Minister, written from this city, during the late war, to Spanish officers in South America, by which information was given to the enemy in the West Indies, was a violation of all law, treaties, and the usages of civilized nations, and would have hanged the most distinguished citizen of this Republic for a traitor. And I sternly demand, if the President of the United States has not been insulted by every Minister of Spain who has ever been near this Government? Has not Yrujo and De Onis insulted him, even while Congress was ready to hurl the bolt of war? These are the acts of Spain, accumulating with the returning year, and keenly felt by us, but only uttered in stiffed groans of sorrow-some of them for twenty-six years. Sir, if the world wants a model of moderation and forbearance, the diplomatic history of the United States affords them ample and instructive lessons.

MARCH, 1818.

dogs and blood-hounds from his mournful hiding places, in the almost inaccessible fastnesses of the mountains, whilst his bed, a rock in the cavern, streamed with tears of anguish and despair.

But the day of retributive revenge has come ; cursed by those airy phantoms which flit before their guilty apprehensions, they have awakened their slumbering vengeance to wreak it upon the heads of their own descendants, because they have multiplied in the land of their original desolation; pursued and chafed by the heavy hand of a despot, spurned as degenerate men, despised as inferiors, their petitions scorned and chastised as the offspring of folly and discontent, their remonstrances treated as presumptuous insolence, almost crushed beneath a load of accumulating wrongs, they nobly resolved to be free, and are free, because they willed it.

Mr. JOHNSON, of Kentucky, observed, that the subject was intimately connected with the cause of civil and religious liberty. The cause in which the Spanish patriots were engaged, was identified with the freedom and happiness of twenty millions of people, and their posterity to the latest ages. The proposition is confined to a legisla tive acknowledgment of the independence of the Buenos Ayrean Republic, embracing the twenty provinces of Rio de la Plata, and tends to show, that a recognition of that independence, by the President of the United States, would meet the wishes and support of the nation. Such a legislative confession of the public sentiment, on a subject so important and momentous, in the estimation of many, he conceived was due to the Executive authority. It would be taking to our

Mr. Chairman, I will not consume any more of the time of the House, and will conclude with this single remark, that, if Spain has been mistaken in her policy towards her colonies; if her system of tyranny and oppression, practised for so many ages, has at length driven them to acts of violence and of blood, she has but done that moral justice to herself which the world, in general, has long thought to be her due; for, surely, it is the vengeance of offended Heaven which has been awakened to punish this guilty empire; and, by this revolution, she must be torn from her foundation to expiate the horrible sacrilege she has committed, in defiling the temples of that God whom they pretend to adore, in calling upon his name, at the holy altars, with perjured oaths, to witness their treachery and deceit, when they were about to shed such oceans of innocent hu-selves a just portion of the responsibility of such man blood, and with mockery, to sanctify the deed.

The millions, millions of innocent, unoffending, unresisting, victims, butchered by order of that Court, to satiate their cursed thirst for gold, now ery to Heaven for vengeance, with the tongues of accusing angels.

But, sir, I am sick; my heart bleeds at the remembrance of that bloody page of Spanish history. Nor is there a man, whose bosom has ever felt one generous emotion, that does not feel his blood run back with icy horror to the heart, when he recollects the poor Indian, whose whole soul was a day of sunshine-ingenuous, noble, brave, disinterested-free as the winds which extend from earth to heaven, he slept upon the moss of the mountain, and leaned his head against a tree, and said: "This is my house-there is none to take it from me"-content to kill the wild animals for food, and pluck the simple fruit with which great nature in her sportive fancy had blessed his country; nor knew he of misery or distress until the Spaniard came. Then, oh! bitter, sad reverse! Butchered in cold blood; roasted and burnt for crimes he never heard of, or could not understand; hunted down like the wild deer of the forest; pursued by that foul, phrensied, noisome thirst for dominion, into the swamps of the Oronoca, or tracked and torn by

