The Papers of Mirabeau Buonaparte Lamar, Volume VI

481

PAPERS OF MIRABEAU BuoNAPARTE LAMAR

regulated and controlled the ecclesiastical, civil, military and commer- eial departments; but as ~ tribunal of justice, it sat in judgements -upon the conduct of all the public functionaries in the colonies, from the viceroy down to officers of the lowest grade, having power to reward or punish them according to their respective merits. Such was the Council of the Indies*°-the tribunal in which was united all the de- partments of government-legislative, judicial and executive-for th~ general superintendence and direction of the Collonial affairs. It had a code of ·its own, seperate from that which governed the Kingdom; and the general collection and publication of its multiplicity of laws, ordenances and decrees, was known by the name of "Recopilation of the laws of the Indies." This Recopilation, although designed as a code for the government of the Colonies, was very little else than a hetero- genous mass of absurdities and contradictions, and so chaotic and in- comprehensible as to render it impossible for the most accute juris- consulate to determine what was law or what was not. The Council, however, although organized upon principles the most despotic and rapacious, was, nevertheless, entitled to the credit of having corrected many abuses in the administration of the transatlantic governments, which it was the duty of that body to watch as well as direct. It would seem, indeed, from some of its powers, that its authority in Colonial matters, were equal, if not superior to that of the King. Certainly in theory, it threw many restrictions and limitations around his freedom of action; but we can scarcely believe that such was its practical oper- ation, when we remember that it was created and sustained by the most arbitrary and despoti.c monarchs of modern times who were quite too tenacious of their power, to tolerate an institution for a moment which should attempt to thwart their purposes, or abridge the royal prerog- ative.- These were the three great agents- The Viceroy, the Audiencia, and the Council of the Indies-employed by the Spanish Monarchs for the government of their American possessions. Their Colonial policy, in principle, was as little complicated as the government constructed for its execution. It was simply to secure to the Crown a monopoly of the commerce of those vast dominions, and to cause their entire productions to flow to the Peninsula. 50 -To effect this object it was necessary to interdict an ·intercourse with foreign nations, and to reduce the Col- onies to an absolute dependence upon the mother country- It was accordingly decreed that no foreigner should enter the Spanish terri- tory in America without special permission- that the ports should be closed to all foreign. Vessels-that the productions of the Colonies should be carried to Spain; and in Spanish bottoms.-that the inhab- itants should not be allowed to own vessels-that one colony should not trade with another-that Spain alone should supply their neces- sities; and that death and confiscation of property should be the pun- ishment of every individual detected in a violation of these regulations, Such were some of the edicts adopted by Ferdinand as early as lf/01. They formed the basis of the whole Colonial System, and were rigidly enforced as long as Spain retained ·the power to enforce them. The mode of carrying out this policy was as much at war with the ..[Note in document:] See Niles, 66. \Vard, 92. '°[Note in document:] See Zavala, page 14.

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