Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1853-06-11

Chrisan prince under whose auspices the discovery
made, subject 10 the ratification vi the Pope the ult-
nate disposer of the Kingdom Of the earth Such
The law Of nations then undelstood in virtue Of which,
nom the moaent Couibus, The hight Of the 18th OF
October 1892 caught from the qartereck Of the Santa
Maria the tyinklng beams Of taper from the shores OF
San Salvador, all the territorial and political rights Of its
simple inhabitants extnguished forever When on
the following morning the keel of his vessel grated upon
the muchonged for strand il completed with than
electric speed that terrible circuit which connected the
islands and the continent to the ootsool of the Spanish
throne As he landed upon the virgin Shore its native
inhabitants if they could have foreseen the future would
have felt if may presume thus to apply the words that
virtue had gone out Of forever With of them the
process sharp and instantaneous with others more
gradual but not less sure with even after nearly
four centuries it still going but with all 1T was an
irrevocable doom. The wild and warlike-the incident
and semi -civzedthe bloody Aztecthe inoftensye re-
ruyan-the fierce Araucanianal Jared alike; foreign
rule and iron yoke settled is settling down upon
/ their necks forever Applause.
Such the law of nations Of that day. not enacted
however, by Spain 1t in reality the old principle OF
the right of the strongest disguised by pretext CO.
lossa iron fasehood gded over with the thin foil Of
seeming truth 1t the same principle which prompt
ed the eternal wars the Greeks and Romans Aristotle
asserts without qualification that the Greeks had per-
petua right of and conquest against the barbarians
that is all the of the world and the pupil OF Ars
proclaimed this doctrine at the head of the Macedo
MAN phaanx the banks of the Indus. The Eruption
of the barbarous into Europe during the centuries
that preceded and followed Christianity rested good
principe-rather better, the preext only varied
although the Gauls and Cloths did not probably trouble
themselves much about pretexts They adopted rather
the simple philosophy Of the robber cheftanbf the Scot
| fish Highlands:
Pent in this fortress of the North,
Think st thou will not sally forth
To spoil the spoer may,
And from the robber rend his prey?
When the Mahometan races to power they claim
ed dominion all who disbelieved the Koran Con-
yertion determination was the alternative which they
of fire and blood from Spain to the Ganges The States
of Christian Europe did but retort the principle and the
practice when in five successive crusades kept up for
more than three hundred years. they poured desolaon
the west of ASIA in order to the sepuchre of
the Prince of Peace from the possession of unbeevers
| [Applause.
practice under them they existed when the great dis
coyeries Of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries took
place When the Portuguese began push their advan
tages far to the south the coast Of Africa in order to
give those principles the highest sanction they procur
ed of Pope Nicholas the Fifth in li54, the grant of
right Of sovereignty all the heather tribes nations
and countries discovered be discovered by them
from Africa India and the exclusive title thus confer
red recognised by all the other nations of Chrstendom
On the return Of Columbus from his first voyage, the
King Of SPAIN to fall behind his neighbors in the
strength Of his title lost no time in obtaining from Pope
Alexander the Sixth similar grant of all the heather
lands discovered by Columbus, which might hereafter
be discovered in the To preclude, far posi-
ble all conflict with Portugal the famous line of demarca
ton projected from the north to the south, hundred
leagues west of the Azores cutting the earth into two
halves like apple, and far as the new discoveries
concerned givngto the Spanards all west of the
line, and confirming all Off to the Portuguese, in yr
of the grant already mentioned Of Pope Nicholas the
Fifth.
regret that want of time viii not allow dwell
upon the curious history of this line of demarcaon, for
the benefit of all States having boundary controversies
and especially sister republics of Nicaragua and Cos
Ia Rica. 1t is sufficient say that it remained sub
ject of dispute and collision for three hundred and sixty
years, and finally settled at the Congress of Vi
emma in 1916.
The territorial extension of Portugal and Spain which
resulted from the discovery of America followed by
the most extraordinary effects upon the commerce. the
finances and the politics generally of those two countries
and through them Of the world The overland trade to
the East abandoned. The whole of South America,
and considerable part of North America were, in the
of the sixteenth century settled by those Govern
who organized in their transatlantic possessions
colonial of the most rigid aud despotc character
rejecting far practicable in distant provinces
beyond sea- Of the mother country
The precious metals and monopoly of the trade to the
East the great objects. Aliens were forbidden to
enter the American vice royalties but contra
band trade carried by foreigners at the seaports
To this TRADE right of search insti
tuted along the entire extent of the coast have recently
had opportunity in another place. to advert to the eff
fects Of this system upon the international relations of
Europe Native subjects could emgrate to these vast CO.
ona possessions only with the permission of the Govern
men Liberty of speech and Of the press unknown.
Instead Of aording asylum to persons dissenting from
the religion of the State conformity Of belief if pos
sibe enforced rgidy in the colonies than in the
mother country No relaxation in this respect has taken
place in the remaining colonies of Spain TO the pre-
day As for the aboriginal tribes after the first work
Of determination over, remnant saved from de-
strucon by being reduced state Of predal serytude
The detected and sprtess posterty Of the warke tribes
that offered resistance to Corcz and Pizarro are
the hewers of wood and the drawers of water to Next
co and Peru. In word from the extreme southern point
Of Patagonia to the norhernmos limit of New Mexico
not that any thing hopeful done for human
improvement by either of the European which add
ed these vast domains to their territories. Applause
this great territorial extension fruess of bene
fetal consequences to America twas not less TO the
mother country For Spain il the commencement of
period not Of prosperity but Of decline The rapid in
ux Of the precious metals in the absence of civil liberty
and Of just principles and institutions OF intercourse and
industry, productive Of manifold evils and from the
reign of Philip H. if not of Charles " the Spanish Mo-
narchy began to sink from its naughty position at the
head of the European family. do ascrbe this down
fall exclusively to the mentioned but the posses
sion of the two Indies with all their treasures did moth
racy Active Of decline no doubt existed at home
and Of these the Inquision the chief
"This the weight that weighed her down."
The spirit ofntoerance and prosecutions the reproach
scandal Of all countries and all churches Protestant
well as Catholic mot excepting the Pilgrim Fathers Of
New England found instrument in the Holy Office, in
Span in the sixteenth century, such it never possessed
any other age country 1t not merely jews and
heretcs whom it bound to the stake; II kindled slow
unau enchabe fire the heart Of CASTLE and Leon. The
horrid atrocities pracced home and abroad merely
the Netherlands bat every city of the mother
try cried heaven for vengeance upon Spain could
she escape She entrenehed herself behind the eternal
Corderas she took herself the wings Of the morning
and dwet In the uttermost parts Of the but
Of laid hold her. and the