The Deep Roots of the Friendship BETWEEN

THE USA AND Greece:

T. Jefferson-A. Koraes Correspondence

at the Time of the Greek War of Independence

By

Leonidas Petrakis, PhD

(This article appeared in the New York National Herald, October 15, 2005.

Dr Petrakis holds a PhD in Physical Chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley. He has taught in several universities in the US and Europe, worked in the private sector, and for ten years he was at the Brookhaven National Laboratory he served as Senior Scientist and Department Chairman leading a department of over 150 PhD’s in research in Energy and the Environment. He has authored or edited six books and over 150 scientific research papers in peer-reviewed journals.)

In the recent past there have been issues that have strained the great friendship between the two close and traditional allies –the USA and Greece. The most vexing problem has been that Henry Kissinger did not stop the invasion of Cyprus by Turkey, and the US has not restrained Turkey’s continuing aggressiveness in the Aegean, even as she seeks to gain entry into the European Union. But, following the 2004 Athens Olympics that were held with exemplary dignity and safety, an example to future host countries, there has been a continuing reaffirmation of that friendship, which has deep roots to the beginnings of both countries.

Thomas Jefferson, 3rd President of the USA and the author of the Declaration of Independence, was intimately familiar with classical Greek ideals and culture, which played an important role along with the ideals of the Enlightenment in formulating the principles on which the American Republic was founded. In fact, Thomas Jefferson was fluent in classical Greek, and prided himself that he could read the classics in the original. In 1800 Jefferson wrote to the famous chemist Dr. Joseph Priestley: “I enjoy Homer in his own language infinitely beyond Pope’s translation…. and I thank on my knees Him who directed my early education for having put into my possession this rich source of delight.”

Jefferson, prior to being elected President, served as US Ambassador to France for five years (1785-1789), a tumultuous time for France, and indeed for the World. Although the Americans were determined to stay out of the European wars, they did not remain aloof and unengaged in the Old Continent’s intellectual and political developments. On the contrary, Jefferson’s residence in Chaillot was a beehive of activity and a central meeting place for leading European intellectuals. It was there that Koraes was often a dinner guest of the future President.

Adamantios Koraes was a towering intellectual figure that played a key role along with Regas Pheraios and other patriots of the Greek Diaspora in preparing the enslaved Greek nation for gaining its independence from the Turks. Koraes, of Chios parents, was trained as physician, but he moved to Paris in 1788, where he established himself as a world renowned classical scholar, editing and publishing many classical Greek texts. His commentaries on the classics (Prolegomena) are still highly valued. In Paris Koraes also became deeply involved in the Enlightenment movement and closely observed the French Revolution.

Koraes, like Jefferson, believed that people enlightened by education could best govern themselves, and that democracy was better than monarchy or any other system. He devoted his energies to helping his countrymen gain their independence and democracy, advocating establishing schools, libraries, and in every way possible elevating their educational level. Like Jefferson, he admired the achievements of the ancients, but he wanted their noble ideals of freedom and democracy adapted to the realities and needs of modern states.

When the Greek War of Independence broke out in 1821 Koraes was too old to return and fight. Rather he aggressively tried to gain support abroad for the “Greek Cause”. He wrote countless letters seeking moral, political and material support for the Greeks. Koraes mistrusted the European powers and especially England, but he had great admiration for the establishment of the American Republic, for he considered it the best modern actualization of the ideals of democracy as first developed by the Greeks. He advocated the adoption of a constitution in Greece in line with the American Constitution. Furthermore, Koraes had pointed to George Washington, Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin as role models for the politicians of the Modern Greek state as it was starting on its path to independence and nationhood.

Koraes wrote his first letter (in French) to Thomas Jefferson in Monticello in the summer of 1823. He reminded Jefferson of their meetings in Paris, and also sent along his newly edited volumes of Aristotle’s Nichomachean Ethics and The Politics, for which Jefferson expressed appreciation in his response. In his letter Koraes, highly vexed by the bickering among the Greeks that was clearly having an adverse effect on the War of Independence, wrote to Jefferson: “Modern Greece has produced many Leonidas and Miltiades, but, since it came out of a long period of slavery, it was not possible to produce law-givers like those that had appeared among Greece’s ancient citizens, or like those that we have seen in our own times in your country”. Koraes proceeded to seek from the illustrious and respected ex-President advice and political support, and also suggested concrete steps that the American Government could take on behalf of the struggling Greek nation.

Jefferson responded in the Fall of 1823 with a long letter of his own. “I pray that you accept my thanks (for the books that Koraes had sent). I had seen only your lives of Plutarch these I had read, and profited much by your valuable Scholia, and the aid of a few words from a modern Greek Dictionary would, I believe, have enabled me to read your patriotic addresses to your countrymen”. It is interesting that Jefferson the scholar clearly recognized the continuity of the Greek language.

Jefferson also spoke in that letter to the central role of the classical ideals of Greek democracy as it influenced the founding of the American Republic. “… nothing is more likely to forward this objective (self-government in the newly liberated Greece) than a study of the fine models of science left them by their ancestors; to whom we also are all indebted for the lights which originally led ourselves out of Gothic darkness.”

Jefferson, after discussing in considerable length the central ideas for the founding of the US (separation of powers, inherent rights of all people, factors such as geography that make it necessary to adapt rather than just adopt the ideas of the ancients) proceeded to focus on education, emphasizing what was critical in the primary schools in the USA, i.e., the “public education… … to every infant of the state, male and female”; while in the “intermediate schools… the elements of natural philosophy, and, as a preparation for the university, the Greek and Latin languages”.

Jefferson then proceeded to show his philhellenic sentiments: “No people sympathise more feelingly than ours with the sufferings of your countrymen, none 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 blessings of liberty and order, we wish the same to other countries, and to none more than yours, which, the first of civilized nations, presented examples of what man should be not indeed that the forms of government, adapted to their age and country are practicable, or to be imitated in our day; although prejudices in their favor would be natural enough in your people.”

And Jefferson concluded in very moving terms: “I have thus, dear sir, according to your request, given you some thoughts, on the subject of national government. They are the result of the observations and reflections of an Octogenary who has past fifty years of trial and trouble in the various grades of his country’s service. They are yet but outlines which you will better fill up, and accommodate to the habits and circumstances of your countrymen. Should they furnish a single idea which may be useful to them, I shall fancy it a tribute rendered to the Manes of your Homer, your Demosthenes, and the splendid constellation of sages and Heroes, whose blood is still flowing in your veins, and whose merits are still resting, as a heavy debt, on the shoulders of the living and the future races of men. While we offer to heaven the warmest supplications for the restoration of your countrymen to the freedom and science of their ancestors, permit me to assure yourself of the cordial esteem and high respect which I bear and cherish towards your self personally Th. Jefferson”

Koraes sought in subsequent letters concrete steps in support of the Greek cause, not as charity, but because it was both morally right and also beneficial to the American state. What a difference, we may point out, with some of America’s “closest present friends” who simply put out their hand only to receive!

Jefferson did not grant the requests that Koraes had made for public political support and the beginning of commercial relations by sending American trade representatives to Greece. By this time Jefferson was but an ex-President, and although still influential, his power was limited. Yet Jefferson’s support was important, and the “Greek Cause” was actively aided by great philhellenes including Edward Everett, Samuel Gridley Howe, Daniel Webster and many others. Even President Monroe expressed great sympathy for the Greeks, although he had to contend with his Secretary of State John Quincy Adams’s real politic and also with his own Monroe Doctrine, that delimited American involvement in Europe.