PAJ?ERS OF Mrn.ABEAu BuoNAPARTE LAMAR
plained of, and chief sources of all the Colonial grievances-were to be retained according to the ancient order of things, without any modifi- cation of the latter, or abridgement of the powers of the former. In a word, the Creoles were literally to resume their hereditary chains- to reocupy their old condition of servitude-and to receive in recom- pense, the right already alluded to, of electing to the national Cortes, an useless representation, whose influence would be but as a drop of water in the ocean. Such a proposition, instead of closing, only tended to widen the breech between the parties. These official proclamations, however, though intended to deceive had the good effect of making the Creoles feel that they were in reality what the government had pro- nounced them-freemen-and as such were determined never to resume the cast off collar of the tyrant. It will be seen, therefore, that the great difficulty of e·ffecting a reconciliation between the mother country and her Colonies, consisted in this-that there was no half-way ground on which the parties could meet. They could not compromise by mutual concessions-by giving and taking, or splitting the difference-because the struggle had now- become one of life and death, in which all had to be won, or all lost.. The colonies, guided at first by their generous impulses, would have. been content with some moderate reformes; but more enlightened upon the subjects of their rights, and more confident of ability· to as- sert them, they were now imperious in their exactions. They demanded! a radical alteration of those prohibitory laws and commercial restric- tions by which the natural resources of the country were paraliz(;)d, ·and the inhabitants degraded and impoverished-a demand, which, how- ever reasonable and just, it was impossible for the mother country to grant without giving up her entire policy; for the great object of the system itself was to produce the very results complained of-that is to reduce the people to. such a state of humility and degradation, that they might not be able to perceive their rights, or avenge the rapacity that impoverished them. The evils of such a system-thus founded upon ignorance and sustained by force-could admit of no remedy short of political freedom.- The only possible relief, of any practical value, which could have been extended to the Colonies was the relinquishment to them of some self-protecting power-such as a right of Colonial legislation; a veto upon the decrees of the of the [ sic J Council of the Indies; or an equal- ity of representation in the councils of the 1\fonarchy, together :with a full participation in public affairs. Any of these rights would have lead by degrees to the ameriolation which was sought; but at the same time it is obvious· that its unrestricted exercise would have naturally and unavoidably conducted, in the course of time, to the emancipation of the Colonies-a consequence, which however remote, the Peninsula was :ioesolved at all hazzard to prevent. Indeed, there is every reason to believe that there never was a time when the mother country would not have preferred the total extinction of the Creoles, to the surrender of one jot or tittle of her long-indulged prerogative of treating them as beasts of burthen.- The parties at length began to comprehend each other. The Col- onies, aware· of their own strength, as well as of the true value of the rights they claimed, were determined not to be satisfied with anything
Powered by FlippingBook