TRIBUTE TO THE AMERICAN LADIES,
DR. HOWE'S LETTER.
To the ladies' Greek Committee of the United States.
Ladies- I address you for the last time, with very different feelings
from those which prompted me on former occasions.
Greece is no longer in a state to demand charity as one nation from another;
she owes a heavy debt of gratitude to the Christian world for its generous succours
in her hour of peril and agony, but to none more than the females of America;
nor do I believe there is on the page of history a nobler or more disinterested
act of charity, than theirs to Greece; it is as honour to our country, to your
sex, and to human nature; and every one who was employed in it, deserves her
share of that honour- from the affluent city lady to the poorest serving girl,
whose means were smaller but whose motives were as pure.
Other agents have distributed many garments. I myself have given out about
50,000 pieces to women and children: it would be easy for me to procure hundreds
of letters of thanks to you from females in Greece, but it seems to me superfluous
and a little too like show; most of the poor creatures who have received the
garments cannot read or write, and it never would enter their simple minds to
get up a letter; but I have read their thanks in their gushing eyes- heard their
blessing on Americans, and Heaven has recorded their prayers for their benefactors.
Go where you will in Greece, you see the blue checked gowns and cotton frocks
made by you; ask the poor widow where she got her gown, and she will answer,
"The Americans gave it me;" demand of any man, woman or child in Greece,
what nation has been the kindest and most charitable to their country in the
bitter hour of trial, and the answer ever is "America."
I have the honor to be, Ladies, respectfully yours, SAMUEL G. HOWE.
Isthmus of Corinth, Feb. 6th, 1830. |