DF 814 .B4 /^^ .=*<^ ^'^^€i <^ fE^qM§) DELIVERED IN ST. PAUL'S CHURCH, ON THE EVENING OF FEBRUARY 26, 1827, . REQUEST OF THE COMMITTEE f RELIEF OF THE GREEKS. REV. GREGORY T. BEDELL, A. M, Rector of St. Andrew's Charch, Philadelpi.ia, ^ PHILADELPHIA: I'RINTKD AND PUBLISHED BY WILLIAM STAVEI.Y, No. 99, South Second street. 1827. Et>t H^nuHt of tide mSfKtt^n. DELIVERED IN ST. PAUL'S CHURCH, ON THE EVENING • OF FEBRUARY 26, 1827, REQUEST OF THE COMMITTEE RELIEF OF THE GREEKS. -^ BY TMl!: h^ REV. GREGORY T/BEDELL, A.M. Rector of St. Andrew's Church, Philadelphia. PHILADELPHIA : PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY WILLIAM STAVELY, '■' Xo. 99, South Second street.. 1837. 3^ Extracts from the Correspondence of the Greek Committee. Philadelphia^ Jan. 5, 1 827. Reverend Sir — It is by the direction of the General Com- mittee, appitinted by our fellow citizens, to take measures for* affording some prompt aid to the Greeks, and in their behalf, we have the pleasure to address this note to you. The cause which this oppressed and suffering people have 30 long prosecuted with unequalled constancy and heroism — is it not the cause of Christianity not less than Liberty ? Small aggressions — involving essential principles of interest or honour — often provoke Nations to resort to the extreme measure of redress. Assistance may be yielded to those vvlio suffer by fire or deluge, by famine or pestilence — unless to these be superadded, more insupportable than all^the tyranny^ of the oppressor; but then, though he be the Turk, and Chrii^ Hans be the oppressed — efficient will not, and charitable Jjj^iu any shape or of any kind, cannot be granted by the ment of a Christian people, lest it may give occasion brage, and endanger one branch of our commercial pursuits! We leave these matters, however, to the decision of those to whom it rightfully belongs, not without our own hopes and prepossessions. But to give food and raiment to the hungry and the naked, to the aged, the women and the children, this is a privilege, in which, as individuals, we may surely be permitted to indulge without violating social duty or international law, and without offending in any way, against Religion or Morality. It is with this view that our fellow citizens have consulted, and the Committee are. consequently, taking their measures, and it is hoped that by the opening of the navigation of the Delaware, charity will have placed at their disposal the means of despatching at least one ship with a suitable cargo for thr Mediterranean. )leJUJii n oT'tfTh" To the Committee for the relief of the Greeks, Gentlemen — If the discourse which was preached at your solicitation, and of which jou have taken such favourable no- tice, can in the least be' made useful in advancing the inter- ests of the unhappy people, "our brethren," for whom your sympathies have been so nobly excited, and your ex- ertions so vigorously and perseveringly made— it is yours, to do with as you please. With it you have my best wishes and prayers for the success of the cause itself. I remain, Gentlemen, yours, &c. G. T. BEDELL. March Isf, 1827. A DISCOURSE, ^c. There are none perhaps in this assembly who cannot call to mind those few, and exquisite lines in which the present condition of Greece is so truly, so poetically, so painfully represented by one, the sole merit of whose life, was his devotion to her cause.* Yes, my friends, true it is, that the fair sky of Greece, is just as blue — her vallies, so far as na- ture's loveliness is unalterable by the rudeness of mor- tal touch, are still as lovely, and her mountains are just as much distinguished for their grandeur and sub- limity of scene, as when her poets sung ; her philo- sophers taught, and her orators stimulated the people to deeds of heroic achievement. But what avails all this? The hand of violence hath written on all that remains of Greece, " the glory has departed ;" and the classic traveller, as he gazes on her yet blue sky, as he treads her yet green vallies, or as he climbs her yet unmoved mountains, feels heavily on his heart the death-chill which hath settled on all that is around him ; and all that he beholds of Greece, is as the faded beauty of some interesting corpse, from which the living principle hath fled,— yet lovely in its death. I may not, on an occasion like the present, occupy much of your time in speaking of the early history of Greece. This is a subject which would kindle a dif- * Note A. ferent enthusiasm from that now desirable. Few of the practical purposes of benevolence would be an- swered by the mere awakening of those recollections which have well nigh slept, since the laws, the phi- losophy, the letters, the poetry of Greece, formed the delightful topics most familiar to the student, ere the sober realities of life broke him off from what may be termed the romance of her history Still I know not how my subject may be suitably brought before your attention, unless there should at least be some rapid sketch. Greece, from the period in which fable ceas- ed to mingle with her history, had been constrained to deal with tyrants and oppressors ; and has never possessed the elements