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But now all our standards of orderly procedure have been set aside; there are men who do not hesitate to make illegal motions, and other men who are ready to put these motions to the vote—not men who have been chosen by right and lawful allotment to preside, but men who hold the position by trickery; and if any other senator does actually obtain the presidency by lot, and does honestly declare your votes, he is threatened with impeachment by men who no longer regard citizenship as a common right, but as their own private perquisite; men who are making slaves of the common people, and arrogating lordship to themselves;
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men who have set aside the lawful processes of the courts, and carry their verdicts in the assembly by appeal to passion.The popular leaders, confident in their ability to carry the popular assembly by appeal to the passions of the masses, bring cases there in the form of impeachments, etc., which ought to go to the courts, to be decided under the laws. The result of all this is that we have ceased to hear that wisest and most judicious of all the proclamations to which the city was once accustomed, Who of the men above fifty years of age wishes to address the people, and then who of the other Athenians in turn. The disorder of the public men can no longer be controlled by the laws, nor by the prytanes, nor by the presiding officers, nor by the presiding tribe, the tenth part of the city.See Aeschin. 1.33 and note.