a measure, and tend to strengthen the arm of Administration. It is not a little remarkable, that the opposers of this measure should be driven to the necessity of ascribing to its advocates a hostility to the Administration. But this objection has no greater weight than the others which have been urged against it, and which are made to this kind of legislative expression in any abstract form, and because it has assumed a form from which there may be some practical result. The main question, in debate, seems to be the expediency of recognising the independence of the Provinces of La Plata; this is the essence of the proposition submitted. The fact of independence has been doubted by some, and positively denied by others; but this fact is well established, and is as certain as any common event recorded in history; and we have sufficient proof that this independence has been maintained with a firmness and gallantry worthy of the cause. But an objection has been urged, that we have not been furnished with the precise territorial limits claiming to be independent. In such a struggle, and in such a vast extent of country, it would be surprising indeed if the precise boundary of the provinces had been furnished, and their limits accurately defined. But it is a matter of no consequence, and has no important or essential bearing upon the subject, because it does not, in the most remote degree,

Spanish American Provinces.

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Spanish American Provinces.

MARCH, 1818.

cognition. The labors of the illustrious naviga- mind. Truth has, indeed, restored the light of tors who discovered the Western World, shall not nature. The conduct of Spain has been made a be in vain. North America has become an asy- part of this discussion. The time is fast approachlum-a place of refuge-from the tyranny and ing when we shall be called upon to examine usurpation of Kings. A ray of liberty has pene- this conduct more minutely, and to judge of the trated the gloom which enveloped the South; measures that may grow out of it. If Spain does and, although the timid may abandon the cause not relax in her pretensions, and manifest a disof freedom, and the bold and daring may fall an position to act with more justice and liberality, early sacrifice upon her altar, the principles of there can be but one opinion as to the prospect religious toleration and political emancipation of an amicable adjustment a fact of which we must march on steadily (though slow) till the must be convinced, from the information comwill of Him who controls the destinies of the world municated to us by the Executive that the negoshall have been executed. If crowned heads tiation is at an end, and that the President has refuse to recognise the independence of Spanish determined to occupy the Floridas, in order to America, it is surely no reason why the United guaranty the peace and safety of our citizens from States should do so. To what quarter of the earth the wild incursions and brutal murders of the savshall they send a Minister for this purpose. If ages. This is policy-this is wisdom-and the they meet with no kindness here, when will they nation will support the measure. But the conreceive the cheering light from the countenance duct of Spain is not necessarily involved in this of a kindred Government? If we dare not go as question of recognition; nor the occupation of far as the laws of nations will warrant, who shall the Floridas for indemnity-a measure suggested give them the plaudit of Well done? History by the chairman of the Committee of Foreign teems with the events of Republics, splendid, pow- Relations. Whenever that measure shall be preerful, and happy. They exist no more. Despot-sented for consideration, then, and not till then, ism has swept them from the earth, and has only shall I conceive it my duty to enter into a detail left their names on the records of nations; and of Spanish injuries and aggressions: the closing, we (the people of the United States) stand alone upon the commerce of the Western country, the in this vast world of tyranny and oppression-no port of New Orleans, in violation of treaty, withkindred Republic to sympathize with or to de-out assigning any other place of deposite; not pend on in the hour of danger and dismay-and till then, need we estimate the spoliations upon alone defying the principles and power of legiti- our commerce; the violation of the treaty of 1795, macy. No Grecian Republic; no Roman Com- in not keeping in order and subjection, within monwealth; no States General of Holland; no her territories, the Seminole savages; her conNational Assembly of France-no, not even the duct in the late war, in permitting the British and little Republic of San Marino-now exists, to the Indians to use the Floridas as a place of refacknowledge the independence of the La Plata uge-a rallying point for our enemies. Nor will Republic. it be a matter of any consequence whether this state of things did arise from co-operation on the part of Spain, or an inability to maintain her local authorities and her treaty, as well as neutral obligations, to the United States. Whenever it shall be brought to this point-that we must submit to what is past, and a prospect of what is to come, or occupy the Floridas-my mind has never hesitated a moment upon the course my duty to my country would lead me to pursue, if negotiation fails. I would not submit to such conduct from any nation on earth.