of strength, either moral or political. This has arisen from the division into small and independent republics, so discordant in their prin- ciples as to preclude the possibility of a permanent con- federation. There were days of glory, and there were deeds of heroism marking the separate histories of Athens, of Sparta, and of Thebes, which will ever dwell in the memory of man; but had these separate republics known the benefits of a federal government like ours, and possessed the wisdom and the virtue requisite to its formation, they might have effectually resisted every attempt at their subjugation. In the early history of Greece there is little to be found but real bondage, though sometimes disguised under the spe- cious appearances of freedom. If Harmodius and Aristogiton, could succeed in stimulating one of these people to throw off the yoke of the PisistratidsB, yet how soon is Pericles a monarch, though he bore no such magnificent title. Civil wars prevented the en- joyment of real liberty, and ravaged the land, till the battle of Cheronea brought Greece under the domi- iiion of the king of Macedon. Then the royal suc- cessor of Philip made her sons subservient to his con- quest of the world. But masters in those days were soon changed, and from the successors of Alexander^ Greece passed under the dominion of the victorious Romans. From the year 146 before the Christian era, to the year 1453 of that era, when the Eastern empire was totally destroyed by Mahomet the II. , in the capture of Constantinople, Grecian liberty was a shadowy thing. But it was during these 1500 years, that the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ fell on subjugat- ed Greece, and through evil and through good, be- came at last the predominant religion of the empire. The historian Gibbon, seems to have forgotten, for a moment, the bitterness of his antipathy to Christianity, when he so eloquently describes the fall of Constanti- nople ; and, with a singular felicity of thought, calls the last speech of Constantine Palselogus, ^^ the fune- ral oration of the Roman empire." With Constanti- nople, Greece and Epirus fell to the conquering Turks. The 29th of May, in the year of our Lord 1453, was a memorable epoch, for on that day Ma- homet the II. passed in triumph through the gate of St. Romanus, and the Turkish Meuzzin ascended the loftiest turret of the church of St. Sophia, to call the conquering people to prayer in the name of God, and the Prophet of Mecca. Then was that glory of the world completely desecrated. On that day the Imaiim preached in a hitherto Christian pulpit, and the con- queror himself performed the namaz of prayer and thanksgiving, on the great altar where the Christian mysteries had been so lately celebrated before the last of the Caesars. From the church of St. Sophia, Mahomet went to the desolate mansion of an hundred 10 successors of Constantine the Great ; but it had already been stripped of every monument of royalty. As the conqueror saw the desolation, a melancholy reflection forced itself unon his mind on the vicissitudes of hu- man greatness, and he called to memory the lines of the Persian poet, "The spider has woven her web in the imperial palace, and the owl hath sung her watch song on the towers of Afrasiab."* From the year 1453, A. D. Greece has bowed to the horrible yoke of Turkish domination, compared to the cruelty of which, the savage ferocity of the wild beasts of the forest, is absolute tenderness. From the period alluded to, a dark and dismal cloud has hung upon this unhappy land, which for no less than four centuries has excluded the glorious light of freedom. During this long period one feeble effort was made by a gigantic power to rescue Greece from this dominion ; but it failed. Had not the close of the tragedy de- veloped so much perfidy and horror, we might amuse ourselves with the idea that the descendants of the barbarous Scythians, scarcely then less barbarous^ than their fathers, should have felt the classic desire of restoring the republics of Solon and Lycurgus. But this was Russian policy, under the Czarina Catharine, and she found no difficulty in rousing the dispirited Greeks by the promise of effectual succours. When the looked for fleet of Russia was seen, as it came round the tenarium promontoriumj freedom seemed to ride on the very breeze, and for a moment the Greek thought that the day of his emancipation had arrived. But Russian succour was as deceptive as the south wind, which "^^ softly blowing,'^ enticed the shipmaster, '* Note B. 11 whose vessel carried Paul, to leave the haven in which they feared to have been forced to winter. But the deceitful south wind soon gave place to the fierce '^Euroclydon/' and shipwreck was the consequence. The peace of Kainargi, hastily concluded between Catharine and the Turks, left the poor deluded pa- triots in the jaws of the lion ; and the vengeance of the Turk was terrible. Posterity will ever reprobate the merciless policy which could have induced that Em- press to have left to their fate so helpless and so confid- ing a people ; and little less will posterity execrate the present policy of civilized nations, calling