erial castle crowd of eet me, all T. Later I of people clothing: aching my through to in short, t his life. Ɔd that he scorn and oned the ions was in those had long practical ributary nsurrec National of inde its own will, which orders and disposes everything despotically and according to its caprice. After this prolonged slavery we have determined to take arms to avenge ourselves and our country against a frightful tyranny, iniquitous in its very essence, an unexampled despotism to which no other rule can be compared. The war which we are carrying on against the Turk is not T that of a faction or the result of sedition. It is not aimed at a the advantage of any single part of the Greek people; it is a national war, a holy war, a war the object of which is to reconquer the rights of individual liberty, of property and honor,rights which the civilized people of Europe, our neighbors, enjoy to-day; rights of which the cruel and unheard-of tyranny of the Ottomans would deprive us, us alone, — and the very memory of which they would stifle in our hearts. Are we, then, less reasonable than other peoples, that we remain deprived of these rights? Are we of a nature so degraded and abject that we should be viewed as unworthy to enjoy them, condemned to remain crushed under a perpetual slavery and subjected, like beasts of burden or mere automatons, to the absurd caprice of a cruel tyrant who, like an infamous brigand, has come from distant regions to invade our borders? Nature has deeply graven these rights in the hearts of all men; laws in harmony with nature have so completely consecrated them that neither three nor four centuries nor thousands nor millions of centuries. can destroy them. Force and violence have been able to restrict and paralyze them for a season, but force may once more resuscitate them in all the vigor which they formerly enjoyed during many centuries; nor have we ever ceased in Hellas to defend these rights by arms whenever opportunity offered. Building upon the foundation of our natural rights, and L desiring to assimilate ourselves to the rest of the Christians of of Europe, our brethren, we have begun a war against the Turks, or rather, uniting all our isolated strength, we have formed ourselves into a single armed body, firmly resolved to attain our end, to govern ourselves by wise laws, or to be altogether annihilated, believing it to be unworthy of us, as Victories in spite of obstacles 344. Letter of descendants of the glorious peoples of Hellas, to live henceforth in a state of slavery fitted rather for unreasoning animals than for rational beings. Ten months have elapsed since we began this national war; the all-powerful God has succored us; although we were not adequately prepared for so great an enterprise, our arms have everywhere been victorious, despite the powerful obstacles which we have encountered and still encounter everywhere. We have had to contend with a situation bristling with difficulties, and we are still engaged in our efforts to overcome them. It should not therefore appear astonishing that we were not able from the very first to proclaim our independence and take rank among the civilized peoples of the earth, marching forward side by side with them. It was impossible to occupy ourselves with our political existence before we had established our independence. We trust these reasons may justify, in the eyes of the nations, our delay, as well as console us for the anarchy in which we have found ourselves. EPIDAURUS, January 15, 1822: the First Year of Independence The appeal of the revolutionists in the name of ancient Greece to the nations of western Europe met with immediate response. Meetings were held everywhere on behalf of the Greek cause; great sums of money were raised; thousands of soldiers and private citizens volunteered to aid the Greeks in winning their independence. However, the Europeans who went to Greece found that the revolutionists were not the ideal Greeks of the age of Pericles, and Lord Byron, who gave his life to their cause, in a letter written two years after the Declaration of Independence, thus describes the situation. February 26, 1824 The present state of Greece is perhaps different from what has been represented both by friends and enemies. The foreigners in Greece have, with few exceptions, never been in live hencening animals ational war; we were not r arms have Ful obstacles everywhere. g with diffi O overcome hat we were ndence and Th, marching e to occupy established stify, in the us for the of ancient with imwhere on ney were ns volun›endence. und that the age to their claration 26, 1824 ⚫om what es. The been in the country before, and of those exceptions still fewer have visited these regions before the revolution. Those who have will be rather surprised that the disorganization is not still greater, although in any other country it would appear unbounded. The Greeks have been downright slaves for five centuries, and there is no tyrant like a slave. Men whose fathers' fathers, farther than they can reckon, were absolute vileins, without property, even of their own persons, still move as if they were in fetters, or, in many instances, may seem only to have exchanged the chains of the prisoner for the freedom of the jailer. This is a hard truth; but we fear that it is one. We are not here to flatter, but to aid, as far as in our