If I could believe it was the will of Heaven that I should vote against the proposition, I would bow with reverence to that will; if I believed that duty to my country opposed my course, I would cheerfully obey the impulse of that duty; if I believed that I was about to trample upon the laws and rights of nations, I would also pause; but the opposition of European monarchs will have no influence upon my mind, except to produce a more positive resolution to discharge what I conceive to be a most sacred obligation. Those monarchs may look with anxiety upon the part we may take-they may look at it, if they will, with an awful squinting-but no alarms are conveyed to my bosom. Resistance to oppression constitutes no crime, in my mind; nor shall I be ashamed to rejoice in the triumph of liberty, and the principles of self-government, until I am led to believe that the monarchs of the earth are superior to the Monarch of Heaven. May the God of the Universe, in his mercy, sustain this struggling and suffering people, in the cause of political and religious liberty! I will not fear the result; the spirit of liberty has diffused itself too widely, and its enthusiasm too deeply, to be controlled by the efforts of despotism, or the apathy of kindred Republics. Freedom has cast her rays upon the darkness of human error, and irradiated the gloom which has enshrouded the human

But this has no influence on my mind. If the conduct of Spain had been towards us the most amicable and friendly; if she had acted not only with the strictest justice, but, like Cæsar's wife, even without suspicion, and if her purity had been as spotless as the snow which falls from heaven, it is still the duty of this Government to recognise the independence of the Republics of La Plata, Venezuela, New Grenada, Chili, Mexico, and the rest, as soon as they shall declare themselves free and independent, and manifest a capacity and a determination to maintain the rank and relations of a foreign and independent State. But I cannot for a moment hesitate to believe that the Administration feels this disposition as strongly, as cogently, as those who support it. The proper point of time can be with them the only cause of hesitation; the desire must be the

MARCH, 1818.

Spanish American Provinces.

