The Massachusetts spy, and Worcester County advertiser. [volume] ([Worcester, Mass.]) 1825-1831, 1827-08-29
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ron THE MASSACHUSETTS SPY.
THE GREEKS.

THE GREEKS.
There is 40 cause which has excited in
my own bosom, such mingled emotions OF
pity and sorrow, of hope ana fear, as the
glorious cause of the Greeks in their pres
ent struggle for liberty. When consider
the degraded condition to which they have
been reduced by the Ottoman powers-the
sufFerings which they have undergone, and
the lnhuman treatment that they have re-
celved from the cruel hands of their OBJ
pressors when, too, behold them assert
ing their rights, a-d struggling, year after
year, to procure for themselves and for
their posterity those invaluable blessings OF
liberty and independence, to which they, in
common with all mankind, are Justly emit
tied, cannot but feel peculiar interest in
the termination of their doubtful entcrpriZ-
es. Was 1t FOR plumber, or for the gratif-
cation OF some malignant disposition of re-
venge they were contending, well might
they be regarded as undeserving our SYM
pathles but this is not the case. It is for
liberty they are fighting-treedom from
bondage and death-that blessing for
which our fathers fought and bled," and
OF which we their descendants are made
the happy partakers.
The condition Of the Greeks is truly de-
plorable. They have long been enrarcd
IN cruel and bloody warfare, in which
they have suffered perils and dangers of
almost every description. Not only have
Their cities and villages been laid waste,
their houses and property destroyed, and
the comforts AMI enloyments of life taken
IRON them, but what is still worse, they
have had to endure the appalling sight of
beholdlng their aged parents--their wives
their sons and their daughters torn from
them, enslaved, tortured and slain. bv the
merciless hands of their enemies. No cru-
elty which Turkish barbarlty could invent
has been thought by them too severe to be
exercised upon this unhappy, but guiltless
people. They have suffered the loss of
friends and relatives-they have been sub
.iect to the distresscs of poverty and want
they have felt the preyings of hunger and
thirst-and what is shocking to humanity
itself, thousands have sought death by
their own hands, rather than submit to the
brutality Of their Turkish foes.
But, notwithstanding the suderings and
the i'll success that has hitherto attended
them, they are still valiantly contending for
the security of those rights to which they
are Justly entitled, and which have been
unlawlully taken from them by Turkish
usurpation. They have turned 70, the peo-
pie Of the United States an imploring eve
for their assistance. 1t is to us they have
thought they might confidently look for pro-
lection. They are not ignorant of our con
dition. They know we are free, an in
dependent, and Furnishing nation-that
we once were in situation similar to THEN
own-that we were oppressed by foreign
powers-that we refused submission to
their acts of injustice-that we asserted
our rights-fought, and were victorious.
Familiar with associations like these, it is
not in the least surprising that they should
appeal to us, as people the most likely to
listen to their supplications and, if any
nation in time of peril and distress has a
right to expect sympathy from another, it
certainly has been due from us to them.
But how have their applications been re-
garded? Have they received that prompt
and decisive support which their concep-
tions of our national character would natu-
rally entitle them to expect from us ? Far
be it from me to insinuate against the pol
; icy of our national government, in the re-
fusal of its assistance to the Greeks. The
time of their deliberations upon this sub
iect is now past, and all that may be said,
either approving or disappearing the meas
ures pursued by Congress-, in relation to it,
can neither alter or amend their decisions
upon it. But as friend to freedom, and a
lover of free institutions, as one who de-
tests and abhors tyranny and usutpation, in
whatever shape, or under whatever name
it may present itself, cannot but regret
that our national government, in their de-
alterations upon the cause of the Greeks,
did not at once profess their friendship,
and publicly announce to the world, how
ever much the displeasure of other nations
might be provoked, that we are people
who are ready to stand forth III the defence
Of the rights of man, and, as far as pru-
dence and the laws Of nations would die
tate, to aid and assist the injured and the
oppressed.
Although we have done nothing as ma
ton to assist the Greeks in obtaining their
independence, yet there is much reason to
congratulate ourselves that so much has
been done by the people of the United
States, in the way of private donations
That spirit of liberality, which has display
ed itself so generally throughout this coun-
try, cannot fail reproducing, in every friend
to freedom and to the rights and liberties
of mankind, sentiments of the highest graf.
itude and admiration. Who that is not in
sensible to the common feelings of human
ity, can look upon the present condition o
the unhappy Greeks, g. not feel himself call
ed upon by every sacred tie of human affec
\ ton to open at once his heart and his hand
and beautifully distribute to their wants?
But while, as an individual, have rea
son to rejoice that SO much has been done