port, and from our vicinity enable us to carry off at least nine-tenths of her commerce. Even on the coast of the Pacific no European nation

would vie with us. There would be a brisk in

feeling above described, as well as of the numbers always ready to join in any enterprise to which it pointed, that gave birth to the daring land trade carried on with the southern prov-eminence in his own country. This man and project of Colonel Burr, who rose to some inces via the Red River; and having a free entrance into all their ports, we should become his associates contemplated nothing less than their factors, agents, guardians, and, in short, the dismemberment of the Spanish monarchy their tutelar genius, as the country not only in Mexico, and had not the Washington govfears but also hates France, and all Frenchmen ernment received timely notice of their plans, and French measures. It therefore remains for and, from a dread of involving themselves the people of the United States to decide wheth- with foreign powers at an unseasonable moer, if Bonaparte should seize on the crown of Spain, they will hold out a helping-hand to ment, opposed its execution, it is morally ceremancipate another portion of the western hem-tain that they would have succeeded. isphere from the bonds of European tyranny and oppression; or, by a different policy, suffer six millions of people to become, in the hands of French intrigue, enterprise, and tactics, a scourge to our south-west boundaries, which would oblige us to keep up a large and respect able military force, and continually render us liable to war on the weakest and most vulnerable part of our frontiers. Twenty thousand auxiliaries from the United States, under good officers, joined to the independence of the country, are at any time sufficient to create and effect the revolution.

About the time these remarks were penned, and even previously, it was by no means a rare occurrence on the Mexican frontiers, where the subaltern Spanish officers ruled with a rod of iron, for a leading native, who had been injured, and left without the slightest chance of redress, to harangue his neighbors and dependents, and after gaining them over to his views, to retire with them in a body to the other side of the United States' boundary, where they were sure to find aid and protection. These refugees were numerous, and became the implacable enemies of their former tyrants, against whom they never ceased to complain and plot. So alarming, indeed, did these demonstrations at length become to the Spaniards, that they were made the topics of reiterated reproaches addressed to the Washington cabinet; but instead of redress, or any attempt being made to check the evil, it soon became apparent that the local authorities specially favored this kind of immigration. The bright prospects for adventurers on the Mexican side of the lines were constantly kept in view, and the power of Spain set at defiance.

Thus was a large body of brave and athletic crusaders always ready, at a given signal, to pounce upon the Hispano-Mexican territory, men bred up to scenes of danger, who made their own rifles, powder, and shot, and when they went on an expedition carried no baggage, depending for food itself upon their guns. Such are still the "backwoodsmen" of the United States, and it was a knowledge of the

The strong feeling, however, was not permitted to die out, and fresh elements of aggression accumulated. It is well known that, solved to add to it a dominion over the Spanish in usurping the throne of Spain, Napoleon reIndies. When the contest between him and the Spaniards commenced, the unanimous determination of all Spanish America was to resist the intrusive projects of the French, and at the same time send succors to the mother country. These demonstrations were not met in a cordial spirit by the Central Junta, then governing in the name of Ferdinand VII.; and the affairs of Spain besides, being at a distance, wore a gloomy aspect. The European viceroys and captains-general could not be trusted, for, holding their appointments from the old Spanish Government, many members of which adhered to the French party, it was feared that they might commit some treacherous act. These apprehensions were soon confirmed by the conduct of several of the functionaries, who labored hard to form an European party in the country, with the view of strengthening their own position and holding the natives in check. At length, on the 14th of September, 1810, a revolt took place in Dolores, a small town in Mexico, which soon extended to the whole country, and the inhabitants agreed among themselves to take the administration of affairs into their own hands.

In other sections of the continent these risings were marked by particular features, or influenced by local incidents, but their object was the same. In Mexico, however, tidings of the seizure of Ferdinand and the advance of Napoleon no sooner reached Viceroy Iturrigaray, than he became diffident of powers, which, though conferred by Charles IV., had been confirmed to him by the Duke de Berg and the Spanish ministers in the interest of Joseph Bonaparte. Distrust at the moment being general, the vice-king foresaw the impossibility of maintaining harmony between two powerful parties likely soon to be arrayed against each other, and considering, also, that his own limited authority was unequal to the

