Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1878-04-06
End of the Ottoman Empire in Esu-
rope.

| turkey IL IS SO Impossible to fOreSf
that it seems like folly to atteml
the part of a prophet. What shouI
happen, itappears to me, is precisel
what would have happened if th
Ottomans had never broken int
the natural tendencies of Christia
! Europe. There should be a Slave
Roumanian Confederation or En-
pire, perhaps inclusive of Greece
extending from the Euxine and tn
Archipelago to the Adriatic, an
dividing with Russia the dominiol
of the eastern part of the continent
England ought not to object TO sucl
result, and it is her interest to ia
vOr it. OF what consequence is thi
Eastern question to her comparet
with its dire and solemn stress upol
the Slave? Moreover with a free
youthful nation in COnstantinople
a nation which fifty years of peacl
and good government might increasl
to thirty millions of souls, her In
dian possessions would be safe
from Russian inrOad than they arr
even now. Such a nation the West
ern States of Europe could willingly
protect and upbuild. But what civ
ilized, Christian people can give 3
hearty, and therefore really effective
hand to the continuance of Tartar
and Moslem?
There is no hope of strength or oi
reform in the Sublime Porte. "The
Turks are but encamped in Europe D
1t would almost seem that they had
invented this phrase, and had been
altogether guided by it in their
state-craft. They have held their
domain as a commander holds a
besieged city; they have sacrificed
the welfare of the burgher. to the
success of the garrison; they have
cared only for present safety, and
nothing for future welfare. The
Government, the ruling class, the
Ottomans, have been sustained at
no matter what cost. The subjects,
and especially the Christian SUBJ
jects, have been neglected, thrust
aside in scern, stripped by the mad
dest taxation, and still farther
stripped by official brigandage.
What Turkish intelligence and
honesty in financial matters have
amounted to may be judged by the
fact that the plaster, which began
life as a Spanish dollar, is now worth
less than five cents. The prosperity
of the commercial classes and the
general wealth of the country have
probably diminished in the same
ratio with the depreciation of the
currency. The Government has
lived on debased money, plumber
and corruption. Amurath w.
and the case was not singular-left
three hundred and sixty millions in
French gold, mainly obtained by
the sale of offices. Imagine what
must have been the extortiOn and
thievery, what must have been the
selling of justice and the doing of
in a civil service thus man
aged! Long since would such a
have fallen to ruin had
not Western Europe held it essen
tial to its balance of power. Now
that it no longer secures that equi-
librium, shall it be suffered to con-
tinue its harassing and wastings?
/ find it impossible to have pa
tience with the idea that the Otto
mans should remain where they
are. They have been more than
five centuries in Europe, and they
have done it naught but evil. They
have learned nothing from the Ary-
an race, and that race has learned
from them. 1t is difficult
TO comprehend how people, even
armOred in a hostile faith,
could abide so long among European
peoples and acquire so little of their
ways of thinking, feeling, acting
and being. One is tempted to infer
that ethnic differences reach deeper
than the shape and color of man ;
that they must be grained for all
time in his moral and intellectual
nature. In this case of the Turk,
seems impossible. To
expel him will be easier than to
make him one of us-far easier,
surely, than to endure him as he has
been, and is.
Let me insist upon this opposition
Of the Ottoman nature to the Euro
pean. He shuts up and enslaves
as no people of our kindred
ever did, not even the men of re-
motest known antiquity. He is
utterly incapable of discerning the
of that classic literature
which every Western race accepts
As It's perfect example of elOquence
and beauty. Hesees nothing worth
in Grecian sculpture, or
in Grecian and Roman architecture,
Or in any fashion of painting. He
held the Parthenon for ages, only to
make it mark for his bullets.
Over the ruins of Ilium and hum
lred other famed cities, illustrious
N the story of humanity, he tram
DIed for centuries, and would SEEM
ngly have trampled for an eternity,
without knowing more of them
han the beasts which pastured
here. OF the brotherhood of man
ne has had no conception, or he has
1oorishly and inhumanly denied it.
AS he has felt no interest in the he
.Oic past, SO he has exhibited no care
or the economic future. Upon the
ARREST lands of earth, upon the nurs-
ng places of the eldest civilizations,
ne has sat like an accurseG Afreet,
and noXiOus, making
If them abodes of ignorance and
sorrow, and failing little of turning
hem into deserts.
One manly virtue he has: he is
brave as Sioux or a Ma
,ri; yes, and very nearly as savage.
IN former wars with Christians he
,ut off heads and ears as trophies.
IN this war he has butchered the
tortured prisoners, vio-
ated women, executed unarmed
and refused to his vic
inns the decorum of burial. Even
lis bravery has been in no manner
benefit to humanity, not even as
stimulus to valiant self-devotion
or others. What European or
American youth will ever die for a
great cause with more willingness
n more exaltation of soul because of
he example of such courageous
,rute beasts as the defenders of
oIevna, the murderers of captives ?
As we'll think of winning men to
through the contemplation
f man-eating tiger or q wolf at |
,ay. 1t is true that centuries ago |
,ur own forefathers were needlessly |
erOcious. But it lCds centuries ago. |
And here, in our age of protean
ompassion, in the light of thegent-
est civilization that earth has
,noWn, the Turk is Modoc enough
o bury alive brave foes taken in
)attle.
TT :. 10 sonopxroy.fiIla Ac a