and war of the
slaves in Sicily, who were not yet quelled.
furnished him with sufficient argument for ex-
patating on the danger Of filling Italy with
slaves" = X
:" He asked the rich whether they preferred
a slave to a citizen man unqualified to
serve in war to a soldier an alien to q mem
Der Of the Republic and which they thought
would be more Jealous for its interest Then,
as to the misery of the poor: 1.-THE wild
beasts of Italy have caves and dens to shelter
them ; but the people, who expose their lives
for the defense of Haiy, are allowed nothing
but the light and air they wander up and
down with their wives and children, without
house and without habitation Our generals
mock the soldiers; when, in battle, they ex-
hort them to fight for their sepulchres and
their household gods for, amongst all that
great number of Romans, there is not one who
has either a domestic altar, or sepulcher of
his ancestors They fight and die, solely to
maintain the riches and luxury Of Others and
arc Stiled the lords Of the universe while they
have not single foot Of ground in their pos
session"
Smith, in the second volume, page 29l, of
his Greek and Roman biographical dictionary,
speaking of Tiberius Gracious and the rea-
sons for his proposed legislation, says:
" His brother Caius related, in some of his
works that Tberus, on his march to SPAIN
in (B. c. l31, as he was passing through
Etruria, observed with grief and indignation
the deserted state of that fertile country;
thousands of foreign slaves in chains were en-
ployed iR eultiyating the land and tending the
aocks Wpon the imnease estates of the wealthy,
while the poorer classes of Roman citizens,
who were thus thrown out of employment, had
scarcely their daily bread, or a clod Of earth
to call their own. He is said to have been
reused through that circumstance to exer. him
self in endcavoring to remedy this evil"
Had the policy advocated by Gracious, Of
distributing the public lands among the land
less citizens of the nation, been adopted, the
Roman fields would have been cultivated by
free men instead of slaves, and there would
have been a race Of men to stay the rayages
Of the barbarian. The eternal city would not
then have fallen an easy prey to the Goth and
Nandal but the star of her empire might
have waved in triumph long after the ivy
twined her broken columns.
With homes and freSidcS 20 defend, the
arms and hearts of an independent yeomanry
are a Surer and more impregnable defense than
battlement wall, OF tower. While the popu-
laton of a country are the proprietorS of the
land which they TILL they have an interest to
surround their fresides, with comfort and
make their homes happy-the great incentive
to industry, fragality, and sobriety. 1t is
such habits alone that give security to govern
ment and form the real elements OF national
greatness and power. .....
National disasters are not the growth of
day, bat the fruit of long years of injustice
and wrong. The seeds planted by false, per-
nicious legislation, often require ages to germ.
mate aud ripen into their harvests Of ruin and
death. The most perncious Of all the baleful
seeds Of national existence, is policy that de-
rdages It's labor. Whenever agricultural la.
Dor becomes dshOnorable, it will, of course,
be confined to those who have no interest in
the soil they till and when the Iaborer ceases
to have any interest in the land he cultivates,
he ceases to have stake in the advancement
and good order of society, for he has nothing