Part 7 (1/2)
The deep sympathy which prevailed in every section of the Union, was soon felt in Congress. Many public men were anxious that the Government should take some important and decisive step, even to hostilities, in behalf of Greece. Eloquent speeches were delivered in the House of Representatives on the exciting topic. Mr. Clay electrified the country with his stirring appeals in behalf of the land in which was established the first republic on earth. Mr. Webster submitted the following resolution to the House of Representatives:--
”Resolved, That provision ought to be made by law, for defraying the expense incident to the appointment of an Agent, or Commissioner, to Greece, whenever the President shall deem it expedient to make such appointment.”
In support of this resolution, Mr. Webster made a most eloquent speech, of which the following is the conclusion:--
”Mr. Chairman--There are some things which, to be well done, must be promptly done. If we even determine to do the thing that is now proposed, we may do it too late Sir, I am not of those who are for withholding aid when it is most urgently needed, and when the stress is past, and the aid no longer necessary, overwhelming the sufferers with caresses. I will not stand by and see my fellow-man drowning, without stretching out a hand to help him, till he has, by his own efforts and presence of mind, reached the sh.o.r.e in safety, and then enc.u.mber him with aid. With suffering Greece, now is the crisis of her fate--her great, it may be her last struggle. Sir, while we sit here deliberating, her destiny may be decided.
The Greeks, contending with ruthless oppressors, turn their eyes to us, and invoke us, by their ancestors, by their slaughtered wives and children, by their own blood poured out like water, by the hecatombs of dead they have heaped up, as it were, to heaven; they invoke, they implore from us some cheering sound, some look of sympathy, some token of compa.s.sionate regard. They look to us as the great Republic of the earth--and they ask us, by our common faith, whether we can forget that they are struggling, as we once struggled, for what we now so happily enjoy? I cannot say, sir, they will succeed; that rests with heaven. But, for myself, sir, if I should to-morrow hear that they have failed--that their last phalanx had sunk beneath the Turkish cimetar, that the flames of their last city had sunk in its ashes, and that nought remained but the wide, melancholy waste where Greece once was--I should still reflect, with the most heartfelt satisfaction, that I have asked you, in the name of seven millions of freemen, that you would give them, at least, the cheering of one friendly voice.”
The committee having in charge the raising of a fund for the a.s.sistance of the Greeks, in New York, addressed a circular to the venerable ex-President John Adams, to which they received the following reply:--
”Quincy, Dec. 29, 1823.
”GENTLEMEN:--I have received your circular of the 12th inst., and I thank you for the honor you have done me in addressing it to me. Be a.s.sured my heart beats in unison with yours, and with those of your const.i.tuents, and I presume with all the really civilized part of mankind, in sympathy with the Greeks, suffering, as they are, in the great cause of liberty and humanity. The gentlemen of Boston have taken measures to procure a general subscription in their favor, through the State, and I shall contribute my mite with great pleasure. In the meantime I wish you, and all other gentlemen engaged in the virtuous work, all the success you or they can wish; for I believe no effort in favor of virtue will be ultimately lost.
”I have the honor to be, Gentlemen, your very humble Servant, ”JOHN ADAMS.”
The sympathies of John Quincy Adams were ardently enlisted in behalf of the Greek Revolution. But with a prudence and wisdom which characterized all his acts, he threw his influence against any direct interference on the part of the Government of the United States. It would have been a departure from that neutral policy, in regard to European conflicts, on which the country had acted from the commencement of our national existence, alike injurious and dangerous. He knew if we once entered into these wars, on any pretext whatever, a door would be opened for foreign entanglements and endless conflicts, which would result in standing armies, immense national debts, and the long trail of evils of which they are the prolific source.
When an application was made to Mr. Adams, as Secretary of State, through Mr. Rush, our Minister at London, by an Agent of Greece, for aid from the United States, he was compelled, on principles above stated, to withhold the required a.s.sistance. The correspondence which grew out of this application is sufficiently interesting to find a place in these pages:--
”Andreas Luriottis, Envoy of the Provisional Government of Greece, to the Hon. John Quincy Adams, Secretary of State to the United States of America.
