Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1898-04-15
SPAIN'S RECORD OF LOSS.
The Procession of Colonies, Once
Lost, Forever Lost.

The Procession of Colonies, Once
Lost, Forever Lost.
When Gladstone was born, in 1909,
Spain owned great country in North
and South America, beginning with the
south line of what is now Oregon and
extending to Cape Horn. 1t owned
Utah and California and New Mexico
and Arizona and Colorado and piece
of Kansas and Texas and Old Mexico
and Central America, and ten great
countries in South America. There
was Spanish viceroy in the City of
Mexico, and there was another ut Lii
ma, and there was another at Buenos
Ayrcs. All these regions were gov
I erned by Spain in the same way. The
officers of the government were all
from Spain, and the wealth of the
country which was more abundant
than it has been since, was sent to
Spain. That was all there was to
Spanish colonial government in 1909,
and all there ever had been of it, from
the days of Cortez and Pizarro down.
just robbery and oppression and utter
disregard of the native-born people of
the colonies.
1t is said that the first man who
ever rose against Spain in South
America was Don Martin de Algaza,
Mayor of Buenos Ayres, who, in 1907,
proposed the deposition of the Span
ish viceroy. Little came of this, but
on New Years day, 1910, the viceroy,
Cisneros, was deposed and shipped out
of the country, and Buenos Ayres was
proclaimed republic, and the be-
ginning of the end had come for Spain
i'll South America. On the 18th of
September, 1910, Priest Hidalgony
Costilla brough out the banner of in
dependence in Mexican village, and
the end had come for Spain in North
America. In the same year the fire
broke out at points as widely sep
arated as Buenos Ayres and Mexico,
and then ran and roared and consumed
all between. New Granada became a
republic in 1911, Venezuela and Par
aqua in 1913, Colombia in 1919, Peru
in 1921, Bolivia in 1924, and Uruguay
in 1925.
1t will be noticed that while the in
dependence of these regions was
achieved or recognized at different
dates, the revolt began in all of them
at about the same year, 1910. Not a
Spanish-American country remained
loyal to Spain. Every province, with
our regard to who was viceroy, broke
away.
1t is not to be supposed that Spain
gave up without a struggle. What was
called in those days, as in ours, the
honor of Spain, demanded the shedding
of great deal of blood. Hidalgo, now
called in his own country the Wash
ington of Mexico, was captured, shot
at chihuahua, and his head was cut
off and sent to Mexico. The Spanish
viceroy, Callija, drove 14,OOO prisoners
into the plaza of Zacatecas and cut
their throats. The insurgent leader,
Morales, was captured and shot, and
so were most of the other leaders, and
in 1920 Spain claimed that the Mex
lean rebellion was crushed, but in 1921
gave up Mexico, gave it all up, and
forever, and so it was all the way down
to Cape Horn. The insurgents got
little help from abroad. No nation
interposed in their behalf. Occasion
ally foreigner took service in the in
surgent armies, as General Miller and
Admiral COchrane, but the work was
done by natives like Bolivar, who was
born in Caracas, and who won the
fight at Ayacucho, where 1890 Spanish
were killed, their commander cap
tured and the conflict practically
ended as far as the continent of South
America.
1t should be noticed that in the
outcome Spain conciliated nobody and
conquered nothing. No plan Of au-
tonomy or any other scheme was con-
trived anywhere to reconcile any coun-
try to Spanish rule. No province was
compelled to sue for peace. No re-
voting province from the first ex-
pected any end, except to fight it out
to complete independence.
In 1925 George Canning, the British
statesman, in q manner intervened.
He declared the doctrine that these
revolted provinces of Spain, having
won their independence, should keep
it; that it should not be taken from
them by alliances of foreign powers
with Spain - that was the original
Monroe doctrine.
Spain lost all in Is years-all that
centuries of blood and rapine had &C.
cumulated, and left no memory of
honor. No Spanish colony once lost
to Spain ever goes back of its own ac-
cord or is ever forced back. Once lost,
| e.. 81, Al,
past and will be in the future.
WAR, if continued for any length Of