emergency, he proposed calling together the | To punish the Mexicans, fire and the sword provincial representatives, as by law ordained, in order to determine what form of government should be adopted in case the French succeeded in Spain, and at the same time to establish an administrative system, in which the people might confide. In this he was opposed by the judges of the High Court of Justice, all old Spaniards, seconded by the European merchants and placemen, who, trembling for the ascendency which the more numerous Creoles might gain in any new plan of government founded upon popular election, stood prepared to frustrate all attempts to establish it. A powerful faction of Europeans was forthwith formed and armed, the viceroy's person was seized, and himself and family, under aggravated indignities, were sent prisoners to Europe. The viceroy's proposal was, nevertheless, in accordance with a formal application addressed to him by the municipality of Mexico, dated August 5th, 1809; and although on his arrival in Spain he was absolved from every charge, and his intentions thereby proved to have been legal, pure, and patriotic, the principal members of the faction which put him down were rewarded with distinctions, decorations, and higher appoint

ments.

Such was the origin of that intestine division, which soon ripening into open enmity between European Spaniards, and Mexicans, eventually ended in a war of extermination. Meanwhile Sultepec, representing the Mexican party, sent a proposal to the viceroy, bearing date, March 1812, wherein the terms upon which they were prepared to agree to a cessation of hostilities were set forth, as well as certain suggestions made for conducting the war-if war there must be-with less ferocity. Both proposals were rejected; and whilst Spain seemed determined not to submit her dispute with the transmarine provinces to the mediation of a third party, Great Britain bore with tameness every rebuff to her offers of mediation. The Cadiz Government preferred war, blockades, threats, and persecutions; being deaf to the remonstrances of the South American deputies, who declared "that it was cruel and inhuman to send out troops to make war upon brethren, without having even first appropriated a single hour in the National Council to fix upon some plan of conciliation, or giving their rights and conduct a fair and unbiassed discussion."

Under the pretext of " reducing insurgents," every species of excess was in those days committed; and a war of brigandage followed, worse even than that at one time waged against the blacks in St. Domingo.

were alternately applied; parents were murdered by their children, and brothers by the hands of brothers. A letter, dated Mexico, February 18, 1811, and alluding to the scenes there witnessed, spoke thus :-"The unheardof cruelties are such that posterity will suppose them fabulous." Meanwhile, Mexicans flying from persecution sought an asylum in the United States, where they experienced great hospitality. Their envoys were favorably received by the Washington Government, and privately assisted. Their cause was advocated by a large portion of the American press; proclamations, intended for circulation in Mexico, were printed in Philadelphia and Baltimore; arms and ammunition were supplied; and bodies of adventurers crossed over to fight under the banners of the Sultapec junta. Thus was a sympathy created and a connection formed, of infinitely more value to the ulterior designs of the American cabinet than anything that could have been done at an earlier period through the efforts of private individuals. Then, in fact, was laid the basis of that policy which has lately been displayed in Mexico.

Independence being now the only alternative left, the more enlightened Mexicans began to reflect upon the consequences of a separation, unless some adequate form of government could be established, so as to prevent the country from falling into a state of anarchy, and being eventually dismembered. All were sensible that Mexico was not suited to become a republic, and hence among a large party of the leading men it was agreed to seek a monarch having European connections, not only as the best means of promoting the permanent interests of the country, but also as a counterpoise and check upon the United States. The task was difficult, owing to the convulsed state of Europe; but in its accomplishment, men believed that their sole safeguard against anarchy lay. In general opinion, a Spanish prince was preferable, the transition in that case being easier; but several numbers of the reigning family were then captives of Napoleon, and to the Italian branch there seemed to be insurmountable objections. No time, however, was to be lost, and a deputation of distinguished natives, after establishing an understanding on the subject with their influential countrymen, came over to England, where, after mature deliberation, they determined to offer the throne to the Duke of Gloucester, undertaking, through their own efforts and those of their friends, to carry the project into effect. At the same time, a statement of the principal reasons why Mexico and the other sections of

In all ages and in all countries legislators have agreed that laws, in order to be durable, must grow out of the character, situation, and habits of the people for whom they are framed; that they must be adapted to their peculiarities and congenial to their usages and customs. To establish a government upon any other grounds, were to destroy the salutary effects which it was thereby intended to promote, and prepare materials for the constant return of anarchy and confusion. In considering, therefore, what species of government is best adapted and most suitable for the state of society in Spanish America, it is necessary to examine its component parts, the several stages of mental improvement which the inhabitants have attained, and even to take into account the climate. According to this standard, let us take a retrospective view of that part of the continent which was conquered and settled by the Spaniards.

