[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 39 (Thursday, April 7, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E588-E589]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         GREEK INDEPENDENCE DAY

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                         HON. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN

                              of maryland

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, April 5, 2005

  Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I am honored to rise today and join the 
millions of my fellow Americans in commemorating Greek Independence Day 
which, on March 25th celebrated the 184th anniversary of the rebellion 
and the struggle of the Greek people against the Ottoman Empire.
  What makes Greek Independence Day so special here in America is that 
it reminds us of the strong principles and bonds that the U.S. and 
Greece share. In looking into the struggles of our two nations, we 
realize how much our struggles have in common, and how much each 
country has been influenced by the other.
  Greece and the United States are bound by an absolute commitment to 
the democratic ideals of justice and freedom and continue to be strong 
allies. By commemorating Greek Independence Day, we also celebrate the 
strength and the resolve of the human spirit that has been the 
inspiration of us all.
  I am very pleased to place into the record a statement made on this 
184th anniversary of Greek independence written by one of my 
constituents, Constantinos Nicolaou.
  The greatness of the human spirit, regardless of any efforts to 
suppress it, will always rise against tyranny and oppression and will 
start revolutions where heroism will pay any price, even the ultimate 
sacrifice of life, in order to gain freedom and independence.
  Every time we commemorate heroism such as the one exhibited by the 
Greeks on March 25, 1821 and during the ensuing struggle for their 
freedom, we cannot help but think of our great founding fathers, who 
were so much influenced by the ancient Greeks in their struggles for 
freedom and the creation of what had become the freest, most democratic 
country in history, the United States of America.
  Thomas Jefferson looked to the ancient Greek philosophers and their 
teachings as an inspiration in trying to create a fair, strong, 
democratic state. And it was not accidental that many of the Greek 
leaders of the 1821 revolution, turned to America for inspiration as 
they were embarking in their struggle for freedom.
  Both nations were faced with seemingly insurmountable struggles, 
rising against empires to claim their rights to life, liberty and the 
pursuit of happiness. Both nations became triumphant at the end, 
because of their love of freedom. The great American Patriot, Patrick 
Henry, proclaimed, Give me liberty or give me death.'' The Greek 
patriots went to battle proclaiming, ``Eleftheria I Thanatos'' --
liberty or death.

[[Page E589]]

  As with the American Revolution, the Greek revolution is filled with 
stories of heroism and sacrifice. News of such heroism and sacrifice 
met with strong feelings of support by the American public and by their 
politicians, including President James Monroe and John Quincy Adams, 
who expressed their support for the Greek revolution through their 
annual messages to congress. Henry Clay, our secretary of state in 
1825, was very vocal in his support of Greece's fight for independence. 
Daniel Webster, more often than not, influenced his colleagues in 
looking into the Greek struggle with sympathetic interests.
  It is, of course, no surprise that our Founding Fathers and other 
prominent Americans were supportive of the Greek struggle for 
independence. As mentioned, they themselves had been inspired by the 
ancient Greeks. Thomas Jefferson, of all the Founding Fathers, had a 
particular affinity for Greece, not only because of its classical 
republican philosophy but also because of his studies of the origins of 
languages. He expressed that affinity many times, as in a letter to 
John Brazier on August 24, 1819. In that letter, Thomas Jefferson 
address ``Mr. Pickering's Memoir of the Modern Greek,'' and the Memoirs 
review by Brazier. He tells Brazier, ``I had been much pleased with the 
memoir, and was much also with your review of it. I have little hope 
indeed of recovery of the ancient pronunciation of the finest of human 
languages, but still I rejoice to the attention the subject seems to 
excite with you, because it is evidence that our country begins to have 
a taste for something more than merely as much Greek as will pass a 
candidate for clerical ordination . . . Among the values of c1assical 
learning, I estimate the luxury of learning the Greek and Roman authors 
in all the beauties of their originals. And why should not this 
innocent and elegant luxury take its preeminent stand ahead of all 
those addressed merely to the senses? I think myself more indebted to 
my father for this that for all other luxuries his cares and affections 
have placed within my reach.''

  Jefferson expressed his empathies with Greece revolting against its 
Ottoman rulers. In an 1823 letter to Adamantios Coray, the Greek 
patriot and scholar that he had met in Paris years earlier, he stated:

     . . . You have certainly began at the right end towards 
     preparing them [the Greek people] for the great object they 
     are now contending for, by improving their minds and 
     qualifying them for self-government. For this they will owe 
     you lasting honors. Nothing is more likely to forward this 
     object than a study of the fine models of science left by 
     their ancestors; to whom we also are all indebted for the 
     lights which originally led ourselves out of Gothic darkness.

