The Founding Fathers held classical Greek philosophers like Plato and Aristotle in high esteem. The same admiration was earned by Roman thinkers, who offered the Founders comprehensive articulations of the attributes of republican citizens, including a love of liberty, a dislike of tyranny, and a commitment to civic virtue. Although the list is long, no other Roman author and statesman influenced the American Founders more than Marcus Tullius Cicero.
Cicero and the Founding Fathers
Unlike the first democratic Greek city-states, the Roman Republic was a relatively stable government. Cicero played a large role in establishing its legal and political customs. His legal victories, which made him famous, helped to enforce the rule of law against corrupt officials, solidifying its importance in the Republic’s constitution.Almost every Founding Father admired the successful orator. Speaking of the Roman, John Adams maintained that “as all the ages of the world have not produced a greater statesman and philosopher united in the same character, his authority should have great weight.”
Alexander Hamilton wrote a series of pamphlets to condemn the Whiskey Rebellion of 1791 to 1794, during which American farmers from the western frontier protested the first tax imposed on a domestic product by the new federal government. He chose “Tully” as his pseudonym, which he derived from Cicero’s full name.
A portrait of Alexander Hamilton, 1806, by John Trumbull. Hamilton, with help from John Jay and James Madison, published “The Federalist Papers,” a series of essays written to defend and promote the proposed U.S. Constitution. Public Domain
And there were others. Samuel Adams, who condemned standing armies, wrote pamphlets under the pseudonym “cedant armae togae” (“let the arms yield to the toga”), a famous phrase from Cicero’s “On Duties.” In an oration about the Boston Massacre, Joseph Warren wore a Roman-like toga as an homage to the orator. Thomas Jefferson called Cicero “the father of eloquence and philosophy,” and John Quincy Adams wrote in his diary that “to live without having a Cicero and a Tacitus at hand seems to me as if it was a privation of one of my limbs.” The list goes on.
But why did the Founders love Cicero? These three ideas help explain their reasons.
Natural Law
Cicero believed that a divinely derived “natural law” binds humanity in a common spirit. This spirit seeks wisdom and knowledge, approachable through reason, a faculty everyone possesses. Heeding reason allows people to attain moral excellence and assess the merit of man-made laws, which should always be subordinate to the natural law. As Professor Timothy Caspar put it, “it is only through obedience to the natural law that an individual or a political community may become civilized and come to possess the character appropriate to freedom and republican self-government.”This insight was taken up by the Founding Fathers, who had become vexed by King George III and the British Parliament’s attempts to gain political and military glory at the colonists’ expense. Their draconian rule prompted the framers of the Declaration of Independence to condemn the King as “totally unworthy” of being the “Head of a civilized nation” for his violations of “the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God.” Their statement resembled Cicero’s belief in a natural law that trumps the will of the stronger, the dominant, or the sovereign. It remains one of the most defining assertions of rights in modern history.
The Republic
From this conception of natural law, Cicero derived the notion of the “res publica,” from which we get “republic” or, as the Founders were fond of saying, “commonwealth.” As the Roman wrote in “On the Republic,” a republic is “a body of free persons, united together for common benefit, to enjoy peaceably what is their own, and to do justice to others.” This body of free persons needs a legal system to organize its internal dynamics. One purpose of that system is to protect their rights to protest against it, should it trample on the natural law that binds them.
The U.S. Declaration of Independence is on display at Sotheby's in New York on June 25, 2024. Angela Weiss /AFP via Getty Images
Cicero’s definition was quoted verbatim by James Wilson, one of the six Founders who signed both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. It was also adapted by John Adams in his “Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States,” which defines a republic as “a government, in which the property of the public, or people, and of every one of them, was secured and protected by law.” Adams noted that a republic implies liberty, not least because it presupposes that citizens be able to manage private property as they see fit.
Private Property
Cicero was one of the first thinkers to posit the preservation of property as a core motivation behind the formation of political communities. He wrote that “the men who administer public affairs must first of all see that everyone holds on to what is his, and that private men are never deprived of their goods by public acts.” In other words, the state is meant to ensure citizens hold on to their property.The Founders embraced this idea. As James Madison wrote, “That is not a just government, nor is property secure under it, where the property which a man has in his personal safety and personal liberty is violated by arbitrary seizures.”
George Mason’s Virginia Declaration of Rights stated something similar: “All men have certain inherent natural rights of which they cannot, by any compact, deprive or divest their posterity, among which are the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety.” One month after its publication, the Declaration of Independence was drafted. Although it omitted “property” and “safety,” the same meaning was implied: To pursue happiness, citizens must be given the opportunity to obtain property, without which their independence is impossible. Cicero would have agreed.
The Importance of a Classical Education
The Founders’ appreciation for Greco-Roman philosophy partly resulted from an education system that valued classical studies. As historian Carl J. Richards noted, “The Founders’ classical training frequently began around age eight.” Schools focused on Latin and Greek, which were mandatory subjects in the entrance exams of every American college in the 18th century. Cicero was among the authors students were expected to know.
A classical education primarily uses foundational books to teach children. Debby Hudson/Unsplash
A thorough knowledge of the past wasn’t only recommended but was expected of anyone who wanted to become a public servant. The exposure to world-defining classical figures at a young age eventually enabled people like Adams, Jefferson, and Alexander Hamilton to rise to prominence.
As their contributions show us, classics and philosophy aren’t merely abstract disciplines. They can help us identify the origin of ideas and assess their merits. When the tides of history call for decisive action, ideas can have powerful consequences, as the American Founders knew well.
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