Free 5000 Year Leap by W. Cleon Skousen Page A

natural tendency of nearly all people is to encourage others to run for office, but not get involved themselves. The Founders knew we could never enjoy strong self-government unless this general perspective were changed. They wanted it to be counted an honor to be drafted into "politics." A popular quotation from Cicero emphasized this theme. He had said:
       "For there is really no other occupation in which human virtue approaches more closely the august function of the gods than that of founding new States or preserving those already in existence." 53

    John Adams on the "Divine Science of Politics"
       American history will show that both Samuel Adams and his younger cousin, John Adams, sacrificed their fortunes to serve in politics. They both considered politics to be a "divine science."
       John Adams had this to say about the high calling of a servant of the people in politics:
       "Politics are the divine science, after all. How is it possible that any man should ever think of making it subservient to his own little passions and mean private interests? Ye baseborn sons of fallen Adam, is the end of politics a fortune, a family, a gilded coach, a train of horses, and a troop of livery servants, balls at Court, splendid dinners and suppers? Yet the divine science of politics is at length in Europe reduced to a mechanical system composed of these materials." 54
       Some might feel inclined to smile at such a puritanical ideology in a practical politician such as John Adams, but he had a ready answer for the skeptic. Said he:
       "What is to become of an independent statesman, one who will bow the knee to no idol, who will worship nothing as a divinity but truth, virtue, and his country? I will tell you; he will be regarded more by posterity than those who worship hounds and horses; and although he will not make his own fortune, he will make the fortune of his country." 55

    Preparation for Service in Politics
       John Adams, like so many of the Founders, laid great stress on the importance of broad, in-depth preparation for a career in public service. Early in his professional life, John Adams wrote to his wife explaining what he felt he must do to prepare himself for leadership in the "divine science" of politics. He wrote:
       "The science of government is my duty to study, more than all other sciences; the arts of legislation and administration and negotiation ought to take place of, indeed to exclude, in a manner, all other arts. I must study politics and war, that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history and naval architecture, navigation, commerce, and agriculture, in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain." 56
       John Adams was never very popular as an individual, but the people knew he could be trusted. He was elected over and over again, finally becoming President of the United States. Years later, he wrote:
       "I do not curse the day when I engaged in public affairs.... I cannot repent of any thing I ever did conscientiously and from a sense of duty. I never engaged in public affairs for my own interest, pleasure, envy, jealousy, avarice, or ambition, or even the desire of fame. If any of these had been my motive, my conduct would have been very different. In every considerable transaction of my public life, I have invariably acted according to my best judgment, and I can look up to God for the sincerity of my intentions." 57
       If one is astonished by the level of idealism which Founders such as Adams and Jefferson attached to the role of political public service, it cannot be more surprising than the supreme desire they expressed to prevent those offices from becoming monetary attractions. Benjamin Franklin remonstrated both in Europe and America against extravagant compensation for positions of