  No people sympathize more feelingly than ours with the suffering of 
your countrymen; none offer more sincere and ardent prayers to heaven 
for their success. And nothing indeed but the fundamental principle of 
our government never to entangle us with the broils of Europe could 
restrain our generous youth from taking some part in this holy cause. 
Possessing ourselves the combined blessing of liberty and order, we 
wish the same to other countries, and to none more than yours, which 
she first of civilized nations presented examples of what man should 
be.
  The ties that bind America and Greece go, of course, far beyond their 
parallel and noble struggles for freedom. The philosophical and 
cultural connections, although little known to the public at large, 
could not be stronger or better assimilated. Such connections were born 
almost at the same time with the birth of our nation, if not before. In 
his excellent study of ``Lincoln at Gettysburg,'' Gary Wills tells us:

       America as a second Athens was an idea whose moment had 
     come in the nineteenth century . . . In the early 19th 
     century, an era that became known as America's Greek Revival 
     was taking shape. Archaeological discoveries in Greece at the 
     time brought the ancient democracy to mind just as modern 
     Greece began its struggle for freedom from the Turks.
       Edward Everett, President of Harvard, founder of Mount 
     Auburn, congressman, Massachusetts's governor, minister to 
     the Court of St. James's in London, senator, secretary of 
     state and principal speaker at Gettysburg years later, was 
     the leader of the Greek Revival. Harvard established its new 
     chair of ancient Greek studies for him. While studying in 
     Germany, Everett went to Greece, ``to walk over the 
     battlefields where the first democracy of the West won its 
     freedom.'' He returned to America convinced that a new Athens 
     was rising here. His appearances, ``prompted rallies for 
     Greek independence''--a favorite cause of Everett.
       Everett's prestige influenced others, including historian 
     George Bancroft, whose ``main interest was Greek history.''. 
     . . Bancroft was ahead of the wave of histories that would 
     glorify Periclean Athens in Victorian England. Direct 
     democracy, a flawed system in republican theory, was 
     rehabilitated, for its usefulness in the parliamentary reform 
     movement, by British historians like George Grote. In 
     America, a similar motion toward government by the people, 
     not just for the republic, was signaled by an enthusiasm for 
     Greek symbols. Barcroft became a Jacksonian Democrat when he 
     began to apply historical skills formed on the Attic 
     democracy to America's development. Walter Savage Landor 
     recognized what was happening in America when he dedicated 
     the second volume of his Pericles and Aspasia to President 
     Andrew Jackson.''

  Greece and the United States, bound by their absolute commitment to 
freedom and justice, have always been the strongest of the allies. 
Greece stood by us and fought with us in every single war or conflict 
since we both gained our freedom. And we always stood by Greece, and 
although at times we appeared to have forgotten how loyal and valuable 
the Greeks had been to us, our ultimate commitment to their freedom and 
wellbeing never wavered.
  And as we commemorate and fight to free all people, let us remember 
that some other friends of ours are still agonizing and asking for our 
help in fighting forces of evil still occupying their land and their 
homes. The people of the Republic of Cyprus, Greeks and Turks and all 
others, should be given more active support by our great nation in 
their efforts to reunite the island and get rid of the occupying 
forces. U.S. leadership is essential, and now it is the time that we 
should remember that the Cypriot people are where we had been, and they 
are striving for what we have earned long time ago, that is, their 
right to freedom, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
  It is essential that American leadership urges Turkish and Turkish 
Cypriot leaders towards peace. These are the two sides that hold in 
their hands, to the largest extent, the peaceful solution to the Cyprus 
problem. A solution that undoubtedly will benefit all the people of 
Cyprus, but it will also benefit the nations of Greece and Turkey, will 
stabilize the region, and will strengthen the bonds and relationships 
between the United States and the countries involved in the conflict.
  As we commemorate Greek Independence Day, we are celebrating the 
strength and the resolve of the human spirit as well as man's unbending 
will in the pursuit of freedom. The people of ancient Greece gave us 
values and ethics and showed us how to fight for freedom and democracy. 
Our country, more than any other country, shares those values and 
ethics, and in days such as this we reaffirm our common democratic 
heritage with the Greek people. The commemoration and celebration 
remind us also that we should stay forever vigilant in fighting for and 
protecting our freedom and our democracy, least we loose the right to 
determine our lives and our future.
  Dionisios Solomos was the great poet who transformed in his poetry 
the unparalleled struggle and the sacrifices of Hellenism in the 
pursuit of Freedom. The Revolution so much influenced his poetry that 
he is considered the national poet of Greece. One of his most inspired 
poems, Hymn to Liberty, has almost become synonymous to that Revolution 
and it became Greece's National Anthem. The poem was published in 1825, 
along with translations in Italian, French and English.
  The Revolution would have never been the same without Solomos. The 
enthusiasm of the fighters, as well as the international sympathy among 
the Philhellenes would have definitely been smaller without the Hymn to 
Liberty.
  Probably nowhere has Solomos's vision of Liberty depicted better than 
here, in the United States. Here, in the Rotunda of our own Capital 
Hill, we see a most wonderful painting of Liberty, with the sword in 
hand chasing her enemies, exactly the way Solomos envisioned her in his 
Hymn to Liberty. This figure was painted by another son of Greece, one 
who really grasped Solomos's vision of Liberty, Constantino Brumidi.
  And as a tribute to the United States, Solomos envisions our country 
rejoicing in seeing Greece fighting for Freedom. He describes the 
American feelings this way:

     Most heartily was gladdened
     George Washington's brave land:
     For the iron bonds remembered,
     Her old slavery's cruel brand.

  We live today in a great, free country. Our country became great, and 
will always be so, because the spirit and the morals that we share with 
Greece, as so eloquently expressed by Solomos, will always be with us.

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