8072. SPANISH AMERICA, Relations with Spain.—
If the mother country [Spain]
has not the magnanimity to part with the colonies
in friendship, thereby making them what
they would certainly be, her natural and firmest
allies, these will emancipate themselves, after
exhausting her strength and resources in ineffectual
efforts to hold them in subjection.
They will be rendered enemies of the mother
country, as England has rendered us by an
unremitting course of insulting injuries and
silly provocations. I do not say this from the
impulse of national interest, for I do not know
that the United States would find an interest
in the independence of neighbor nations, whose
produce and commerce would rivalize ours. It
could only be that kind of interest which every
human being has in the happiness and prosperity
of every other. But putting right and reason
out of the question, I have no doubt that
on calculations of interest alone, it is that of
Spain to anticipate voluntarily, and as a matter
of grace, the independence of her colonies,
which otherwise necessity will force.—
To Chevalier de Onis. Washington ed. vi, 342.
(M.
April. 1814)
