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tianity, to draw the attention of the House to the circumstances which have accompanied that struggle, and to the principles which appear to have governed the conduct of the great States of Europe in regard to it; and to the effects and consequences of these principles upon the independence of nations, and especially upon the institutions of free Governments. What I have to say of Greece, therefore, concerns the modern, not the ancient; the living, and not the dead. It regards her, not as she exists in history, triumphant over time, and tyranny, and ignorance; but as she now is, contending, against fearful odds, for being, and for the common privilege of human nature.'

He spends but little time on these things, however congenial and lovely they may be to him. He stops not to view the groves of the academy, the fountains of inspiration, nor the mountains where rang the songs of the never-dying Muse. Neither the wisdom of Socrates, nor the justice of the Areopagus, nor even the eloquence of Pericles, or Demosthenes, detain him for a moment. He weighs his own country in the balance of political justice, and considers what she ought to do in the cause of freedom and of man. He approves of her peaceful policy, and at the same time of her independence in speaking her mind upon all questions having any bearing on the great principles on which her government is founded. 'We are placed,' said he, 'by our good fortune, and the wisdom and valor of our ancestors, in a condition in which we can act no obscure part; be it for honor, be it for dishonor, whatever we do, is not likely to escape the observation of the world.' The speaker boldly declares the nature of our Govern

ment and delineates her peculiar features, and states openly that she can take but one side in such a contest, without abandoning, which she is not likely to do, her fundamental principles. He then brings up the Holy Alliance, and shows beyond a question, that the principles laid down by them, as far as they were developed, were not favorable to the rights of man. They still held to the divine rights of kings, and all the alleviation to be expected by the people must be considered gifts from them, not the rightful claims of their subjects. While the teachers of Laybach give the rule, there will be no law but the law of the strongest.' This law was promulgated to the world in a circular, dated 1821. He inquires what interest we have in resisting the doctrines of the Holy Alliance.

'It may now be required of me to show what interest we have, in resisting this new system. What is it to us, it may be asked, upon what principles, or what pretences, the European governments assert a right of interfering in the affairs of their neighbors? The thunder, it may be said, rolls at a distance. The wide Atlantic is between us and danger; and, however others may suffer, we shall remain safe.

I think it a sufficient answer to this, to say, that we are one of the nations; that we have an interest, therefore, in the preservation of that system of national law and national intercourse, which has heretofore subsisted, so beneficially for all. Our system of government, it should also be remembered, is, throughout, founded on principles utterly hostile to the new code; and, if we remain undisturbed by its operation, we shall owe our security, either to our situation or our spirit. The enter prising character of the age, our own active commercial

spirit, the great increase which has taken place in the intercourse between civilized and commercial States, have necessarily connected us with the nations of the earth, and given us a high concern in the preservation of those salutary principles, upon which that intercourse is founded. We have as clear an interest in international law, as individuals have in the laws of society.

'But, apart from the soundness of the policy, on the ground of direct interest, we have, sir, a duty, connected with this subject, which I trust we are willing to perform. What do we not owe to the cause of civil and religious liberty? to the principle of lawful resistance? to the principle that society has a right to partake in its own government? As the leading republic of the world, living and breathing in these principles, and advanced, by their operation, with unequalled rapidity in our career, shall we give our consent to bring them into disrepute and disgrace? It is neither ostentation nor boasting to say, that there lie before this country, in immediate prospect, a great extent and height of power. We are borne along towards this without effort, and not always even with a full knowledge of the rapidity of our own motion. Circumstances which never combined before, have co-operated in our favor, and a mighty current is setting us forward, which we could not resist, even if we would, and which, while we would stop to make an observation, and take the sun, has set us, at the end of the operation, far in advance of the place where we commenced it. Does it not become us, then, is it not a duty imposed on us, to give our weight to the side of liberty and justice-to let mankind know that we are not tired of our own institutions-and to protest against the asserted power of altering, at pleasure, the law of the civilized world?

'But, whatever we do, in this respect, it becomes us to do upon clear and consistent principles. There is an important topic in the Message, to which I have yet hardly alluded. I mean the rumored combination of the European continental sovereigns, against the new estab

lished free States of South America. Whatever position this Government may take on that subject, I trust it will be one which can be defended, on known and acknowleged grounds of right. The near approach, or the remote distance of danger, may affect policy, but cannot change principle. The same reason that would authorise us to protest against unwarrantable combinations to interfere between Spain and her former colonies, would authorise us equally to protest, if the same combination were directed against the smallest State in Europe, although our duty to ourselves, our policy, and wisdom, might indicate very different courses, as fit to be pursued by us in the two cases. We shall not, I trust, act upon the notion of dividing the world with the Holy Alliance, and complain of nothing done by them in their hemisphere, if they will not interfere with ours.

At least this would not be such a course of policy as I could recommend or support. We have not offended, and, I hope, we do not intend to offend, in regard to South America, against any principle of national independence or of public law. We have done nothing, we shall do nothing, that we need to hush up or to compromise, by forbearing to express our sympathy for the cause of the Greeks, or our opinion of the course which other Governments have adopted in regard to them.'

The speaker gives a condensed account of the state of Greece, as she then was in the early part of the late struggle. The description is forcibly drawn, not colored by the imagination, or spread out into rhetorical beauties for display. It is truth, such as is well understood by all men who think, and such as is or will be felt by all nations who regard their own rights.

'I shall not detain the Committee, Sir, by laying before it any statistical, geographical, or commercial account of Greece. I have no knowledge on these subjects,

which is not common to all. It is universally admitted, that, within the last thirty or forty years, the condition of Greece has been greatly improved. Her marine is at present respectable, containing the best sailors in the Mediterranean, better even, in that sea, than our own, as more accustomed to the long quarantines, and other regulations which prevail in its ports. The number of her seamen has been estimated as high as 50,000, but I suppose that estimate must be much too large. They have probably 150,000 tons of shipping. It is not easy to state an accurate account of Grecian population. The Turkish Government does not trouble itself with any of the calculations of political economy, and there has never been such a thing as an accurate census, probably, in any part of the Turkish empire. In the absence of all official information, private opinions widely differ. By the tables which have been communicated, it would seem that there are 2,400,000 Greeks in Greece proper and the islands; an amount, as I am inclined to think, somewhat overrated. There are, probably, in the whole of European Turkey, 5,000,000 Greeks, and 2,000,000 more in the Asiatic dominions of that power. The moral and intellectual progress of this numerous population, under the horrible oppression which crushes it, has been such as may well excite regard. Slaves, under barbarous masters, the Greeks have still aspired after the blessings of knowledge and civilisation. Before the breaking out of the present revolution, they had established schools, and colleges, and libraries, and the press. Wherever, as in Scio, owing to particular circumstances, the weight of oppression was mitigated, the natural vivacity of the Greeks, and their aptitude for the arts, were discovered. Though certainly not on an equality with the civilised and Christian States of Europe, and how is it possible under such oppression as they endured that they should be? they yet furnished a striking contrast with their Tartar masters. It has been well said, that it is not easy to form a just conception of the nature of the despotism exercised over them. Conquest and subjuga

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