themselves Christian ; — for perfidy, is scarcely more criminal than the cold and heartless indifference with which this bloody tragedy has been contemplated. For nearly one hundred years had the silence of slavery again settled on the land of Greece, when in the year 1820, Ypsilanti, a member of one of the most illustrious families of the Fanar, and a connexion of the Emperor Alexander, raised the standard of liberty His plans were ill concerted, and they failed. But an impulse was given, which, to this date, has cnrried the Greeks through six years of strife and of suffering, with vari- ous success. I have pursued this brief history, my brethren, merely to pave the way for the considerations which will follow. Refused the aids of the government, on grounds of political expediency, the poor and sufli'er- ing Greeks have turned to the people of our country; and their claims have been duly recognized, and their wants have, for the most part, been met with a cheer- ful and a generous impulse. Among the means which an active committee of our philanthopic citizens, have devised to accomplish the sacred purposes of this be- 12 iievolence is, that from the pulpit an effort should be iliade as a closing appeal upon the subject. On this interesting business I stand before you at this time, and the hope is indulged^ that at least some little ex- pression of your bounty may be added to the sums already collected. To fix your attention, and to prevent on my own part, too much wandering, I have selected as a text suitable for the present occasion, the words of the wise man in his Proverbs, 17th chapter, and 17th verse, '' A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity." There is an intensity in this language which is worthy of remark :— a friend, says the writer, loveth at all times — is the same in sickness as in health — the same in adversity as in prosperity. Greece has no friend, according to this definition ; for to accommo- date a passage from the scriptures, "among all her lovers, there is none to comfort her ;" and many of her frie?ids, have been like those of David, when he prayed that ^'^ their precious balms might not break his headP^ But there is still further intensity in the terms of the text, " a brother is born for adversity ;" as if it was, on the authority of inspiration, the purpose of our existence to help each other in the time of need; and as if a departure from the spirit of this saying, at- tempts to alter the design of God, in the relationship of man to man. This, my friends, I wish you to re- mark as the hinging point of my discourse; and in fol- lowing out the subject, it will be my object to prove, that the Greeks are emphatically to be called our BRETHREN ; and if brethren, then, by an irresistible conclusion, are we born for their adversity. * Note C. 13 They are our brethren, \ I. Because they are struggling for a similar political existence. II. Because they profess the same religion, and III. Because they are in a condition of distress and suffering. I. The Greeks are our brethren because they are struggling for a similar political existence. It would be little indeed for me to say on this occa- sion, that the present condition of the Greeks resem- bles ours at that most eventful period, when our fathers threw the yoke from their shoulders, and de- termined to be free. Our grievances, at the period alluded to, contrasted with those under which they have groaned for centuries, would not authorize the comparison of a feather to the weight of the world itself. The difference is almost infinite, so great is the aggravation of their condition. Indeed, terms have not yet been invented, of sufficient strength, to express the horrors of their state of vassalage ; and fortunate- ly for ourselves, though unfortunately for them, our minds cannot form an idea of wretchedness which might reach the woful character of their slavery. I have avoided touching upon the arguments which may be used in justification of the Greek revolt;* and I may not indulge in reflections on the policy which could justify us as a people in looking calm- ly on the butchery of our brethren, struggling as they are for a political existence. We have set them the example of a well constituted and flourish- ing republic ; and it is not without reason tliat Greece turns to us her supplicating eye : for it is her wish to 14 ti'avel in the path to political eminence which America hath trodden, and to establish a government based on the same great principles. Alas for Greece, that four hundred years of merciless oppression, has pro- duced a far different people from what our fathers were ; she has not the same moral elements of liberty which belonged to them at the period of our revolu- tionary struggle. But she aims at the point to which we have attained ; and it appears to me that America, by the example she has set, and by the posture of po- litical importance she has assumed, is the natural ally of every nation which would release itself from the heavy hand of foreign oppression ; and the natural guardian of every persecuted people. This is a doc- trine, which however adventurous its mention may ap- pear at