rights, yet they were still considered as vassals of the 1560. crown, and, under the direction of the governors of the districts in which they resided, were obliged to labor at regular periods, either in the fields or in the mines. abolition of slavery. ing the natives. 4. 'This indirect slavery was gradually abolished 1 Gradual about the beginning of the eighteenth century, owing to the increasing abundance and cheapness of native labor; yet the Indians were still deprived, by the Spanish laws, Laws respectof all the valuable privileges of citizens,-were treated as minors under the tutelage of their superiors-could make no contract beyond the value of ten pounds—were forbidden to marry with the whites-were prohibited the use of fire-arms, and were ruled by petty magistrates appointed by the government, which seemed to aim at keeping the native population in poverty and barbarism. 5. Degenerated from the rank which they held in the 2 Degenerate days of Montezuma, banished into the most barren dis- the natives, tricts, where their indolence gained for them only a precarious subsistence, or, as beggars, swarming the streets of the cities, basking in the sun during the day, and passing the night in the open air, they afforded, during the long period of the Spanish rule, a melancholy example of that general degradation which the government of Spain brought upon the natives of all the Spanish American colonies. condition of and melan choly exam ple thereby furnished. 3. Character the colonial government, as affecting the interests the native and policy of of Spanish population. 6. 'Nor was the colonial government established over the country at all calculated to promote the interests of the native Spanish population. For nearly three centuries, down to the year 1810, Mexico was governed by viceroys appointed by the court of Spain; all of whom, with one exception, were European Spaniards. Every situation in the gift of the crown was bestowed upon a European; nor is there an instance, for many years before the Revolution, either in the church, the army, or the law, in which the door of preferment was opened to a Spaniard, Effect of Mexican born. 'Through this policy, a privileged caste the crown. teen millions of the Indians. The court of Madrid, awakened by the representations of the virtuous Las Casas, and by the indignation of the whole world, became sensible, at last, that the tyranny it permitted was repugnant to religion, to humanity, and to policy, and resolved to break the chains of the Mexicans But they were only partially freed from the tyranny under which they had so long suffered Their liberty was given them, upon the condition that they should not quit the territory where they were settled; and their lands being retained by the Spaniards, they were still obliged to labor for their oppressors. Before the Revolution, the population of Mexico was divided into seven distinct castes 1. The old Spaniards, born in Spain, designated as Gachupines. 2. The Creoles, or Whites, of pure European race, born in America, and regarded by the old Spaniards as natives. 3. The Indians, or indigenous copper colored race. 4. The Mestizos, or mixed breeds of Whites and Indians, gradually merging into Creoles as the cross with the Indian race became more remote. 5. The Mulattos, or descendants of Whites and Negroes. 6. The Zambos, or Chinos, descendants of Negroes and Indians. And 7. The African Negroes, either manumitted or slaves. Of these castes, the Spaniards, Creoles, Indians, and Negroes, were pure, and gave rise, in their various combinations, to the others, which were again subdivided without limit, and each Analysis. arose, distinct from the Mexican Spaniards in feelings, habits, and interests, the paid agents of a government whose only aim was to enrich itself, without any regard to the abuses perpetrated under its authority. 1. The viceToys of Mexi acquired by 7. 'With a nominal salary of about sixty thousand dol Co-wealth lars, the viceroy of Mexico kept up all the pageant of them. a court during several years, and then returned to his native country with a fortune of one or two millions of dollars, which, it was notorious, he had derived from a 2. The sale of system of legalized plunder. "The sale of titles and dis distinctions, tinctions, usually obtained from the king at the recommengranting of dation of the viceroy, was a source of great profit to both; titles and and the licenses. but one still greater was that of granting licenses for the introduction of any article of foreign produce, for which immense sums were paid by the great commercial houses 3. Lucrative of Mexico and Vera Cruz. So lucrative were the profits government accruing from the various species of plundering carried situations. on under the forms of law, that government situations, profits of 4. Fruitless complaints Changes in even without a salary, were in great request, and were found to be a sure road to affluence. 