Page 239 - Beholding Liberty!

HALL OF THE TROPHIES
ΙΙ.4.11
The Friend of the Law, f. 120, p. 3 (25 May 1825)
Speech of Spyridon Trikoupis against the discord in the general amnesty ceremony Library of the Hellenic Parliament
THE SECOND PHASE of the civil war, un- der the pressing circumstances of Ibrahim’s presence and that of the Turkish-Egyptian forces, concludes with the granting of general amnesty. Spyridon Trik- oupis, as member of the Legislative, delivers, on 19th May 1825 in Nafplio, the panegyric in the ceremony of general amnesty, in the presence of the mem- bers of the Administration and a crowd of people. He exclaims: «But until when my brothers, we will be
blinded? Until when we will place the sharpest sword of our wild passions in the hands of our disrespect- ful tyrant?». Then, he invokes the blood of the dead, «the revered bodies», the «sacred slaughtered» of the Revolution, to call the Greeks to agree and act to- gether. And concludes urging them: «Let patriotism brighten from now on our confused mind. Let sincer- ity reign in our heart, love and compassion precede as a cloud of fire all our intentions and our works».
ΙΙ.4.12
Georgios Lassanis
Discords of the Greeks
Archive of G. Lassanis
handwritten poem composed by 41 verses, contained in a manuscript of 24 pages Library of the Hellenic Parliament
THE THEME of the civil discord had also occu- pied the Member of the Society of Friends, Georgios Lassanis, in two theatrical plays of his, the one-act drama Hellas and the Foreigner, in which he stresses the importance of Greece being based on its own forces, «Because never a foreigner helps a foreign- er, unless expecting great profits», and the tragedy Harmodios and Aristogeiton, its theme inspired by antiquity, which condemns the institution of tyran- ny as synonymous of hypocrisy and cowardice. Both plays are disguised political manifestos, visualizing the post-liberation era.
In the poem Discords of the Greeks the country, rav- aged by disputes and divisions, is surrounded by black clouds, full of misery, «forecasting doom».
SCENES AND FIGURES OF FREEDOM Crucial turning points 239