The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-11-19
History OF Spanish
EXIrS from AMERICA
From the New York Sun.

From the New York Sun.
The story of Spanish domination on the
American continent is a long and lugubri-
Gus chronicle of folly, failure, and loss.
1t is one of the marVelS of modern his
tory that within three hundred years one
of the most magnificent empires upon
which the sun ever shone has been
crumbed by ignorance and purblind stu
pidty until its insignificant remainder
no longer challenges the respect OF any
civilized nation. Consider, for example,
the vastness of the disaster entailed upon
Spain by the loss of the vceregal prov
ince known as New Spain. In that geog-
raphcal expression was included, in Gd-
dition to the present republic of Mexico,
Guatemala on the south, and on the north
all that region which lies between the
Red River. the Arkansas, and the Pacific,
and extending as far north as the pres
ent northern boundary OF the United
States leaving Alaska out of the account.
All this prodigiCus territorial area passed
almost in a day from under the sway OF
Spain. The blindness and fatuousness
which has been an unfailng Characters
tic of the policy of Spain from the earliest
times to the present day, the policy that
has made inevitable the long struggle
for liberty in Cuba, ruthlessly sacrificed
the colossal domain of New Spain.
o
During the viceregal period the policy
Of the home government toward Mexico,
or New Spain, instead of being sagacious-
ly Conciliatory, was marsh, repressve.
and restrictive Wise governments have
usually sought to win colonsts and con-
quered peoples by affable and generous
measures. They have respected the
rights, the national pride, and the tradi-
tions of those whom they have ruled with
the et-gloved hand of steel. Not so
arrogant and bullheaded Spain. AS else
where the policy of Spain i'll America has
been designed to close its colonies and
conquered provinces to the commerce of
all nations but the Spanish; to obliterate
every trace of native tradition and native
custom; to harass the people with enor-
nous taxation; to Contrive all taxes so
that they should appear repulsivc and
odious, as well as burdensome; and to
organize society so that the pure-blooded
Castilian should be regarded as the only
representative of the ruling class, and all
others, natives, half-castes, and creoles,
should be spat upon and treated with ev-
cry possible indignity and form of con-
tempt. The Spanish born hidalgO was eN-
allied as a being of a superior race; he
was the lord of the land; the others, of
whatever race or nationality, were as the
dust beneath his feet. And this was the
result of the deliberate policy of Spain in
America, as we'll as the fruit Of the con-
ceit and arrogance of the Spanish char
aCter. The cOlonists of New Spain had
no share in the making or the execution
of the complicated and undigested mass
Of laws under which they lived. 1t was
apparently then the policy of the mother
country ITO milk the COW dry" without
the slightest reference to the present
comfort or the future capablity of the
unhappy animal Annual fleets carried
to Spain treasure and goods valued at
more than thirty millions of dollars. The
mints of New Spain poured forth a shin
ing stream of the precious metals that
inundated the mother country and con-
WINGED the naughty Castilians that they
held mine of neXhaustible wealth, a