doms, or as the municipia of the Romans, without losing any of their rights, forms, privileges, &c.*

In strict accord with the laws of the Indies, and conformably to the records of the discovery, conquest, and settlement of the great continent of Spanish America, it plainly results, that its constitution was founded on mutual compacts made with the first conquerors and the indigenes, guaranteed by the faith of kings; and afterwards modeled on such laws and charters as were successively emitted, according to circumstances, and the relative situation in which the conquerors and settlers stood, whilst their rights and privileges were yet fresh and undisputed. No part of these same rights, was ever surrendered up by the original settlers or their descendants; and the present natives of Spanish America, as their direct and lawful heirs, of course, have inherited every prerogative thereby solemnly pledged to their forefathers, and sanctioned by the most solemn governmental faith.

§ Experience had, indeed, proved, that these laws, rights, charters and privileges, had long been trampled upon, and that, in their stead, had been substituted a practical colonial policy, undoubtedly adapted to insure control, as far as ignorance and abjection could depress the mind, so as to take from its energy, and make servitude habitual. But, as the ultramarine provinces, have, already been proved, equal in their ancient constitution with those of Spain, independent of her councils and tribunals, and equal in rights, as well by virtue of their subsequent laws, as by their primitive social compact, this abuse became not only unjust, but also unwarrantable; and the natives are now fully authorized to sue

*Polit. Ind. lib. 2. cap. 27.

for its removal. If such, moreover, were their rights, privileges, and prerogatives; if such was the social compact originally and solemnly instituted in favour of the first settlers, and if these agreements have not been fulfilled to their children, the present generation, as their rightful inheritors, are justifiable in claiming, and in recovering them by every means in their power; and their being any longer withheld, is an act of tyranny on the part of the Spanish government. Nay, by their long forbearance, they are doubly entitled to insist on the due performance of a convention, strengthened by as explicit and binding acts of the legislature, as sagacity could frame, and language express.

§ By the force of habit, and the pressure of despotism, as well as by the exclusion from the perusal of every thing liberal and enlightened, gradually the Spanish Americans, instead of equal subjects, had become dependent vassals, and their rights and privileges, were scarcely to be found, but in their Statute books. Were these, however, to be examined carefully, and the primitive history of the ultramarine provinces to be attentively perused, it would not only appear, that their sole bond of political union with the mother country, was the person of the king; but, that, from being in their constitution independent of every branch of government, not immediately and directly emanating from him, when this bond became dissolved, they naturally re-assumed all their political and social rights, as free men. The powerful confraternity which united the Spanish inhabitants of both hemispheres, and their reciprocal and social connections, naturally prescribed the propriety and necessity of preserving this union; yet, it is, at the same time, certain, that prior to the unjustifiable abuse

into which this colonial policy had sunk, no other measure of government had been employed, to secure this union and to give it effect, than that of annexing and incorporating the new world to the Spanish crown, under the title of kingdoms, nor had long and abject submission, effaced the only title, by which the kings always addressed their distant provinces.

The heading of the royal decree, published in the year 1524, for the creation of the supreme council of the Indies, makes use of no other term. It is as follows. “And considering the great benefits and favours, which, from the Almighty we have received, and are daily receiving from the increase and extension of the kingdoms (reynos) and lordships of our Indies; and sensible of the great obligations and duties thereby imposed upon us; and anxious on our part to establish the proper means that the said kingdoms and lordships may be governeď in due manner, &c. &c. we hereby order and decree, that a supreme council of the Indies be created," &c. &c.* Such is not only the general, but, also, the exclusive appellation given by the kings of Spain to their provinces on the other side of the Atlantic, nor is the term colonies to be met with in their laws, or in the royal orders successively transmitted to them.

§ The inhabitants thereof, are, consequently, in right, and in the eye of the law, no more colonial vassals, than are those of the provinces of Spain conquered from the Moors,† nor were the authorities, had they only kept

* Rocop. de Leyes Ind, ley 1. tit. 2. lib. 2.

+ Seville, according to Mariana (Hist. Gener. de España. tit. 1. lib. 13. cap. 9.) was conquered from the Moorish King Axataje, by St. Ferdinand, who annexed it to the crown of Castile and peopled it, Nor was this long before the discovery of America, which, ac

within their original bounds, constituted in any other manner, than those which administered the duties of government in the Peninsula. So explicit was the ancient legislation of Spain, in this particular, that the whole of the rights and privileges of the Creoles, stand coeval with the mutual compacts made between the monarch and the first conquerors; and as before stated, the whole were consigned to the very code that was to govern them. The American provinces, consequently, were not manors conferred by the sovereign on the kingdoms of Spain; they were not given in fealty to any class of inhabitants in the Peninsula, nor to any individual or intermediate corporation between the crown and themselves; yet, tantamount would have become their political footing, if every thing pretended by the late government of Spain, and the monopolists of Cadiz, was carried into full effect. No, they are yet, and ever were, in point of right, justice, and reason, considered as incorporated, and consequently equal dominions, nor had they ever acknowledged any link of the feudal chain, now attempted to be imposed upon them. Their bond of union was the same, as that by which the successors of Ferdinand the Catholic, held the kingdoms of Aragon and Castile.

§ In another point of view, it would be unjust to consider the Spanish American provinces, as held in colonial dependence by Spain, under the pretext that Spaniards cordingly, was placed on, at least, an equally eligible footing, yet in the late revolution, Seville becomes the seat of government, and its Junta dictates laws to the whole of the Spanish monarchy. Granada, Murcia, and Jaen, were dependent on the crown of Castile, but independent of each other, so that their relative situation greatly resembled that of Spanish America.

and Spanish property, were employed in their conquest. and settlement. The discoverers and conquerors were all volunteers, their pay and reward were in the country to which they were bound; and instead of returning home, they remained and settled on the land they bad gained by their enterprize and personal sacrifices; and the fruits of their labour, with all the prerogatives thereby acquired, have naturally descended to their rightful succession. With regard to the funds laid out by the crown, and certainly Isabella pledged some of her jewels for the expedition of Columbus, so great was the poverty of the Peninsula prior to the conquest of America, Herrera, as before noticed, expressly asserts, that all these advances were refunded, and that the conquerors, alone, bore the expence. Robertson also observes, that "though the name of Ferdinand appeared, conjointly, with that of Isabella, in the compact signed with Columbus, as king of Arragon, he bore none of the expence."* Diego Velasquez, his friends, and Cortes, payed for the Cuba equipment, which gave to the Spanish crown the empire of New Spain; and the outfits of Pizarro, for the conquest of Peru, were borne by himself, Diego Almagro, and Hernando Lugue, canon of Panamá, who all agreed to share the profits obtained, according to the substance of the original contract, found in Herrera, Dec. 3. lib. 6. cap. 13. Nay, it seems, that the commissions and authorities for the discoveries and conquests, were all the sovereigns' contributed; and it would be hard if the grant of a Pope, had more force than the specific services and expended property of the first adventurers.

But even supposing that some of the crown funds had remained uncovered in the beginning, (a circum

*Hist. Amer. vol. 1. book 2.