H. OF R.

same with every branch of the Government as nation of mariners, but must receive the nations with the people. Everything, sir, evinces the of the earth into her ports, and give her bullion claim of South America to independence; its in exchange for the productions of other countries. distance from Europe-the nature and interest of Our vessels would fill every_port, and from our its soil and limits-the character of its people-vicinity enable us to carry off nine-tenths of her all conspire to show that it never was designed commerce. And yet this is to us of no kind of by Heaven, that it should be subject to the dom-importance, but a real evil! Have those who adination of European rulers; but, like our beloved vocate this doctrine paid proper attention to the country, it should one day become the great sanc- geography of these countries they so vehemently tuary of liberty, and the asylum of persecution. depreciate? Where shall we find a more lovely, To oppose this destiny, would not only be useless, a more abundant region? Where shall we look but impious and impolitic. The Government of for a spot on earth where nature has lavished the United States has been distinguished for its more wealth, and greater beauties? Where shall justice, moderation, and pacific policy. We we find so happily realized the visions of poetry, should maintain that character; we should not and the descriptive painting of imagination? A depart from that course of conduct; let us be cau- country of immense extent, and a soil of endless tious, but decisive; not rash or timid, but bold variety and fertility, teeming with the most preand prudent; let us do nothing that would in- cious metals, and beautified with the most splenfringe the rights of others, but feel no alarm at did, elegant, and useful botanical productions. A the consequences of doing what it is our duty to country, in the emphatic language of scripture, perform. We can read the condition of this peo- flowing with milk and honey, and where nature ple by turning the mind back to the scenes of the seems to repose from her toil, and stamp on her American Revolution. productions the perfection of beauty. The vast But it has been asserted that the South Amer-waters of La Plata, the variety of its soil, the diicans have not been fighting for liberty and self-versity of its climate, the productions of the temgovernment. It has been asserted that they were perate and the torrid zones-the mines of Potosi, not entitled to our sympathy; that the independ- unrivalled in ancient or modern times-the lofty ence of the Spanish provinces was a matter of no summits of the Andes, covered with never-melting consequence to the United States, politically or snows-nor the delightful vales of the Parana and commercially; and that self-government, and the the Uraguay-nor the prospect of freedom to establishment of liberty, might, to be sure, be of millions of human beings, can swell with delight some consequence morally, but could not be so, the bosoms of some men. And a connexion with politically or commercially. How surprising this highly gifted land, in the opinion of some, is How wonderful! Let us for a moment con- a real disadvantage, in a commercial and political sider this point. A connexion with South Amer-point of view. But the patriots of South America is, in an eminent degree, important, commer- ica have been denied the merit of fighting for cially, politically, and morally. From the nature liberty; this charge is neither novel nor well of our Government and institutions, we are con- founded. I need only refer to the history of our sidered by the people of South America their own country; the same charge was made against natural friends and allies, and from this necessarily our fathers, who were engaged in the glorious expect from us that aid and assistance which a struggle which has eventuated in the blessings Dation, contending for the same political princi- we enjoy. What stronger proof do we require of ples, and having an intimate geographical con- the purity of the motives by which the South nexion, has a right to expect. Should we coldly Americans are influenced in their present struggle, refuse the favor they solicit, the result will be, than that they have submitted for so many years that they will lose that sympathy they now feel, to the privations and dangers, and miseries of war? and transfer their present attachment and respect What but a deep-rooted love of liberty, could proto some other Power, less phlegmatic and indif-duce this fortitude, or beget this perseverance? And ferent to their own interest. And what would are we to be told that they do not merit our symbe the loss, in a pecuniary point of view? Apathy, while contending and struggling through market calculated to consume the surplus of our agricultural products and manufactures, and the signal advantages that would result in the exchange of our commodities for the precious metals alone. We should indeed have, as we now bave, the uncertain and limited markets which the Canadas and the West Indies afford, under the illiberal systems of colonial regulations. The surplus produce of two States alone would supply them, while the whole of that rich and beautiful country, whose independence its citizens wish us to recognise, would be lost to us perhaps forever. But this is not all. From the very nature of things, we should become her carriers as long as the two nations exist. Mexico, for instance, is situated like China, and not likely to become a

miseries, and want, and dangers, for the possession of those rights which we have obtained, and to which the human family are entitled by nature? Merciful Heaven! have we indeed come to this? Are we reduced so low in the scale of humanity? I shudder to think of the consequences of such doctrines. A vista, dark and dreary, and dismal, opens before me. I see apathy shedding her alarming influence over the hearts of my countrymen, and the genius of despotism winding her mazy folds around the offspring of freedom. Such indifference does not become the American people in a cause like this. In their zeal to oppose this measure, gentlemen have indeed gone so far as to endeavor to prove that the freedom and independence of the Spanish provinces would not

H. or R.

Spanish American Provinces.

only be of no political and commercial consequence, but singularly unfortunate to the United States-that our happiness, freedom, and prosperity, would decline in consequence of such an event; and yet, at the commencement of this discussion, every one expressed the most ardent desire for the patriot cause.

victory.

MARCH, 1818.

