Gallipolis journal. [volume] (Gallipolis, Ohio) 1837-1919, 1853-06-23


trade. was carried on by foreigners at tn
seaports. To prevent this trade, Sc
we're right of search was instituted alon.
the entire extent of the coast. l hay'
recently had an opportunity, in another
place, to advert to the effects of thi
system upon the international relation
of Europe. Native subjects could emf
CRATE to these vast colonial possession
only with the permission of the Govern
ment. Liberty of speech and of tn
press was unknown. Instead of afford
ing an asylum to persons dissenting from
the religion of the State, conformity o
belief was, possible, enforced more rig
idly in the colonies than in the mothe
country. No relaxation in this respec
has taken place in the remaining colonie
of Spain even to the present day. A
for the aboriginal tribes, after the frs
work of determination was over, a rem
nant was saved from destruction by be
ing reduced to a state of predial servi
tude. The detected and spiritless pos
terity of the warlike tribes that offered
no mean resistance to Cortez and Pizar
ro, are now the hewers of wood and the
drawers of water to Mexico and Peru
In a word, from the extreme southern
point of Patagonia to the northernmos
limit of New Mexico, / am not aware
that anything hopeful was done for hu
man Improvement by either of the Euro
pean crowns which added these vast do
mains to their territories. Applause.
If this great territorial extension wa;
fruitless of beneficial consequences tC
America, it was not less so to the mother
country. For Spain it was the com.
mencement of period, not of prosper,
ity, but of decline. The rapid influx o.
the precious metals, in the absence O.
civil liberty and of just principles and
institutions of intercourse and industry
was productive of manifold evils; and
from the reign of Philip II, if not o
Charles V, the Spanish Monarchy be,
gan to sink from its naughty position al
the head of the European family. l dc
not ascribe this downfall exclusively tc
the cause mentioned; but the possession
of the two Indies, with all their treas,
ures, did nothing to arrest-accelerated
even-the progress of degeneracy. Ac
tive causes of decline no doubt existed
at home, and ofthese the Inquisition wa'
the chief.
''This was the we; ght that weighed her down.
The spirit of intolerance and perse
cutions, the reproach and scandal of al
countries and all churches, Protestan
as we'll as Catholic, NOT excepting the
Pilgrim Fathers of New England,
found an instrument in the Holy Office
in Spain, in the sixteenth century, sucl
as it never possessed in any other ag,
or country. 1t was not merely Jew
and heretics whom it bound to the stake
it kindled slow unquenchable fire n
the heart of CASTLE and Leon. TIL,
horrid atrocities practiced at home anC
abroad, not merely in the Netherlands
but in every city of the mother country
cried to heaven for vengeance upol
Spain; nor could she escape it. Sh,
entrenched herself behind the eterna
Cordilleras; she took to herself tn,
wings of the morning and dwelt in th'
uttermost parts of the sea; but evel
there the arm of retribution laid hold o
her; and the wrongs of both hemis
pheres were avenged in her degenerac,
and fall. Great applause.
But let us pass on to the next centu
ry, during which events of the utmos
consequence followed each other il
rapid succession; and the germs of in
stitutions destined to influence the for
tunes of Christendom, were planted b,
humble men, who little comprehende(
their own work. In the course of tn
seventeenth century the French an,
English took possession Of all that par
of North America which was not pre-
occupied by the Spaniards. The Frencl
entered by the St. Lawrence; followe,
that noble artery to the heart of tn
continent; traced the great lakes to thei
parent rivulets and weeping fountains
descended the Mississippi. Miracles @
humble and unavailing heroism wer
/ performed by their gallant adventurer
and pious missionaries in the depths o
our western wilderness. Applause.
The English stretched along the coast
The geographer would have pronounce,
that the French, in appropriating t
themselves the mighty basins of tn
Mississippi and the St. Lawrence, hal
got possession of the better part of tn
continent. But it was an attempt t
compose the second volume of th
Fortunes of America" in advance G
the first. This it was ordained shoul
be written at jamestown and Plymouth
The French, though excelling all othe
nations of the world in the art of com
municating for temporary purposes wit
savage tribes, seem, still more than tn
Spaniards, to be destitute of the angus
skill required to found new States.
do not know that there is such thin
in the world as colony of Frenc
growing up into a prosperous common
wealth. A half a million of Frenc
peasants in Lower Canada, tenaciousl
adhering to the manners and custom
which their fathers brought from Nol
mandy two centuries ago. and a thir
part of that number of planters {
French decent in Louisiana, are all ths
is left to bear living witness to tn
fact that not a century ago France wa