hold cortes, although this right was never exercised. In those for New Spain, Mexico held the first place, as Burgos did in the cortes of

The

Castile; and in those for the Southern division,
Cusco, as being the ancient seat of government
to the Peruvian Incas, had the first seat.
right was decreed by Charles V, in 1530, con-
firmed in 1535, and extended by Philip II, in
1563; but it will be recollected that about the
same time the usage of assembling the cortes in
Spain ceased, or became a mere ceremony to
swear in a new king.

Spanish America was governed by a supreme council, called, " of the Indies," equal in honors and in power with that of Castile, and so independent of it, as well as of all the other branches of government, that no law promulgated in Spain was valid in the ultramarine section unless it had passed the board. From all the records relating to the conquest, settlement, and administration of Spanish America, it may clearly be deduced that the relative situation of those distant settlements to Spain, originally, was not that of dependent colonies on a parent state, but that they were, by their own prerogatives, and by the laws themselves, made equal with Castile, being even placed upon a more eligible footing than some of their sister provinces in the peninsula, which, like themselves, had been added to the crown inherited by Ferdinand and Isabella. Humboldt remarked, "That the kings of Spain, by taking the title of kings of the Indies, considered those distant possessions rather as integral parts of the Spanish monarchy — as provinces dependent upon the crown of Castile, than as colonies, in the sense attached to this word since the sixteenth century by the com

The people of that wide and varied range cannot be said to have received any other political education than that which agrees with the establishment of a monarchy. Such was the primitive form existing in both Mexico and Peru, and the first conquerers and settlers knew no other. From the time of Isabella the Spanish settlements in America were incorporated with the crown of Castile, even on terms more favorable than Andalusia or Galicia, for the former retained their own rights and privileges, whereas the constitutions of the two latter sections were absorbed by that of Castile. Arra-mercial nations of Europe." The same estimagon, Portugal, Italy, and Flanders, were at onc period on a similar footing with the American settlements, and in Spain had a separate department to govern them, the same as the council of the Indies.

The kings of Spain never addressed their American Settlements by the name of colonies, but always gave them the title of kingdoms; nor is the former denomination to be met with in any one law of the Indies. Although Flanders and Italy were included in his realms, Charles V., on his coins, only had engraved "Emperor of Spain and the Indies," in some of Philip II.'s decrees he merely styles himself "Emperor of the Indies." Viceroys was sent over to govern them, with the full representation of alter ego, a character in Spain given only to the Viceroy of Navarre, because that kingdom, like those of America, agreeably to the terms of its original annexation, was dependent only upon the king; so much so that any new law, promulgated in other parts of Spain, was not binding in Navarre until accepted by her own cortes. Chanceries, universities, municipalities, and high courts of justice, were also established in America, with the same privileges and preeminences as those of Spain. The archbishops and bishops were made independent of the mother-country, and even of each other. The two great divisions of America, were, moreover entitled to

ble writer further observed, "That each viceroyalty was not governed as a domain of the crown, but as an insulated province; " adding," that all the institutions, forming together an European government, were to be found there, except some important rights in their commercial relations." Solorzano, one of the compilers of the laws of the Indies, and besides one of the most learned Spanish jurisconsults of his day, confesses "That the Indies were incorporated with the crown of Castile as feudatory kingdoms, or as the Municipia of the Romans." The ease with which an adequate subsistence is acquired, and with careful habits wealth accumulated, chiefly in the industrial branches of mining and agriculture, it must, however, be acknowledged, tended greatly to limit the scope of education in a country where the climate is by no means favorable to intellectual pursuits.

