Page 109 - Beholding Liberty!

the members of the Society cultivated the idea that their movement was supported by Russia and that it had the blessing of the Patriarch.
After 1818, the Friends started visiting local Greek communities, and as
a result, on the eve of the Revolution, the Society had recruited members from almost all the important regions
and social groups of Hellenism:
most of the notables of the Peloponnese were initiated in it, while considerable was also the participation of the islands of the Aegean, the Ionian islands and Epirus.
As to their professional capacities,
the recruited came from various domains: they were merchants, doctors, secretaries et al., as well as notables
of provinces, clergymen of all ranks, armatoles and klephts. However,
the most numerous class of continental Greece, namely the farmers, very rarely were encountered among
the members.
The leadership of the Society was assumed by the Supreme Authority,
which initially comprised only
the founders of the organization,
in the period 1815-1818, though, it was enlarged, while it soon became evident that it was necessary to look for
a leader of panhellenic recognition
and international influence. Thus,
in the early days of 1820 the Friends approached Ioannis Kapodistrias, minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia, offering him the leadership.
When he declined, the proposal
was redirected to Alexandros Ypsilantis, officer of the Russian army, who accepted it, undertaking the role of General Commissioner of the Authority. In early 1821 the initiated were
by then in their thousands in
the Balkan peninsula and the expatriate communities. In January Grigorios Dikaios or Papaflessas had been sent
to the Peloponnese, in order to incite the notables and the prelates to rebellion. Everything was ready for the uprising
of the Greeks.
Prelude
The preparation of the Struggle
«You fought then, o! magnanimous and brave children of the Old Greeks, all together united the barbaric tyrants of Greece. [...] Driving away the Turks from Greece shall make you more glorious even than the likes of Miltiades, Themistocles, Leonidas». A. Korais, Martial Trumpet Call, s.l. 1821
Η ΑΦΥΠΝΙΣΗ ΤΟΥ ΕΛΛΗΝΙΣΜΟΥ Από την αρχαιολατρία στον Φιλελληνισμό 109