ABSTRACT
Mr. WIGFALL. That is a personal affair between Cicero 1 and the Senator from New Hampshire. 2 [Laughter.] I saw the other night some Roman citizens, one named Sansini and another Terrimacca, and I looked at them and reflected, and asked myself whether they could possibly be the descendants of Scipio Africanus and Pompey the Great. 3 I do not know; but they are Roman citizens; they are here, and if it will not put me to too much trouble, I shall probably inform them of the fact that the character of Cicero has been assailed here as a libeler; and if these Roman citizens have the pride which Romans once had in saying, ‘I am a Roman citizen,’ probably the Senator from New Hampshire will have to answer them. [Laughter.] But, sir, I shall leave it in the hands of the Romans. Cicero, however, did regard these agrarians as a set of people who were attempting really to distribute the property of the rich amongst those who had none, and it has been by common consent the accepted opinion and the admitted doctrine for two thousand years. Niebuhr, 4 a few years ago, started a new theory, in which, I think, he is not sustained except by the Senator from New Hampshire.
