8074. SPANISH AMERICA, Revolt of.—[continued].
That they will throw off
their European dependence I have no doubt;
but in what kind of government their revolution
will end I am not so certain. History, I believe,
furnishes no example of a priest-ridden
people maintaining a free civil government.
This marks the lowest grade of ignorance, of
which their civil as well as religious leaders will
always avail themselves for their own purposes.
The vicinity of New Spain to the United States,
and their consequent intercourse, may furnish
schools for the higher, and example for the
lower classes of their citizens. And Mexico,
where we learn from you that men of science
are not wanting, may revolutionize itself under
better auspices than the Southern provinces.
These last, I fear, must end in military despotisms.
The different castes of their inhabitants,
their mutual hatreds and jealousies, their
profound ignorance and bigotry, will be played
off by cunning leaders, and each be made the
instrument of enslaving others. * * * But
in whatever governments they end they will be
American governments, no longer to be involved
in the never-ceasing broils of Europe.—
To Baron von Humboldt. Washington ed. vi, 267.
Ford ed., ix, 430.
(Dec. 1813)