SIR:--I feel no slight emotion, while, in behalf of Greece, my country, struggling for independence and liberty, I address myself to the United States of America.
”The independence for which we combat, you have achieved. The liberty to which we look, with anxious solicitude, you have obtained, and consolidated in peace and in glory.
”Yet Greece, old Greece, the seat of early civilization and freedom, stretches out her hands, imploringly, to a land which sprung into being, as it were, ages after her own l.u.s.tre had been extinguished! and ventures to hope that the youngest and most vigorous sons of liberty, will regard, with no common sympathy, the efforts of the descendants of the heir and the elder born, whose precepts and whose example have served--though insufficient, hitherto, for our complete regeneration--to regenerate half a world.
”I know, Sir, that the sympathies of the generous people of the United States have been extensively directed towards us; and since I have reached this country, an interview with their Minister, Mr. Rush, has served to convince me more strongly, how great their claim is on our grat.i.tude and our affection. May I hope that some means may be found to communicate these our feelings, of which I am so proud to be the organ? We will still venture to rely on their friends.h.i.+p. We would look to their individual, if not to their national, co-operation. Every, the slightest, a.s.sistance under present circ.u.mstances, will aid the progress of the great work of liberty; and if, standing, as we have stood, alone and unsupported, with everything opposed to us, and nothing to encourage us but patriotism, enthusiasm, and sometimes even despair: if thus we have gone forward, liberating our provinces, one after another, and subduing every force which has been directed against us, what may we not do with the a.s.sistance for which we venture to appeal to the generous and the free?
”Precipitated by circ.u.mstances into that struggle for independence, which, ever since the domination of our cruel and reckless tyrants, had never ceased to be the object of our vows and prayers, we have, by the blessing of G.o.d, freed a considerable part of Greece from the ruthless invaders.
The Peloponnesus, Etolia, Carmania, Attica, Phocida, Boetia, and the Islands of the Archipelago and Candia, are nearly free. The armies and the fleets which have been sent against us, have been subdued by the valor of our troops and our marine. Meanwhile we have organized a government, founded upon popular suffrages: and you will probably have seen how closely our organic law a.s.similates to that const.i.tution under which your nation so happily and so securely lives.
”I have been sent hither by the government of Greece, to obtain a.s.sistance in our determined enterprize, on which we, like you, have staked our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor: and I believe my journey has not been wholly without success. I should have been wanting to my duty had I not addressed you, supplicating the earliest display of your amiable purposes; entreating that diplomatic relations may be established between us; communicating the most earnest desire of my government that we may be allowed to call you allies as well as friends; and stating that we shall rejoice to enter upon discussions which may lead to immediate and advantageous treaties, and to receive diplomatic agents without delay.
Both at Madrid and at Lisbon, I have been received with great kindness by the American Representative, and am pleased to record the expression of my grat.i.tude.
”Though, fortunately, you are so far removed, and raised so much above the narrow politics of Europe as to be little influenced by their vicissitudes, I venture to believe that Mr. Rush will explain to you the changes which have taken place, and are still in action around us, in our favor. And I conclude, rejoicing in the hope that North America and Greece may be united in the bonds of long-enduring, and unbroken concord: and have the honor to be, with every sentiment of respect, your obedient humble servant.
”AND. LURIOTTIS.
'London, February 20, 1823.”
MR. ADAMS TO MR. RUSH.
”Department of State, Was.h.i.+ngton, 18th August, 1823.
”SIR:--I have the honor of inclosing, herewith, an answer to the letter from Mr. Luriottis, the Agent of the Greeks addressed to me, and a copy of which was transmitted with your dispatch No. 295.
”If, upon the receipt of this letter, Mr. Luriottis should still be in London, it will be desirable that you should deliver it to him in person, accompanied with such remarks and explanations as may satisfy him, and those whom he represents, that, in declining the proposal of giving active aid to the cause of Grecian emanc.i.p.ation, the Executive Government of the United States has been governed not by its inclinations, or a sentiment of indifference to the cause, but by its const.i.tutional duties, clear and unequivocal.