most anxious and awful suspense about the event of this struggle, and wait with eagerness to know how the revolution, in many of the Spanish provinces, may terminate. The price of liberty is blood. The mind rejoices in hope, when it is recollected how long these patriots have sustained the glorious contest, and defied the bloody conIt is possible that necessity has driven members flict. This gives the strongest evidence of the of this House to such a course of reasoning to op- merit of the persecuted combatants, and the juspose the proposition before us, but it shows the tice of their cause. The Israelites were doomed feebleness of error. Sir, to deny that the struggle to forty years sojournment in the wilderness, and in South America has been a struggle for liberty were in sight of the land of promise, because they and independence, is to close our eyes against the proved unworthy of the blessings of Heaven; facts, and the history of that struggle; and to they were alarmed at the information of the spies deny that any commercial political advantage of the army, who gave them a description of the would flow from the establishment of independ- giants who inhabited the land of Canaan; and ence in South America, is to deny self-evident notwithstanding the cause-the banners under propositions; we may as well deny the existence which they fought-they were alarmed at the of matter, or any other physical agent. It has sons of Anak. For this they were doomed to been boldly asserted, that there is no parallel be- spend the remainder of their days in the wildertween the American Revolution and the struggleness, until a new race of warriors should be raised in Spanish America. I know not through what up worthy of the holy cause in which they were medium gentlemen may view things; but I can engaged. The same may be the design of Heaven see a most striking analogy in the two cases. in relation to the South Americans, in permitting We had a heavy burden of grievous impositions this sore trial of cruelty, and suffering, and murto bear so had they, perhaps tenfold greater; der. This severe probation may produce a race we had our day of loyal attachments, humble pe- of heroes worthy of the cause of independence. titions, and mild remonstrance-so had they; we The rising youth may catch and diffuse the holy were spurned and driven from the royal favor-fire of liberty, and rush on to battle and to certain so were they; in the progress of the Revolution we had had our day of resistance, and appealed to arms-so had they; we had our day of proscription, when the penalties of rebellion and treason were fulminated against our fathers-so had they; rising with the crisis, we had our day of independence, and proclaimed it to the world -so had they; we had our committees, our conventions, and our Congress-so had they their juntas, municipalities, and Congress; we had our Warrens and our Montgomerys-so have they; we had, too, our Arnolds-and so have they; and as we were triumphant, if the patriots of South America shall be worthy of the cause, and true to themselves, the same kind Providence will uphold them, and make them triumphant also. When we compare the extent and resources of the Peninsula, or Old Spain, with the extent and resources of South America and New Mexico, this opinion will acquire additional strength and confirmation. But, although history furnishes many examples of successful revolutions against the heavy hand of despotism, yet we are called back to the frequent success of power, and reminded, that the difficulties which arise from revolutions are of no ordinary character, and that to meet them requires the most heroic fortitude, and the most gallant conduct. I am aware, sir, that the system of oppression cannot easily be overthrown, and that the power of crowned heads will not be surrendered willingly; they will not surrender inexhaustible mines of wealth, the treasures arising from the toil and sweat of the laboring poor, without compulsion; the fairest portion of the globe, and twenty millions of subjects, the victims of their unhallowed pleasure and ambition; and the world must remain in the

Something has been said of the character of the war which has been waged in South America. And as the patriots have been compelled to retaliate, upon some occasions, the murders and cruelties of the mother country, they have been considered unlike the patriots of our Revolution, who abstained from the system of retaliation. It is not the fact that we gave up this right, or that we omitted to exercise it whenever it was necessary and proper. When it could be omitted it was omitted, and not otherwise. When policy could, with safety, yield to mercy, our fathers were governed by the principles of humanity. At a time when the patriots of our Revolution were considered and denounced as traitors and rebels, by royal proclamation, nothing but the most solemn declaration on the part of Congress and General WASHINGTON, at the head of our armies, that retaliation should be most rigidly pursued, prevented the assassination of our officers and soldiers when prisoners of war. This alone saved many of them; this system of retaliation, or the fear of it, induced Great Britain to give up the idea of rebellion and treason, and stayed the hand of the executioner. And if the fathers of our country had permitted our gallant officers and soldiers to have been hung, shot, and murdered, without retaliation, they never could have succeeded in the cause in which they were engaged, nor have secured the confidence of the people. Indeed the people would have had ample cause to have abandoned a Government feeble, inefficient, and withholding protection where it was due. No such foul charge can be made against those who conducted our Revolution. In the late war with Great Britain, when this same