The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1853-06-06

itance, colonization, nor, as yet, by conquest,
haa any human being in Europe right to rule
over them, or to possess square foot of their terri
.oly such are the facts Of the case, and SUCH one
wouio say, ought to be the law and equity of the
| case But, alas for the native chiefs and the ma
tive races. Before he sailed from Spain. Columbus
was furnished with piece of parchment by Fer
dlnand and Isabella, creating him their yicerov
anu ngh aoIlfai IN all the seas, islands, and
unehts winch He should discover-his heirs forever
| to enjoy the same offices. The viceroy of the alb
solute monarchs of Aragon and CASTLE!
| Thus was America conquered before it was dis.
| covered BY the law of nations, as then under
stood. (and fear there is less real change in il.
| doctrines at the present day than are ready to
think,) sovereign right to the territory and gov
eminent of all newly discovered regions inhabited
by heather tribes believed to rest in the Chris
tan prince under whose auspices the discovery was
made, subject to the ratification of the Pope as the
! ultimate dlsposer OF the kingdoms of the earth.
such was the law of nations, as then understood,
| IN virtue OF which, from the moment Columbus, on
the night of the 18th of October 1892 caught from
the quarterback of the Santa Maria, the twinkling
beams OF q taper from the shores of San Salvador,
all the territorial and political rights of its simple
inhabitants were extinguished forever When,
the following morning. the keel OF his vessel grated
upon the much longed for strand, it completed,
with more than electric speed, that terrible circuit
which connected the islands and the continent to
the footstool 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 10 apply the word, that virtue
/
process was sharp and instantaneous; with others
| more gradual, but not less sure; with some even,
after nearly four centuries, it is still going on but
| with all it was an irrevocable doom. The wild
and warlike-the.in dolent and semi-civilized-the
| bloody Aztec-the inofensive Peruvian-the fierce
Araucanian-aI Jared alike; foreign rule and
an iron yoke settled or is settling down upon their
| necks forever.
| Such was the law of nations of that day-not in
vented, however, by Spain. 1t was in reality the
Old principle OF the right of the strongest disguised
by pretext; colossal iron falsehood gilded over
with the thin foil of q, seeming truth. 1t was the
same principle which prompted the eternal wars
| of the Greeks and Romans. Aristotle asserts,
without qualification, that the Greeks had perpe-
| tua right of war and conquest against the barba-
rians, that is all the rest of the world; and the pu
| pill of Aristotle proclaimed this doctrine at the
head of the Macedonian phelanx, the banks of
the Indus. The irruption of the barbarous races
into Europe, during the centuries that preceded and
| followed Christianity. rested good princi
| ple--rather better the pretext only varied; al
| though the Gauls und the Goths did not probably
trouble themselves much about pretexts. They
adoped rather the simple philosophy of the rob5sU
| chieftain of the Scottish Highland;
''Pent in this fortress of the north,
Think'st thou We will not sally forth,
| To spoil the spoiler may,
And from the robber rend his prey?"
When the Mahometan races rose to power, they
| claimed dominion all who disbeeved the
Koran. Conversion determination the al
tentative which they offered to the world, and which
was announced in letters of fire and blood from
Spain to the Gauges The States of Christian
Europe did but retert the principle and the praC-
tice. when in five successive crusades, kept up for
more than three hundred years, they poured desc
lation over the west Of Asia in order to the
sepulchre of the prince of peace from the posses
| sion of unbeevers.
Such were the principles of the public law and
the practice under them, as they existed when the
| great discoveries of the fifteenth and sixteenth
centuries took place. When the Portuguese be-
gan TO push their adventures far to the south on
the coast Of Africa, in order to give to those princ
piles the highest sanction, they procure of Pope
| Nicholas ", in 1854, the grant OF q right of So
vereignty all the heather tribes matt ons, and
countries discovered or to be discovered by them
from Africa to India; and the exclusive tit lie thus
conferred was recognised by all the other nations
of Christendom
On the return of Columbus from his first voyage,
the King of Spain, not to fall behind his eighbors
in the strength of his title, lost time in obtain
; ing from Pope Alexander VI. similar grant of
all the heather lands discovered by Columbus, or
which might hereafter be discovered in the West.
To preclude far possible all conflict with Por
tugal, the famous line of demarcation was pro-
posed from the north and SOUTH hundred lea CUES
west of the Azores, cutting the earth into two
halves like an apple; and, as far as the new dis
coverles were concerned, giving to the Spaniards
all west of the line and confirming all east of it
to the Portuguese, in virtue of the grant already
4 mentioned of Pope Nicholas V.
L regret that want of time will not allow me to
dwell upon the curious history of this line of de-
, marcatlon, for the benefit of all States having
, boundary controversies, and especially our sister
republics OF Nicaragua and Costa RIGA. Ii is suf-
6cient to say that it remained subject Of dispute
and collision for three hundred and sixty -one
years, and was finally settled at the Congress OF
Vienna, in 1915.
The territorial extension of Portugal and Spain,
which resulted from the discovery Of America, was
followed by the most extraordinary effects upon
the commerce, the finances, and the politics gener
ally of those two countries, and, through them Of
the world. The overland trade to the East was
abandoned. The whole of South America and
considerable part of North America was in the
course of the sixteenth century settled by those
governments, whe organized in their transatlantic
possessions colonial system of the most rigid and
despotic character, rejecting, as far az was prac-
. tcable in distant provinces beyond the sea, the
stern features of the mother country. The pre-
: cious metals and monopoly of the trade to the
East were the great objects. Aliens forbid
den to enter the American Vice-Royalties; none
but contraband trade was carried on by foreign
at the seaports. To resist this trade severe
right of search instituted along the entire
tent of the coast. have recently had an oppor-
tunty in another place TO advert to the effects of
this system upon the International relations of
Europe. Native subjects could emigrate TO these
vast colonial possessions only with the permission
of the government. Instead OF aHordlng an asy-
Ium to persons dissenting from the religion OF the
State, conformity of belief was, If possible, en-
forced more rigidly in the colonies than In the
mother country. No relaxation in this respect has
taken place in the remaining colonies of Spain even
to the present day. As for the aboriginal tribes,
after the fret work of determination was over, a
remnant saved from destruction by being re-
duced to state of predia servitude. The detected
and spiritess posterity of the varhke tribes that
offered no mean resistance to Cortez and Pizarro
! are now the hewers of wood and drawers OF water
to Mexico and Peru. In word, from the extreme
> southern point of Patagonia to the northernmost
limit of New Mexico | am not aware that any
thing hopeful was done for human improvement
by either of the European crowns which added
these vast domains to their territories.
If this great territorial extension rUitless of
beneficial consequences to America, it not less
so TO the mother country. For Spain, it the
commencement of period, not of prosperity, but
of decline. The rapid influx of the precious me-
tails, in the absence of civil liberty and of just
principles and institutions of intercourse and in
dustry, productive of manifold evils; and from
the reign of Philip H., if not OF Charles v, the
Spanish monarchy began to sink from Its naughty
position at the head of the European family do
not ascribe this downfall exclusively to the cause
mentioned; but the possession of the two Indies
with all their treasures, did nothing to arrest
accelerated even-the progress of degeneracy. Ac-
tive causes of decline doubt existed at home and
Of these the inquisiton was the chief
ssThis the weight that dragged her down"
The spirit of intolerance and persecution, the
scandal of all countries and all churches, Protes
tant as we'll as Catholic (not excepting the Pilgrim