Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1876-07-20
The War Situation in Europe Elk.
planned.
From the Chicago Journal.

ton. With Constantinople as it's cen.
ter, it was shedding light and radi-
ance upon the surrounding world.
Western Europe, from the twelfth tc
|; the fifteenth centuries, received It's
first impulses of intellectual iilumina.
tion from the East -impulses which
set in motion those mighty forces
that eliminated in tho revival Of let
ters and the emancipation of the hu-
man intellect from the thraldom of q
diciatorial church. La the year 1913
this highly civilized portion of East
ern Europe fell prey tic the superi.
or brute force of Mohammed H., in
the capture of Constantinople. Bar
barism assumed the scat of humanity
and civilization. Christianity came
into vassalage to Mohammedism.
Mohammedan darkness obliterated
Christian light. The several provin-
ces, with various fortunes, have been
held under the most cruel bondage
by the Ottoman Empire. Some of
them, such as Moldavia and Walla.
CHA, through their persistent resist.
ance to tyrants, have secured the
concession of nominating their own
Governors by paying.in turn u heavy
annual tribute, and furnishing large
quota of troops for the maintenance
of the Imperial army. Others are,
and have always been under the di-
rect control of the despotic power of
Turkish Governors who are only held
IN favor in proportion as they sue
coed in exacting heavy payments of
taxes to defray the expenses of a 20,
luptuous court. Commerce and in
dustries have been taxed out of ex.
istence. Crueltes have been infict-
ed beyond human endurance. Edu-
cation has been neglected; and man.
Illness has been trampled under foot.
Such, in short, is the history of this
unhappy and misgoverned people.
This people have nothing ia COM
n on with the Turks, either in histo-
ry, in race, or religious convictions.
The Turks are Mongolians. The in
habitants of European Turkey belong
by their race to the great Indo- Euro
pean family. In some of the prov
inces, they are mostly decondants of
the old sturdy Romans in others,
there is largo substratum of the
Slavic element, IN still others, they
are direct decendants Of the Hellenic
nations-wilh the blood of Leoni
das coursing in their veins. Their
present numbers are computed to be
2,0O0,0 00-nearly one-third of the
entire population of the Turkish En-
pire. They are severalIy distributed
into the following provinces Crotia,
DaImatia, egovinia, Bosnia, Ser
via, Montenegro, Bulgaria, Wallachia,
Moldavia, Albania, Roumelia, Thes-
sally, and Gambia. There are. be-
sides these, about 100000 of Turks
making in all a population of 49,
100000 in European Turkey. The
Turks are tho ruler; the others, the
ruled.
By their religious convictions,
these people are Christians. They
believe 10 Christ. They hold in re-
ligious reverence the ancient apostles
and the fathers of the Christian
Church. Their present teachers are
held in vassalage. The Patriarch at
Constantlnople is the Sultan's chief
religious vassal. What a spectacle,
and this for q Christian people the
Sultan, the head Of an ecclesiastical
establishment
The civil administration is no bet
ter. 1t is conducted on the basis of
feudaism-a feudalism of the black
est dye. 1t is oil on the principle Of
worrying the last dollar out OF a
poor, down-trodden people--a people
who have no rights their masters are
bound to respect. 1t is the ieudalism
that savors very much of the eighth
century.
These are some of the grievances
of this wretched people. They are
as our fathers were-strlking for
civil liberty. They are fighting for
a government more congenial to their
national aspirations. They desire
the privilege of worshiping God in
accordance with the dictates of their
own consciences. In q word, they
ask of the world chance to estab-
lish their undoubted right to inde-
pendence and to form such alliances
as shall be consistent with the aspi-
rations of race conscious of great
ancestry and of former brilliant
history.
The traditional "Eastern question"
already rises az black specter in
the political horror of Europe. OF
course, everybody is on the alert to
know what the Great Powers will do
with this complication. A little
knowledge of history will throw sut-
ficient ght on this subject to enable
even the casual reader to understand
| it's bearing. The Sublime Porte
the Turkish Government-has been
chronically at war for the past two
centuries with some one of the lead
ing Powers; and whenever left to her
own resources, has usually come out
of the fight shorn of some one or
moro of her provinces. In each case,
to lust such an extent as Turkey be-
came weakened, the victorious pow
err gained relative strength and en-
Iarged it's territory. The other Great
Powers, in part from jealousy and
the principle of self-preservation,
would invariably unite and insist
that the Ottoman Empire in Europe
must be maintained in its strict in
tegrity at all hazards, on the ground
that the balance OF power in Europe
i. required this expedlency. 1t was q
matter of course all a-dog-in-the-
manger policy. Each Government
felt intuitively alarmed at the growth
and aggrandizement of power on the
part Of it's neighbor, and all have
| been quite willing that Turkey should
+, maintain her own so long as she
: could do it with her own unalded
power, rather than that any one Of
, them should extend the boundaries
{ of It's empire beyond the wonted linn
l.