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

cOrding to the prevailing power OF passion of
the moment, and doing so in virtue OF the
principle now in question, without materially
and lastingly affecting their relations with
other governments. Have we not seen the
emperors and kings Of yesterday, receive, on
the thrones of exiled sovereigns, who claimed
the right to reign there, the friendly embas-
sizes Of other powers with whom those exiled
sovereigns had sought an asylum !-and have
we not seen to-day those emperors and kings,
thus courted and recognized yesterday, reft
of their sceptres, and, from mere change OF
circumstances, not of right, treated as usurp-
eTs by their successors, who, in their. turn,
have been acknowledged and caressed by the
same foreign powers
The peace of the world, and the inGepen-
dence of every member Of the great political
family, require that each should be the ex-
elusive judge of its own internal proceedings,
and that the fact alone should be regarded by
foreign nations 6 Even when civil war
breaks the bonds of society, and of govern
ment, or, at least, suspends their force and
effect, it gives birth in the nation to two in
dependent parties, who regard each other as
enemies, and acknowledge no common JUDGE
1t is of necessity, therefore, that these two
parties should be considered by foreign States,
as two distinct and Independent nations. To
consider or treat them otherwise, would be to
interfere in their domestick concerns, to de-
ny them the right to manage their own affairs
in their own way, and to violate the essential
attributes Of their respective sovereignty. For
a nation to be entitled, in respect to foreign
States, to the enjoyment Of these attributes,
" and to figure directly in the great political
society, it is sufficient that it is really sove-
reign and independent-tha is, that it governs
itself by its own authority and laws" The
people of Spanish America do, VIGOROUSLY, so
govern themselves, and the right of the Unit
ed States to recognize the governments which
they have instituted is incontestible. doubt
of the expediency of such a recognition can
be suggested only, by the apprehension that
It may injuriously affect our peaceful and
friendly relations with the nations of the other
hemisphere.
Can such an apprehension be well founded ;
Have not all those nations practically sane
toned, within the last thirty years, the very
principle on which we now propose to act or
have they ever complained of one another, or
of us, fer acting on that principle
No nation of Europe, excepting Spain her.
self, has, hitherto, opposed force to the indie
pendence of Spanish America. Some of those
nations have not only constantly maintained
commercial and friendly intercourse with
them, in every stage of the revolution, but
indirectly and efficiently, though not avowed
ly, aided them in the prosecution of their
great object. To these, the acknowledgment
by the United States, of the attainment Of
that object, must be satisfactory.
To the other nations of Eurone who hove
regarded the events occurring in Spanish
America hot only without interference, but
with apparent Indifference, such an acknowl-
edgment ought not to be offensive.
The nations who have thus, respectively,
favoured or never opposed the Spanish Ameri-
lean people, during their active struggle for
independence, cannot, it is believed, regard
with dissatisfaction, the formal recognition of
that independence by nation, which, while
that struggle lasted, has religiously observed,
towards both the conflicting parties, all the
duties of neutrality. Your Committee are
therefore of opinion that we have right, on
this occasion, confidently to expect, from what
these hations have done or forborne to do,
during the various fortunes Of the civil war
which has terminated, that they will frankly
approve the course of policy which the United
States may now think proper TO adopt, in rela-
ton to the successful party in that war. II
surely cannot be reasonably apprehended,
that nations who have thus been the tranquil
spectators, the apparent well-wishers, if not
the efficient supporters of this party and who
have not made the iaintest attempt to arrest
Its progress, or to prevent its success, should
be dIspleased with third power for merely
recognizing the governments which, owing to
that success, has thus been virtually permit
tod, or implicitly approved, in acquiring the
undisputed and exclusive control of the coun-
tries IN which they are established. 1t is,
therefore, on the consistency as well as on the
justice Of these nations of Europe, that we
may confidently rely, that the simple recogni-
ton, on the part of the United States, of the
necessary effect of what has already been
done, will not be considered as a lust cause Of
complaint against them, while the interested
and immediate agents, who have been direct
y and actively engaged in producing that eff
feet, have neither been opposed or censured.
Your Committee, therefore, instead of seri-
ously experimenting that the recognition, by
the United States, of the independence of
Spanish America, will be unacceptable to
these nations, are not without hope, that they
may practically approve it, by severally a.
DOPING similar measure. 1t is not, indeed,
unreasonable to. suppose, that those govern
ments have, like this, waited only for the ey-
idence Of facts which might not only suffice TO
Justify than, under the laws and usages Of ma
tons, but TO satisfy Spain herself, that nothing
has been prelnaturely done, or which could
justly offend her feelings, or be considered as
inconsistent with her rights. As their motives
for not having, hitherto, recognized the inde-
pendence Of Spanish America may thus be
supposed to have been analogous to our own,
il is permitted to presume that the facts and