tht'llt, .\1 1ht! ,.11se1 l l:a1111ot but advert to tlw spirit of ptt·phcl'y ;uni truth with\\ hich that uncq1 1 allccl expounder all(! Ul'ft•1ulN of the r\i;hts of m:rn, Mr. Jellerson, !-poke more than IS years :ll!;O ia regnnl 10 this ,·cry mn11cr. l11 n leller lo the l\Iar,1ub de I.a- foycnc, uatc1I ~lonticc•llo, 14th ;\fay, 1817, lie :c:ays, "I ,,i~lt l could gire you bellcr hopes of r.m· :\Icxican J,.ethren. Tl,c achieverncnl of their inclepenclence of old Spain is no l,mger ;i 11 uestion. Ilut it is II very seriou;; one whnt will then bcco1::c of them. I~nornnce ancl bigotry, like other insanities, arc i1:capa- Lle of self-go,•ernment. They will foll under military <lc:::po- ti~im, allll Lecome the murderous tools of their respeclire Bon:i- par1es. No one I hope can doubt my wi$h to see them nncl all mankind exercising self-go,·ernmenr. But the question is not what we wish-but what is prnc1icable. As their sincere frienci, then, I do belie,·e the best thing for them would be to come 10 nn nccord wi1h Spain, under the guarantee of France, Russia, Hel- land, aud the United Stales, allowing to Spain a nominal supre- macy, with authority only to keep the peace among them, lea,·- ing them otherwise all the powers of self-go,·err:m.?nt, until their experience, their educ:ition, and their emancipation from tl1eir Priests should prepare them for complete inclependence. '' J cf- ferson's works, vol. 4, page 303. Mr. Jefferson well knew that from the discovery of America to the date of his letter, the Mexicans had unfortunately been the persecuted, pillaged, and prest-ridden slaves of the kings of Spain-a line of kings, with but few exceptions, more inimical to the rights of man, more op- posed to the advancement of truth, and light, and liberty, more practised in tyranny, more hardened in crime, more infatuated with superstition, and more benighted with ignorance, than any other monsters that erer disgraced a throne in christendom, since the revival of letters. Yes, humanity shudders, and freedom bums with indignation at a recital of the barbarities and oppressions practised upon the ill-fated Mexicans from the bloody days of Cortes up to the termination of their connexion with Spain. The produce of their cultivated fields was rifled-the natural pro- ducts of their forests pillaged-the bowels of their earth ran- sacked, ·and their suffering families impo,·erished to glut the gran- deur and enrich the coffers of their trans-Atlantic oppressors. To make their miserable servitude less perceptible, they were
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