The Massachusetts spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1821-1823, 1822-04-03
REPORT

arhich Soas referred hes Presidents Message
concerning the recogaitiOn Of the late Span
ssk Prorinces IN .4meriea.
HOUSE, OF REPRESENTATIVES, March 19, 1922.
Read, and consntitted 10 a Committee of the
arhole House on The state Of the Union.
The Committee on Foreign Affairs, to which
were referred the Message of the President,
concerning the recognition of the late Span
ish Provinces in America and the docu-
ments Herewith communicated, having ex-
amined the same with the most profound
attention, unanimously
REPORT
That the Provinces of Buenos-Ayres, after
having, from the year 1910, proceeded in their
revolutionary movements without any obstacle
from the government of Spain, formally de-
clared their independence Of that government,
ia 1916. After various intestine connections,
and external collisions, those provinces now
enjoy doniestick tranquility, and a good I'M
derstaRding with all their neighbours-an
actually exercise, without opposition, from
within, or the fear Of annoyance from without,
all the attributes of sovereignty.
The Provinces of Venezuela and New
Grenada, after having separately declared
their Independence, sustained, for a period of
more than ten years, desolating war against
the armies Of Spain, and having severally at
tanned, by their triumph over those armies,
the object for which they contended, united
themselves, The ism OF December, 1919,
in one nation, under the title of y the Re-
publck of Coiombia.n
The Republich of Colombia has now a
well-organized government, Instituted by the
free will of its citizens, aud exercises all the
,afe r
teHal and foreign enemies. The. small rem
nant of the numerous armies commissioned to
preserve the supremacy of the parent state,
IS now blockaded. in two fortresses, where it
is innoxious, and where, deprived as it is, of
all hope of succour, il must soon surrender at
discretion. When this event shall have oc-
cured, there viii not remain vestige of for
eign power in all that immense republicl, con-
tanning between three and four millions of
inhabitants.
The Province Of Chill, since it declared its
independence, in the year 1916, has been in
the constant and unmolested enjoyment of
the sovereignty which it then assumed
The Province of Peru, situated like Chill,
beyond the Andes, and bordering on the Pa
click ocean, was, for long time, deferred
from making any eifectual effort for indepen-
dence, by the presence of an imposing militia
~ force which Spain had kept up in that
country. 1t was not, therefore, until the
18th of June, Of the last year, that its capital,
the city of Lima, capituiated to an army,
chiefly composed of troops from Buenos-Ayres
and Chill, under the command of General
J San Martin. The greatest part of tie royal
troops which escaped, on that occasion, re-
treated tc The mountains, but soon left them
TO return 10 the coast, there TO join the royal
garrison in the fortress of Callao. The sur
render of that fortress, soon after, to the
Americans, may be regarded as the termina-
tion OF the war il that quarter.
When the people of Peru found themselves,
by this event, free to express their will, they
most unequivocally expressed it in favour OF
independence, and with an unanimity and en-
thusiasm which have no where been excelled.
The revolution in Mexico has been some
What different in its character and progress.
from the revolutions in the other Spanish
American provinces, and its result, in respect
TO the organization of its internal government,
has also not been precisely the same. indie
pendence, however, has been as emphaticalIy
declared and as practically established, since
the Oath OF August last, by the 6 Mexican
empire" as ever it has been by the repub-
uation, her population and her resources,
ninently qualify her to maintain the indie
pendence which she has thus declared, and
now actually enjoys.
Such are the facts which have occupied
the attention of your Committee, and which.
ia their opinion, irresistibly prove, that the ma
lions of Mexico, Colombia, Buenos-Ayres.
Peru. and Chill, in Spanish America, are in
fact independent.
1t now remains for your Committee to ex-
anime the right and the cxpediency, on the
part of the United States, of recognizing the
Independence which those nations have. thus
effectively, achieved.
In this examination, it cannot be necessa-
ny to inquire into the right of the people of
Spanish america, " to dissolve the political
bands which have connected them with
another, and 10 assume among the powers of
the earth, that separate and equal station to
which the laws Of nature and Of natures
God entitle them" The right to change the
political institutions of the State has, indeed.
been exercised equally, by Spain and by her
colonies and for us TO deny to the people
Of Spanish America the right to indepen-
dence, on the principles which alone sanction
it here, would be virtually to renounce our
own.
The political right of this nation to ac-
knowledge their independence, without of
Tending others, does no: depend on its Justice.
but on its actual establishment. To Justify
such recognition, by US, it is necessary only
To show, as is already sufficiently shown, that
the people Of Spanish America are, within
Their respective limits, exclusively sovereign,
and thus, in fact, independent. With them,
as with every other government possessing