Ideas That Formed the Constitution, Part 8: Cicero (Continued)

Ideas That Formed the Constitution, Part 8: Cicero (Continued)
1787: The painting "Signing the Constitution of the United States" by Thomas Pritchard Rossiter. Painted in 1878, it resides at Independence National Historical Park, in Philadelphia, Penn. MPI/Getty Images
Rob Natelson
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Commentary
The previous installment in this series outlined the life and career of the Roman statesman Marcus Tullius Cicero. It described how John Adams relied on Cicero’s work in the preface to the first volume of his survey of republican constitutions. Although Adams was in Europe when the Constitutional Convention met, his volume circulated among the delegates.
Rob Natelson
Rob Natelson
Author
Robert G. Natelson, a former constitutional law professor who is senior fellow in constitutional jurisprudence at the Independence Institute in Denver, authored “The Original Constitution: What It Actually Said and Meant” (3rd ed., 2015). He is a contributor to The Heritage Foundation’s “Heritage Guide to the Constitution.”
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