present, will, ere long, be commonly received. To this point, the political world is at present rapidly advancing ; and at this very moment, a state of things is exhibited from which no other result is within the reach of rational conception. Let any individual of libe- ral and cultivated mind observe the aspect of the age, and he will not fail to be convinced, that the whole civilized world is dividing itself into two great parties ; the elements of liberty and knowledge are arraying themselves against those of despotism and ignorance ; and the convulsion which will be occasioned when they come, as they must come into contact, will make the older governments of Europe totter to their fall. It was not without wisdom that the British statesman, in his late triumphant speech before the commons of his country, alluded to the next European war that should occur, as a war of opinion ; in which no means would be left unemployed, to fix the principles of civil liber- ty on their firmest foundations. The work in a mea- 15 sure began with us, and see how the United States of South America have followed in the inarch of inde- pendence. Come what else there may, that country will never again be permanently governed by a des- pot. Greece is striving to follow in this path ; and I argue her ultimate success, on the principle that these elements of liberty and knowledge are in motion ; and if they work silently and slowly, their progress is not the less conspicuous and certain. Think me not visionary, as well as bold, my friends, for I believe the explanation of the whole will adapt itself to the most contracted capacity. The older governments of Eu- rope are not suited to the existing state of things, and every thing which bears the remotest relationship to despotism, is so incongruous with the present ad- vance of society, that it ?7iust give way to the force of opinion. The governments of Europe are all but modifications of the feudal system, whose leading vital principle, is the depression of the lower orders of society. But this can no longer be accomplished. There are three great acting causes, which, by pre- venting the continuance of this depression, will de- stroy the vital principle of the system. The first of these, which will serve to elevate the lower orders, hitherto in most European governments kept down ; is the rapid advance of commerce, and those other means, which enable them to rise in the scale of wealth. The second is the mighty influence of the press, *^ a lever more powerful than that which Archimedes wished, for it will serve to lift the mass of the people from their present moral and intellectual degradation. The last of these great causes, is the spirit of bold in- quiry, and deep investigation of principles^ which the * Note E. i 16 press must produce; for when the minds of men are Enlightened by the thoughts and the deductions of Others,, they will thinkj.and they will form conclusions of tiieir own. All this is so totally irreconcileable with the f ery first principles of feudal subjection, that a change ip political relations is the necessary consequence. "^ow these causes are in constant and increasing ope- jation, to bring the classes of society more on the level j)f equality ; and whenever this convulsion of opinion shall occur, then must triumph the principles of ra- tional liberty. As there is the array of liberty and knowledge, against despotism and ignorance, America must make common cause with one or with the other ; for it were folly to imagine the possibility of a neutral attitude. Consistency, no less than the irresistible im- pulse of opinion, will rank our country on the side of those principles upon which our own happy govern- ment is founded. For reasons such as these, I hesi- tate not to declare, that the Greeks are our brethren ; and if this be so, we are born for their adversity. On such grounds too, I might argue the lawfulness, and the absolute duty of public interference, but this makes no part of my present purpose. The People of the land, in their individual capacities, may feel the importance of these considerations ; and by acting on this principle, even if their assistance goes no further than food and raiment to the famish- ing and the naked, show how justly they appreciate the relationship in which, as a free and independent nation, we stand to the struggling, persecuted Greeks. II. The Greeks are our brethren because they pro- fess the same religion, and we are thus bound to them as by the tie of a common Christianity. This is a 17 consideration which few estimate as they should, for it constitutes one of the most dear and interesting re- lationships which can possibly be imagined, inasmuch as it brings the sanctions of another world to bear their weight upon the efforts of the present. It is true, indeed, that Christianity among the Greeks has lost almost all its characteristic traits. Superstition hath covered up the fair face of religion with a hideous and disgusting veil ; and the doctrines of the Cross, which constitute the life as well as the beauty and the sublimity of the faith delivered to the saints, are scarcely heard. Unmeaning forms and childish