Among the South Americans in vain, therefore, should we seek for that essential union of circumstances necessary for the formation of a republic. The principles of democracy involve many complex and some highly refined ideas, neither suited to the taste nor within the general comprehension of a class of inhabitants so backward in every species of literature, and so little accustomed to think upon serious subjects, as are the lower orders in that division of the continent alluded to. Its forms also are too simple,

too unattractive, for people so long accustomed to pomp, pageantry, and show. The adoption of a democracy would consequently be incongruous in countries where the habits and usages of the nations are so much opposed; where public virtue does not abound, and where the political education has had a different object and an opposite tendency. The Mexicans, more than any other people of Spanish America, have been habituated to see the chief placed over them surrounded by all the show and parade of an European court, and would not be easily reconciled to the simplicity and moderation of an opposite form. Any other species of government, therefore, or any other principles, would not be consonant to the wishes or in accordance with the taste of the great majority whose benefit it was wished to consult; for it is generally allowed that, in order to render the establishment of a legal authority satisfactory and lasting. the support of public opinion is requisite, this being the firmest basis, as well as the strongest sanction of moral law.

are many persons in the enjoyment of titles, immunities, and distinctions, who naturally would object to any new order of things, tending to level and confound them with the other classes. On this account it is that those of this description kept aloof, as if desirous of preserving a kind of neutral character, from the moment they perceived the turn things were taking, and the same was observable in the aborigines. The great influence of the clergy over every part of the population, more especially the Indians, has never been so strongly marked as since the cry for independence was raised, and it may be readily imagined that the clergy would not be favorable to a popular form of government.

The stages at which the several insurrections in Spanish America at present stand (1814,) as well as the language hitherto used by the new local government, by no means prove that there is a disposition among the inhabitants generally in favor of democracy, although the first movements bore that character. The insurrectionary chiefs and their partisans thought that the position of their country resembled that of the United States at the time of their separation from England, and, without a proper discrimination, judged that similar measures would produce the same effects. They did not take into account the difference in education, together with a variety of other circumstances, in the hurry of the moment entirely overlooked. There is attached to the character of Spaniards, and that of their descendants in America equally partakes of it, something of grandeur and pomp, perfectly opposed to the simplicity of republican manners. Both conceive that there is nothing grand or dig

A change in the administration of public affairs in Spanish America, and more particularly in Mexico, can never be complete and successful unless the laws, and also the manners and customs of the people, are made congenial to the new order of things. If the old ones remain, they will continually clash; at each moment they will be remembered and regretted, and, should a favorable opportunity occur, a restoration would be sought by those most immediately interested - by those whom the change most materially affected. At once to alter the laws, customs and habits of the people of that country, situated as they have been, is a work too arduous and too dangerous to be accomplish-nified attached to any other form of government ed, unless by a series of years and preparing the generation that is to come next. Under the prevalence of opinions which they could not discard, a republican form of government must consequently sit awkwardly on the shoulders of the Spanish Americans, and they would continually sigh for its removal.

One material impediment to the establishment of a democracy, more particularly in Mexico, is the great disparity in the fortunes of individuals. Humboldt assures us that, besides the advantages of a large population, New Spain has still another very important one, arising out of the enormous mass of capitals, possessed by the proprietors of mines and persons retired from trade. The absence of a monarch could not fail to give an undue preponderance to the influence of this class, thus in the end producing a tyrannical aristocracy, the worst of all governments. Besides, if, in the form to be established, it should be found necessary to give any share to deserving persons, selected from the inferior ranks, in order to guard against the inconvenience just noticed, it might be apprehended that through the want of a third power, destined to produce and support the required equilibrium, the struggle of ascendancy between two parties so opposite in views and position might prove serious, eventually ending in anarchy. In New Spain as well as in Peru, there

than the monarchical one. It would require the evolution of ages before the Spanish Americans could acquire sentiments congenial to those of the founders of the Swiss Cantons, the Republic of Holland, or that of the United States. The republican language of the revolutionary juntas proves no more than the particular ideas and opinions of individuals, who, by their activity or position, were called upon to exercise the first duties of the magistracy for the time being. The caution observed at the commencement by the junta of Caracas, and the reserve which marked the conduct of the other new governments, served clearly to show that, although the people wished a separation from Spain, they were by no means prepared for a total overthrow of those principles to which they were habituated, or disposed to witness anything like a violent transition in the form of government. The downfall of the first Caracas junta, which some persons erroneously attributed to the successful efforts made by Spain, was no other than a reaction on the part of the people, who, owing to the wild introduction of a governing system democratical in the extreme, and, consequently, uncongenial to their taste and wishes, abandoned a cause which they had previously joined with cordiality, in the hope of obtaining that redress of which all stood in need. They, however, despaired from the moment they saw their chief's preparing systems