May 3, 2026
The principles of a free constitution are irrevocably lost, when the legislative power is nominated by the executive.
Edward Gibbon, (1737 – 1794), English historian, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (written over 22 years, from 1766 to1788), Jay p. 151
MEDITATION: Do you understand that Gibbon is writing about what’s called the separation of powers—a notion of government first identified by Aristotle in the fourth century BCE. and later elaborated by Locke and Montesquieu in the 17th and 18th centuries. It’s the notion that each of the standard branches of government (the legislative, the executive, and the judicial) must have distinct and independent authority, to prevent the concentration of power in any one of those branches?.
COMMENTARY: Gibbon anticipated the very rot that now infects politics in so many supposedly democratic countries. The moment lawmakers and judges take direction not from the voters but from some “dear” leader—whether he or she is called dictator, prime minister, even president, freedom becomes empty ceremony, as the judges and law-makers become irrelevant.