cere- monies, have been substituted for *^ the truth as it is in Jesus ;" and the Greeks, except when some mis- sionary from the land of gospel light and liberty, leaves among them the unadulterated word of God, have few opportunities of separating that which is *• precious," from that which is ^' vile." But the faith of that branch of the church of Christ, to which, in the Providence of God, the Greek is attached, is not to be judged, by its condition in a land, so trodden un- der foot and destroyed. In the essentials of religion, the Eastern church long maintained her purity; and when we consider the untoward circumstances, and the troublous times, into the very midst of which that church has been cast, we rather wonder at the purity which remains, than at the loss which has been sus- tained. So far as the authorized standards of the Eastern church are concerned, there is in their funda- mental principles, a remarkable coincidence with the Articles, the Liturgy, and the Homilies of the church, whose minister is it my privilege to be.^' Founded on * Note r. c 18 the profession of a common Christianity then, the Greeks are our brethren ; and a nearer or more endearing relationship it were impossible to establish. On this ground, how are we interested in the issue of the desperate struggle in which they are engaged. The question which depends on the issue, is not the progress^ but the existence, of Christianity among them. It is whether the Cross of the Redeemer, or the crescent of the impostor of Mecca, shall triumph over this interesting land. It is said, with no less eloquence than truth, in the pamphlet, which, by the untiring zeal of your committee, has been dis- tributed largely among your citizens, that '^ it is not merely a struggle for freedom and existence to the Greek : it is a contest between the odious and disgusting deformities of Islamism and the religion ive profess It is the cause of the crescent against the Cross ; and shall we make no effort in favour of the latter ? Shall ive do nothing to sustain that re- ligion, ivhichj in the darkest moments of national calamity and of indvidual distress, has sustained our fathers and ourselves P That religion which oifers the best consolations for this life, and the bright- est hopes for the next ? We have seen, in the course of this revolution, how this religion has been out- raged. The very name of Christiaji has been, every where in Turkey, a title to insult, to chains, and to death. It is a virtue there, to kill 'a Christian dog.'' The Turk has known full well how dear is this religion to the Greek. He has often seen him become its martyr. In the desolation of his country, in the entire destruction of her political, civil, and social institutions, it was in the bosom of the church alone that the miserable remnant of this unfortunate 19 nation of Christians found refuge. It was here her mangled and bleeding members were gathered, bound up, and comforted. It was here alone they enjoyed even the semblance of community. It was here, amidst the destruction of every thing else, the wretch- ed Greek sought, in his accumulated wrongs and suf- ferings, support and consolation for the present, and hopes for the future. B'lt the inexorable Turk, hav- ing stripped him of every thing on earth, would also rob him of his hopes in heaven. It was, therefore, that in this last sanctuary of suffering humanity, her holiest feelings were outraged. We have seen the sacredness of this sanctuary violated. We have seen its highest officers — its venerable patriarch; and his assisting bishops, while performing the most solemn rites of our holy religion, upon one of its highest fes« tivals, while kneeling before her sacred altars, and in the very act of breathing a prayer to heaven for their' bleeding country, we have seen that venerable pa- triarch and those bishops, sacrilegiously torn from their altars, and, in the very robes and insignia of their office, and at the very gates of their temple, ignomi- niously executed. For three days we have seen their bodies hanging exposed to the scoffs and outrages of infidels and fanatics ; and then, after being dragged, ignominiously dragged, through the streets of Con- stantinople, thrown like dogs into the sea, or to the vultures of heaven." It is impossible for a Christian to be at a loss to com- prehend how deeply the religion of our blessed Re- deemer is interested in this conflict. The creed of the impostor Mahomet never has, and never will endure the rivalry of a purer faith. The unceasing effort of their Turkish masters has been to root from among 20 the Greeks every principle of Christianity, because it opposed its loveliness and purity, to their degrading and sensual superstition. And it is wonderful, ; for in it we must read, even in a dark dispensation, the determination of God, not to leave himself without a witness;) that under so many years of ceaseless persecution, the poor, oppressed, and helpless Greeks, the Christian dogs, as they are contemp- tuously termed, should not have purchased a tem- porary quiet, by apostacy from the faith of their fathers ; and have saved their lives, every day in jeopardy, even at the distant sacrifice of their ever- lasting welfare. But in the midst of a fiery furnace, daily and nightly kindled ; in a den of lions, who de- voured when they pleased, and rested only when they were gorged, they have remained firm to their reli- gion, clouded with superstitions as it was ; and they have clung to the Cross, and died at its foot, rather than bow themselves towards Mecca, and seek the light of that pale crescent, striking emblem of a cold and cheerless religion.