The western Democrat. [volume] (Charlotte, N.C.) 1852-1870, 1858-01-12
THE N1cARAeUAN COUNTRY
WASHINGTON, Dec. Is, 1857,

notes on Central American matters. You
will perceive from their perusal that the
bulk of the population of Central America
is Indian-an Indian not resembling the
Indian of the North American continent
hunter, remade and savage-but of the race
that Cortez, Pizarro and the Spanish con-
ouerors found-barbarians it is true, but
a stationary, agricultural people, docile,
patient, industrious and supertitious, who
had built large cities and raised stupendous
temples, on whose alters smoked indeed the
blood of human victims. The rest of the
population, which may amount to from one
quarter to one third of the whole, consists
of the admixture Of Spanish, Indian and
negro blood, mingled and reintermingled in
every imaginable degree. The pure Indian
races are the people who cultivate the soil.
who produce, who have never had any share
in government, and who are dragged (as
successive factions are ascendant) from
their willing labors to fight for the mixed
race. This mixed race is in a state of
rapid moral ana physical degeneracy. A
large majority are born with the taint of
hereditary disease, and the ince<sant revo-
lutions since the Spaniards were driven out,
the general decay of cities, of agriculture,
of industry and of population, the abandon
mcnt of plantations and of mines, attest how
utterly visionary is the idea that any self
amclioration can be expected.
l have no hesitation in putting on record
my conviction that five years after that
country is Americanized, as some day it
will be, its production in sugar and coffee
will approach or equal that of Cuba at present
and that its mineral products will fall little
short of that of California now. say, sir.
Americanized, referring to our own people;
because, with an instinct prophetic of their
destiny, this is the term by which the Span
ish and Indian races designate them; yet if.
by any great convulsion of nature, those
races could be totally cut off from commu
nication with the people of the United
States, it is my firm belief that in fifty years
and probably within half that period
out by the Christianized Indian, and the
ChIistianized Indian, in turn, conquered
and assimilated by the wild heather Indian.
In Guatemala. which alone contains half
the population of Central America, this is
already obvious. The Indians, many years
ago, were only prevented from exterminat-
ing the mixed population because Carrera.
himself an Indian, was gained over by the
clergy. and by few families who have
bowed to his despotism because he can hold
the Christianized Indians in check. But
in the rear of these are the pagan Maya
Indians, who have swept through Yucatan,
devastating nearly every portion of its
territory, and by whom the Chrstianzed
Indians will be as certainly subdued and
absorbed as the mixed race rooted out even
tually by them. I need not remind you
that in the Mexican Territories the savage
is everywhere steadily eneroaching on the
etiete civilization of Mexico.
A small portion of this mixed race in
Central America, in both of the main par
ties into which they are divided, are incura-
BILE factionists, whose trade is revolution.
There is. however, majority fully aware
of the facts to which have been adverting,
and who look to the Americanizatfon of the
country as the only hope of averting its de-
cline into utter barbarism and ruin. One
of these parties is designed the Democratic
the other has accepted the appellation, orig
inally given to it by its adversaries, of SER
vile. When the Spaniards were driven out
the former prevailed in Nicaragua; but in
the reaction, consequent on it's excesses,
the services; that's to say the old aristocratic
families, the employees of the Spanish Gov
ernment and their friends, representing ex
actly what was represented in this country
by the tories in the war of Independence
obtained the ascendancy, were again over
turned and again established, through a
countless series of revolutions, always in a
diminishing minority till, through recent
events and by foreign interference, that
servile party, represented by the Govern
ment of Martinez, and dwindled to a mere
faction, is temporarily established-that is
to say, draws men and resources from about
one-third of the country.
1t would no doubt be highly desirable. in
a philanthropic point of view, if, by the
coatrivance of ingenious diplomacy, these
politicians and parties in Central America.
and the contiguous regions, could be in
duced to subside into a united happy fami-
ly, till the settlement of the country by
colonists from the United States should SO
far have progressed as to infuss control
ling amount of practical sense. enterprise
and vigor into those countries :; but the idea
is more than delusive. If the native Gov
ernments could stand, the men of powe;,
as all experience, as their own acts and
proclamations show, are bent on excluding
Americans. Where, in the history of the
last twenty years, has any colony of United
States citizens been established by pacific
development in any of the Spanish Ameri-
ran countries What foothold. what
security of life or propety have they now