power, to a better order of things. in The number of pamphlets which have been published in Dis Europe on the subject of the Greek contest has, of course, been cir sufficient. The narratives of travelers, military and civil, may not have been less numerous. Without entering into their merits or demerits, one thing it is essential to remark, namely, that hitherto no stranger has succeeded in Greece, either in doing much for the natives or for himself. French, Germans, Italians, English, Poles; men of all nations, ages, and conditions; military and naval, rich and poor, good and evil, speculative and practical; merchants, officers, tars, generals, German barons and bankers, English gentlemen and adventurers, and surely some men of talent and good intention amongst them, have in the course of the last three years run the gantlet of Greece, and, of the survivors of fever, famine, fatigue, and the sword, the greater part of those who have not gone back in disgust remain in misery. Owing to the general anarchy that prevailed in southeastern Europe as the result of the Greek insurrection, the great powers-England, France, and Russia-decided to intervene, and at length forced the Sultan to recognize the independence of Greece under Prince Otto of Bavaria, whom they selected as a king for the new State. In 1832 the powers announced to Greece, in the 345. Declaration of the courts of following proclamation, the selection of the new sovereign, and bade the Greeks receive him with affection. Greeks: Your new destinies are about to be fulfilled! The courts of France, Great Britain, and Russia have decided upon the France, Great choice of a sovereign, whose election the Greek nation had Britain, and committed to their charge. Their coöperation, equally active Russia (1832) and disinterested, had contributed to the independence of recognizing the independ- Greece. By the choice which they have now made, that inde ence of the kingdom of Greece pendence will be consolidated under the scepter of Prince Otto of Bavaria. Greece is raised to the dignity of a kingdom, and obtains the alliance of one of the most ancient and illus trious of the royal houses of Europe,- one which has supported Greece in her struggles, assisted her in her misfortunes, and encouraged her in her regeneration. The king of Greece will hasten, in person, to bind himself to the nation by the most sacred ties. He brings with him the best-founded hopes for territorial boundaries of increased extent and security, of great financial resources, every means of attaining gradually a high degree of civilization, all the elements of an enlightened administration, of a good military organization, and, consequently, every pledge for the peace and happiness of his new country. The three courts are persuaded that they would mistake the character of the Greek nation, if they could doubt the sentiments which the nation will, with one voice, proclaim on this event. Greeks, indulge these feelings with confidence! Encircle your new sovereign with gratitude and affection. Faithful subjects! rally round his throne; aid him with true devotion in the work of giving to the State a definitive constitution, and of securing to it the double blessing of peace abroad, of tranquillity, the observance of the laws, and of order, at home. This is the only recompense which the three courts require of you for the services which they have had the means of rendering to you. (Signed) TALLEYRAND PALMERSTON LIEVEN, MATUSZEWIC Section 98. The Crimean War From the days of Peter the Great the rulers of Russia have looked with longing eyes upon the dominions of the Sultan which lay on the west shore of the Black Sea, and from time to time they have gained territory at his expense. After the settlement of the Grecian question in 1832, Tsar Nicholas I hinted to England that the time had come for a partition of European Turkey. But England opposed any expansion of Russia to the south, and in 1853, when the Tsar, under the color of protecting Christians in Turkey, began to interfere in Turkish affairs, she opened negotiations with France with a view of resisting Russia's policy. The situation, as it appeared to the English prime minister, Lord Palmerston, is revealed in the following letter: My dear Sidney Herbert, on Επ res BALMORAL, September 21, 1853 The question between Russia and Turkey seems, as you say, 34 to be in an unsatisfactory and unpromising state, and yet it lies in a nutshell, and its solution depends upon honest inten- rel tions and plain dealing on the part of Russia. What is it the Ru emperor [of Russia] wants? Why will he not plainly tell us what it is? Does he want merely what all of us want, namely, the that the Christians in the Turkish Empire shall be safe from qu oppression, vexation, and injury? If that is what he wants, let him begin by setting himself the example, and let him, by evacuating the Principalities,1 relieve the Christian inhabitants of that part of the Turkish Empire from the complicated and various miseries which the occupation of their country by a Russian army inflicts upon them. Beyond that, let him be satisfied, as we all are, with the progressively liberal system of Turkey, and let him keep his remonstrances till some case or occasion arises which calls for them. 1 The so-called Danubian Provinces, Moldavia and Wallachia, which now form Roumania. (co |