* On grounds like these, I might ask much more than the sympathies of a Christian people ; and I would not feel as if 1 should disgrace the Christian name, or the ministerial profession, if, from the very heights of Zion, I should, like another Peter, lift the blood- stained banner of the Cross, and cry, in the language of a heroine of old, " to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord, against the mighty." But no, — we ask not that the sword be drawn, we require no armament to be prepared. With their own rude arms, and their own quenchless ardour, must they, * Note G. 21 trusting in the Lord, and animated by the righteous- ness of their quarrel, carve their own way to liberty. But, we come to solicit for the wives and the children of these Christian martyrs, (oh! dire the necessity that compels such i people to ask such a favour,) some- thing to save them from the horrible catastrophe of fa- mine, more cruel than the sword. To you they are connected by a relationship, constituted by Him, who exhibited the charity of his death, to save their souls, as well as yours ; and who has made it one of the fundamental principles of his religion, that we should love the brethren. — Love, that tenderest, noblest, richest of the Christian graces. As if it were impos- sible for a Christian in such case to refuse the exer- cise of his benevolence, it is asked, *' If any man seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him ?" As a Christian people, we are *' born for their ad- versity ;" and ours should be the delightful work, of seeking td prepare the way, by which the religion of the Bible and the Cross, should once more prevail where formerly it was so nobly founded, and so purely professed. But who will there be, to re- ceive the benefits of a purer Christianity, if the sons of Greece become, as I fear they may, one band of martyrs? If they should fall beneath the red cymetar of the Turk, till they are exterminated. He, who once spake to fratricidal Cain, and said, in his thunder, •* the voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground," will speak to us in his wrath ; and visit on our heads the murder on which we looked, and in which we of course were partakers. But I wander, — pardon the enthusiasm, the folly, if you please; it is not the warrior sous of Christian Greece for whom I am 23 pleading, it is her matrons, her virgins and her chil- dren, hunted like the *' partridge on the mountains," and who, if unreliev.ed, will perish by famine, and leave their bodies to be devoured by the prowl- ing wolf or the expecting vulture. Yes, as a Christian people, I dare to proclaim, that we are born for their present adversity, and that we can only well discharge, the high and holy claims of the fraternity in which we stand, by our liberal benefactions. Could I believe in the greatest charity^, that all who hear me were the real children of God by faith in Christ Jesus, I would leave this matter without one additional observation ; for it may be laid down as a principle, that where grace reigns in the heart, benevolence richly flourishes ; and the claims of a Christian brother are never disregarded. Lastly, the Greeks are our brethren because they are in a condition of distress and suffering. It was a noble saying of an ancient, ^' I am a man, and therefore nothing which concerns humanity can be in- different to me."* If there ever was a people who, by their intensity of suffering, linked themselves to the sympathies of others, it is the people whose appeal is presented to you this evening. If there were no claims to your benevolence, founded on the political relation- ship they bear you ; if there were none founded on the religion of the Lord Jesus Christ which they, like you profess; the i^elationship of suffering constitutes a claim which finds its way to the heart of sensibility with a resistless impulse. They are a people in an extremity of suffering which language is too poor to repre- sent ; for it is not the mere fact, that they are con- 23 tending for those unalienable rights, "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,'' with a foe to whom mercy is a term unknown ; but they are famishing. If there was nothing against them but the odds of num- bers, we might safely leave them to that impulse of freedom, which makes each Greek a host within him- self; for the history of this struggle, is proof sufficient? that the spirit of Leonidas has not deserted the bloody pass of Thermopylae. There has been many a recent conflict which has emulated the bravery of Marathon and Platea. But they come to you as a people suffering the most aggravated distresses. Their land, in some of the late campaigns, has been so ravaged by the sword ; such ruthless desolation has marked the footsteps of the Turk, that nakedness and famine stare them in tbe face. The last wind which came across the blue wave of the Atlantic, brought us the intelligence of the sad predicament in which they stand. One of your own countrymen, who has nobly joined his fortunes with those of this suffering people, tells us, in a com- munication but just issued from the press, that Athens is beleaguered by the Turkish forces ; but with a judgment, formed by experience, he says, that the most terrible enemies of the Greeks, are cold and famine.