p. 117 | The Greek Manifesto

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Feb 12, 1867

The Greek Manifesto.

FROM “A declaration of the people of Epirus and Thessaly,” issued by the Provincial Government which was established by the Greek insurgents in those provinces, we make the following extract, which shows the character of the Turkish Government: “Many years have elapsed since Europe took upon itself the humane duty of directing the Turkish Government in the path of humanity and justice toward its Christian subjects. But how vain have been its humane endeavors. Instead of justice and observance of the law, repeatedly promised by official acts and by treaties, the Turkish Government, in the last few years especially, has extended its barbarous system in Epirus and Thessaly to a degree that our patience, so long tried, is at last exhausted, and such have been our trials, that for us Christians

there is neither government nor law, or even a shadow of legal justice. Our honor, our lives, are the spoil of injustice and perversity, as well as the bad habits of our rulers; and this is but natural in a power that looks upon us as cattle. The oppressions, the forced labors and the daily imposition of taxes, have reduced us to such poverty and misery that our life has become that of cattle more than human beings. Ragged and impoverished, we can hardly earn our daily bread by the sweat of our brow; and it is taken from our mouths by Turkish authorities, that they may live in debauchery and Asiatic extravagance. The system of forced labor—a system of the lowest barbarity, imposed, as it is upon us, without intermission—instead of humbling it has still more kindled in us the feeling which the knowledge of human value dictates; and has made us not only despise life, but it has strengthened in our hearts the determination to court death rather than be obliged to offer ourselves as the beasts of burthen. Such a life we wish not for; and may our merciful Father justify our rash resolution, and the enlightened and civilized world in its humanity may not blame us, but, on the contrary, in its sympathy, extend to us its aid, that by it may be avoided the misfortune which, in our determination to die, we incur by undertaking such an unequal strife—the misfortune of the extirpation of our race.”