Massachusetts spy and Worcester advertiser. [volume] ([Worcester, Mass.]) 1823-1825, 1823-11-05


Odysseus is still successful on the sides of
Oeta. While, however, this kind of
sympathy is perfectly natural, and moth
ing ought to be neglected, which helps
the Cause of suffering people, we be-
lieve the Greeks have stronger and
more imperious claims upon US than any
that grow out Of these associations. We
may differ as to the degree of respect,
to which their ancestors are entitled
We may differ as to the degree,in which
the modern Greeks are really the des-
pendants of the ancient inhaitants of the
soil; and mere than one traveller thinks
be has settled the question, whether
the Turks have right to hold the in
habitants of Greece in bondage by main
tanning that the Greeks are mingled
race, descended from the barbarians,
who, in different ages have overrun the
land.
The allusion to antiquity, moreover,
often borders on the ridiculous, and we
entirely agree with DIR. Coray, in con-
demning the name of .4reopogus, as Civ
en- to the judiciary of the new state.
This revival of classical names, in an
application totally different, was one of
the practises in bad taste which prevail
ed in the French revolution, and though
more excusabIe in Greece, is better a.
voided there.-There is enough without
these names TO awaken our sympathy.
They derive their power from book
learning, they belong to scholars and to
dilettanti; but there is that in the cause
of the Greeks, which ought 10 speak to
the heart of every freeman, in Europe
and America. 1t is not merely the coun-
trymen of Aristides, the fellow citizens
nj Phocion, the descendants of Aratus
that are calling upon us. These g!ori.
us names are a dead letter to two thirds.
OF the community of Christendom. But
it is christians bowed beneath the yoke
of barbarous infdels; it is fathers and
mothers condemned to see their children
torn from them and doomed to the most
cruel slavery; it is men like ourselves
bereft of all the bounties which provi-
dence has lavished on their land, oblig-
ed to steal through life, as through the
passes of mountain, before the blood
hounds of the pursuer.-No exhilarat-
ing prospect of public honor: no cheer
ing hope of private success in life no
thrill at the name of country; no protec-
ton at the freside; but all one blank of
leaden, dreary despotism, which turns
the very virtues and excellencies of
character into a crime. Ii is the great
curse of a despotism, like that of the
Turks, that it inverts the laws of con.
duct for its subjects, and connects suffer-
ing and death with those principles and
actions, to which providence attaches
the rewards of life in healthy state of
society. We are able TO pity individu-
ais among US, so unfortunately born and
bred, as to be surrounded with corrupt
ing examples, and taught to find occupa-
ton and pleasure in vice. What a spec
'tacle do not the Greeks present in this
connexion, TO the practical phiIanthro-
Pist! Are they jealous in the profes.
sion of their religion and 10 the obsery-
ance of its rites, they jeopardize the
continuance of the jealous and contemp-
tuous federation beneath which they
live. Do they love and serve the land
of their birth, they are guilty of treason.
9gainst its barbarous master. Do thew
with industry and enterprise acquire
wealth, it is necessary studiously to con-
ceal it from unprincipled extortion, and
to invest it in foreign countries. Do
they found schools and make provision
for education, they expose themselves
TO exaction, and their children to out
rage, and are obliged to proceed with
the greatest possible secrecy and cir
cumspection. What monstrous COM
plication of calamity, to have the best.
the worthiest, the purest designs and &C
lions loaded with all the conseque aces
ofvice and crime; to be deprived not
only of all that makes life joyous, but to
be punished for doing well, and TO be
forced to go privately about those good
deeds, to which men, in other countries,
are exhorted as to source of praise
and honor. These things ought 10 be
considered; and reprehensibe apathy
prevails as to their reality. If liberty.
virtue, and religion, were not words on 4
our lips, without a substance in our
hearts, it would be hardly possible TO
pursue our little local interests with such
jealousy; to be all on fire in one state.
for fear Congress should claim the row.
er of internal improvements, and up in
arms in another against change of the
tariff, and carried away in all, with a
controversy between rival candidates
for an office, which all would admins
ter in much the same way if a narrow
selfishneSs did not lie at tho halter, rI