[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 36 (Friday, March 25, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: March 25, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                         GREEK INDEPENDENCE DAY

  Mr. SARBANES. Mr. President, I would like to take this opportunity to 
rise in observance of March 25, 1994, a day when millions of Greeks 
around the world join in celebrating the 173d anniversary of Greece's 
independence.
  Indeed today we pay tribute to Greek and American democracy and a 
historic legacy of respect for the individual with which both are 
profoundly imbued. The famous classical scholar Edith Hamilton once 
noted, on being named an honorary citizen of Athens in 1957:

       Freedom was a Greek discovery. The Greeks were the first 
     free nation in the world. Greece rose because there was in 
     the Greeks the greatest spirit that moves in humanity--the 
     spirit that makes men free.

  Greece and America have enjoyed a friendship which has prospered for 
more than 170 years, dating back to our Founding Fathers. I should note 
that the American leadership during the 18th century recognized the 
important role of ancient Greece in shaping the American Constitution.
  In fact, the Federalist Papers make numerous references to and 
contain extended discussions of the forms of ancient Greek governance. 
The prominent American historian Henry Steele Commager has described 
the extent to which the architects of the American Revolution and 
authors of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the 
Bill of Rights were ardent students of the classics, Thucydides, 
Plutarch and others, and the ancient Greek ideas of liberty and 
citizenship. To be sure, Pericles' profound words of 2,000 years ago 
are just as pertinent today as they were in America in its early days:

       Our Constitution is called a democracy because power is in 
     the hands not of a minority but of the whole people. When it 
     is a question of settling private disputes, everyone is equal 
     before the law; when it is a question of putting one person 
     before another in positions of public responsibility, what 
     counts is not membership of a particular class, but the 
     actual ability which the man possesses.

  As our forefathers drew inspiration from ancient Greece's democratic 
example, Greek patriots struggling to regain independence from four 
centuries of Ottoman rule in turn looked to the American revolution for 
strength in the face of tremendous adversity. Thomas Jefferson wrote to 
the Greeks as they sought their own independence:

       Possessing ourselves the combined blessing of liberty and 
     order, we wish the same to other countries and to none more 
     than yours, which as the first of civilized nations presented 
     examples of what men should be.

  President James Monroe observed that Americans not only participated 
in but were keenly aware of the valiant efforts of the Greek community 
on behalf of cherished individual freedoms and a return of Greece to 
its roots as the ``Birthplace of Democracy.'' The great American 
legislator Daniel Webster also spoke eloquently for the cause of Greek 
Independence on the floor of the House of Representatives during the 
early stages of the decade-long march toward independence. Similarly to 
Jefferson's remarks, Webster stated of the Greeks:

       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 now struggling for what we can now so ably enjoy?

  In this century, Greece and America have maintained close relations 
based on mutual respect and a shared commitment to democratic 
principles, values and individual freedoms. During World War I, both 
nations forged a steadfast alliance. During the Second World War, 
Greeks heroically resisted the brutal Nazi occupation, defeated 
Mussolini's legions, and contributed in no small part to the allied 
victory over Hitler and the Axis powers. At the cold war's genesis, 
President Truman and the American people committed to helping Greece 
turn back a Communist insurgency and rebuild the war-ravaged nation. As 
we approach the end of the century in a post-cold-war era, Greece 
continues to play an important role as a valued member of the 
international community and within NATO and the European Union. 
Regrettably, I must mention that the struggle for freedom is not over 
and will remain incomplete as long as the occupation of Cyprus 
continues. In keeping with such a rich heritage of liberty and freedom, 
Greeks everywhere cannot rest until peace and justice are restored to 
Cyprus and its people.
  Mr. President, it is fitting today that we rededicate ourselves to 
the principles which inspired the free and democratic peoples of 
America and Greece. I would like to close by reading from today's 
Presidential proclamation for this occasion which I feel highlights a 
new era of close bonds between our two nations and the emerging 
democracies around the world:

       Encouraged by the triumphs of our histories and the 
     continuity of our friendship, Greeks and Americans everywhere 
     join today in wishing the world's newest democracies a future 
     worthy of our past--one of great prosperity and lasting 
     peace.

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