The Massachusetts Spy

Extract from an oration delivered before the P. B. K. Society, at New-Haven, by Dr. James G. Percival, the poet.

"Perhaps even now the sons of the Greeks are exerting an equal bravery against a race of barbarians more relentless and more cruel. The world is, indeed, presented with a singular spectacle. "Christians are united with Turks to murder Christians; and this to preserve an abstract balance of power. A nation in fetters descended from the nation that every scholar idolizes, and every lover of freedom looks to as to its original father--that nation is struggling to break its yoke, and assert its rights and liberties. They have seen their brethren butchered, tortured and enslaved. They are threatened with their own extermination, without a friendly power to cheer or an ally to protect them; and yet, against this fearful odds, they do not yield, but, with the spirit of ancient Athens, devote themselves to liberty or death. There is no other alternative. If Christian nations look on unconcerned; if they aid their oppressors, and thwart their generous efforts; if free nations move not at their call, what can they expect but the scimetar of the Turk and the fate of Scio. They tell us the Greeks have invited their destiny; that they have set the first example, and given the first blow. Can a people suffer for centuries and not be exasperated? Can they be governed by unfeeling barbarians, and not strive to break their yoke? And if in the excitement they do retaliate, should we blame? Human nature cannot bear forever. Cold indeed must be the heart, and weak the hand, that would not avenge the death of a parent and brother, and the dishonour and slavery of a wife and sister.

"But we are far removed from the sight and hearing of these enormities. They come to us only as the last echo of a dirge, & the dying fall of a tempest. We sit beneath our quiet roofs, and hear the war of the winds at a distance: and as we gather around our cheerful fire-sides, we feel a new pleasure that all within is so pleasant, and all without so cold and stormy."