The enquirer. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1804-1815, 1810-06-22
5uutbz Nnlerlra.
THE SUPREME JUNrA OF CARACAS
TO THE
WHO COMPOSE THE
REGENCY OF OLD SPAIN.

TO THE
GENTLEMEN WHO COMPOSE THE
REGENCY OF OLD SPAIN.
Most Excellent Gentlemen,
We have received in this
city the different papers and documents.
which in the name of the Supreme Junta of
Cadiz, and of tribunal called the regency.
have been directed by the same Jun.a, and
by your excellencies, to the Viceroy and
Captain General of these dominions and TO
all its inhabitants, with the view to obtain
the acknowledgment of the above mentioned
tribunal as legal depository of the Spanish
sovereign.
Hyour excellencies have kept in view those
who in different periods went from these pro-
| vinces to the Seville Junta and central go
vernment, you must of Cou rise have formed
| just idea of the .indelble adherence TO our
citizens towards the beloved sovereign Fer
dinand VII, and of their true and cordial SEN
timents OF fraternity with respect of the
SPaniardsi Iii Europe. But your excellencies
would be deceived if you shoul Id believe, that
! therefore we are also ready to bestow our
obedience and homage to the various COR
porations, which, substituting themselves in
definitely one after another, only resemble
IN attrlbuting to themselves indistinctly a
delegation OF the sovereignty, which having
| neither been created by the acknowledged
monarch, nor by the great community of
SPaniards of both -hemispheres, can be no
thing less but absolutely null, illegal, and
| contrary to the principles sanctioned by our
own Legislation,
In fact, what are the rights the Supreme
Council OF Regency affects to require of the
Americans, this homage, which they only
swore to their lawful sovereign, and to whom
alone 1t should have been rendered ?. Il he
national courts in which alone the necessary
legislative powers reside to establish the
proVisionary constitution, which the nation
Is to administer in the interreigns-did they
precedc Even in the bosom of the Cen
trail Junta, there were no ministers righteous
and flrm enough to oppose the spirit of cor
ruptlon that had undermined her, and to
protest against the enormous latitude which,
with scandal to the kingdom, and in spite of
our fundamental laws, the executive BODY
assumed-Has there been any other species
OF national convention, which could be con-.
sldered as the legitimate organ of the ma.
ton and as the true deposit of sovereignty
There is but little required to demonstrate
that the Central Junta was in want of a true
national representation ; because its original
authority proceeded from the tumultuous
acclamations of some provincial capitals, &
whilst the inhabitants of the new hemis..
representative share in it. The Central
Junta expressly declared, that she consider
ed the American dominions as integral and
essential parts of the Spanish monarchy; &
| America neither did nor could behold this
declaration as the source of rights which she
always should enjoy, and which, without in
justice, never could be denied her; but as
solemn confession of the despotisn by which,
till now she had been tyrannsed America
was entitled to expect that, as the govern
ment OF the Peninsula with so much solem-
nifty acknowledged to her inhabitants, the
period had arrived that. for the first time,
they were to be installed in the inestimable
enjoyment of her civil prerogative, and so
put boundary to the unsupportable pride
and avidity of the administrators, who, since
its discovery, in the name of the monarch,
constantly vexed & disgraced her, suffocating
all the clements OF her prosperity, according
to your excellencies' own acknowledgment
and confession in the proclamation directed
to us. Our hopes were but of momentary
duration, and neither in the order dispatch
ed tor the election of the individuals who
we're called to complete the Central Junta,
| or In the convention to form the national
courts, we have seen nothing but an into,e-
rable Partially in favor of the disgraceful
remains OF Spain, and an injurious reserve
for inviting US to make use of our rights.
| What tree suffrage, what representation
can your Excellencies imagine ever will ex-
Ist IN deputies elected by the American Sem
ate--this body which the Spanish ministry
has always designedly intended to vex and
depress, to strip from public confidence, and
lgnominiousy to subject them to the despot-
ical scourge of its agents Has not Carac 4.
Gas seen an irrefragable testimony of this
truth in the election of the Regent Don Joa-
gun Mosquera, at the same time he was
loaded with the general detes.ation of its in
habitants Although it is true that the Cen
trail Junta, by an impulse Of decency, denied
to ratlty the election yet it is also true that
this denial included palpable contradictions
in itself, and by the anterior order, and that
the new established method for such elect.
ons, instead radically to root out the vice,
does no more than to cover it with misera-
bic palliation. as insufficient for the decorum
OF the government as for the deception of the
Americans.
| To concede to all the inhabitants of the
Peninsula the right to name their represen
tative for the national courts, and to reduce
the same 20 the passive and degrading vote
OF the city councils in America to establish
a tarif tor the European deputies and ano
! ther different one for the Americans, with
the sole view to deny them the influence due
TO our actual importance and population
1t makes 1t plainly manifest. that the liber.