The seething millions turn and stir and struggle toward the light;
The free flag streams, and morning gleams where erst was hopeless night.
And grim Atlantic thunders still adown its rocky shores,
And still the eagle screams his note, as aloft he sails and soars;
And hope is born, that even thou, in some far day to come,
O blue and rolling Marmora, shalt bear the message home.
Dedicated to W.W. Peet, Esq.Clara Barton.
Constantinople, July 4, 1896.
Reports are always tedious. If some reader, having persevered thus far, if such there be, shall find himself or herself saying with a little thrill of disappointment, “But this does not give the information expected, it does not recommend any specific course to be pursued, whether emigration for the Armenians, and if so, where, and how; or autonomy, and if so, how to be secured, and assured; if more ships should be sent, and what they should do when there; if greater pressure of the Powers should be demanded by us, or what course, as a nation, we ought to pursue. We had expected some light on these questions.”
Appreciating and regretting this disappointment, we must remind our anxious readers and friends—for such they are—that we have never been required to do this; that all conclusions to that effect are simply inferential, and all such expectations were born of anxious hope. But that which we feel does immediately concern us, and comes directly within our province, is, to state that notwithstanding all that has been done through all sources, infinitely more remains to be done by some one; and while speculation upon the moral duty of nations, the rights or wrongs of governments, the problem of whether one ruler or another shall sit upon a throne for the next six months; what expressions of individual principle in regard to certain actions should be given; the proper stand for a people to take and maintain on high moral and religious questions—all important subjects—none value them more than I—all marking the high tone and progressive spirit of the most advanced stage of human thought and culture the world has yet known, it would seem that each and all of these, imperative and important as they are, admit of at least a little moment of time for consideration, and will probably take it whether admitted or not.