As True Now As It Was In The 1840s

[poliphilo]

"The farmer imagines power and place are fine things. But the President has paid dear for his White House. It has commonly cost him all his peace, and the best of his manly attributes. To preserve for a short time so conspicuous an appearance before the world, he is content to eat dust before the real masters who stand erect behind the throne."

Emerson: on Compensation

Comments

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Emerson would have read his Roman histories.

I believe the trope. Anyone who achieves power will have had to have made promises, done deals and so on. That said, I imagine a Roman Emperor would have had more real power than an American President.