* No crops have been raised, and the country is not in a condition to produce supplies of food ; for to the Turkish advance may be applied the language of the bard : — " Confusion in the van with flig^ht combin'd, "And sorrow's faded form and solitude behind." Yes, your countryman seems to think that the danger of Greece, is here concentrated; and that cold -and • Note I. 24 famine may do, what the army of the foe can never accomplish. The scenes of Scio may be acted over — (the blot of that day still stains the character of Christian Europe and America)— and in Athens may fall another Missolonghi. But cold-blooded murder, rapine, cities laid in ruins, are nothing against the cause of Greece, compared to the prospect of famine and of nakedness. These dispirit the energies of the soldier, and they unnerve his arm, not only by their eifects on his own person, but because they have in them a moral terror, as they bear their pressure ou the wives and daughters and children of the land. The feelings of the Greek, are, I firmly believe, wound up to any pitch of personal endurance ; but to see the helpless suffering, is more appalling than the num- bers and the ferocity of the Turks. Oh ! when I think of the condition in which many are now, and more will soon be placed, I feel as if I wish- ed for language which might have power to seize on every sympathy of your bosoms, and enlist them in this cause of suifering humanity. Oh ! how often, may such accumulated distress, bring once more to reality the scenes of Judea's desolation, when the city of the living God was beseiged by the armies of the conquering Titus. Then the sword from with- out, and the famine within, did their work of death. Famine ! I shudder as I remember the descrip- tion given by one who for his authority, combined the terms of prophecy with authentic history. A fragment of the direful story, is all that I dare to press as a tax upon your feelings, yet I give it, be- cause to this extremity is the Grecian mother verg- inoj : — 25 " We had gone forth in quest of food; And we had entered many a house, where men Were preying- upon meagre herbs and skins; And some were sating- upon loathsome things Unutterable — their ravening hunger — At her door, one met us, The tender and the delicate of women! She said, — We have feasted oft together. Most welcome warriors ! — And she led us. And made us sit like dear and honoured guests, While she made ready. Some among us wonder'd. That she had thus with provident care reserved, The choicest banquet for our scarcest days. But ever as she busily ministered. Quick — sudden sobs of laughter broke from her. At length, the vessels covering she raised up. And there it lay — The remnant of a child, A human child! — Then — then she shriek'd aloud, andclasp'd her hands, And cried — O dainty and fastidious appetites! The mother feasts upon her babe, and strangers Loathe the repast. — And then she said. My beautiful child — joy of my bosom! And then in her cool madness, did she spurn us Out from her doors."* Thousands of scenes like these will occur, unless^ by the hand of some generous charity, efforts be made to remove this pressure ; a pressure which now like the cold hand of death, lies on the very heart of Greece. That I have not in this division of my discourse misrepresented the actual condition of Greece, under Turkish oppression, you may learn from the corrobo- rating language of one of our country's greatest orators ; who dared in the Hall of Congress to give his testimo- ny in the cause of humanity. » Note K. D •4: 26 *^ Conquest and subjugation, as used among European states, are inadequate modes of expression by which to denote the dominion of the Turks. A conquest in the civilized world, is generally no more than an ac- quisition of a new part to the conquering country. It does not imply a never-ending bondage imposed upon the conquered, a perpetual mark, and oppro- brious distinction, between them and their masters ; a bitter and unending persecution of their religion ; an habitual violation of their rights of person and property, and the unrestrained indulgence towards them, of every passion, which belongs to the character of a barbarous soldiery. Yet, such is the state of Greece. The Ottoman power over them, obtained originally by the sword, is constantly preserved by the same means. Wherever it exists, it is a mere mi'itary power. The religious and civil code of the state, being both fixed in the Alcoran, and equally the object of an ignorant and furious faith, have been found equally incapable of change.