8. "The complaints of the Creoles, and their attempts of the Creoles. to bring notorious offenders to justice, were equally fruit5. Various less. The various changes, also, which from time to troduced. time the court of Spain introduced, with the avowed object of improving the condition of the people, were unpro6. The spirit ductive of any material results. "The spirit of clanship of clanship, and the effect prevailed over justice and law; and so marked was the of the distine, distinction kept up between the European and the Mexican occasioned. Spaniards, that the son who had the misfortune to be born of a Creole mother, was considered, even in the house of his own father, inferior to the European book-keeper or clerk. Of all aristocratical distinctions in Mexico, those of country and of color were the greatest. The word Creole was used tions thereby being distinguished by a name expressing its participation in the white, or ruling color, which, being the general criterion of nobility, was often the subject of contention. The Indians, comprising nearly two-fifths of the whole population, consist of various tribes, resembling each other in color, but differing entirely in language, customs, and dress. No less than twenty different Indian languages are known to be spoken in the Mexican territory, and probably the number is much greater. Next to the pure Indians, the Mestizos are the most numerous caste, and indeed few of the middling classes, or those who call themselves Creoles, or Whites, are exempt from a mixture of the Indian blood. From the first breaking out of the Mexican Revolution, the distinctions of castes were all swallowed up in the great vital distinction of Americans and Europeans: many of the most distinguished characters of the Revolutionary war belonged to the mixed races, and under the system of government first established at the close of the war, all permanent residents, without distinction of color, were entitled to the rights of citizenship, and capable of holding the highest dignities of the state. General Guerrero, who in 1824 was one of the members of the executive power, and in 1829 became President of the Republic, had a strong mixture of African blood in his veins. The present population of Mexico is estimated at about eight millions. Of this number, about 2,000,000 are whites; about 3,500,000 are Indians, descendants of the original possessors of Mexico; and about 2,500,000 belong to the mixed castes, including a few negroes. The Mestizos alone, or mixed breeds of Whites and Indians, number more than two millions. To be white was formerly, in Mexico, a badge of considerable distinction. When a Mexican of a mixed caste considered himself slighted by another, he would ask, "Am I not as white as yourself?" as a term of reproach, and was thought to express all the 1700. contempt that it is in the power of language to convey. ment given tinctions and 2. Ignorance of the great mass of the people. 9. These distinctions, and the mutual antipathies 1. Encourage caused by them, were doubtless secretly encouraged by to these disthe Spanish government, as the means of retaining, at all antipathies. times, within its influence, a select and powerful party, whose existence depended on that of the system of which it was the principal support. "To render these distinctions more lasting, the great mass of the people were kept in ignorance, and they were taught to believe that they were fortunate in belonging to a monarchy superior in power and dignity to any other in the world. A printing press 3. 4 printing was conceded to Mexico as a special privilege, while the same boon was denied to some other Spanish colonies. 'Liberty to found a school of any kind was almost in- 4. Schools. variably refused, and the municipality of Buenos Ayres was told, in answer to a petition for an establishment in which nothing but mathematics were to be taught, that "learning did not become colonies." press. cial restric tions of the Spanish government. tures forbid den. 10. The most serious causes of disquiet to the Mexican 5 Commer Creoles, however, were the commercial restrictions imposed upon them by the Spanish government. From the first, Spain reserved to herself the exclusive right of supplying the wants of her colonies. No foreigner was permitted to trade with them, nor foreign vessel to enter their ports, nor could a Mexican own a ship. "The colonies Manufac were forbidden to manufacture any article that the mother country could furnish, and they were compelled to receive from Spain many necessaries with which the fertility of their own soil would have supplied them. "The cultivation of the vine and the olive was prohibited, and that of many kinds of colonial produce was tolerated, only under certain limitations, and in such quantities as the mother country might wish to export. By these regulations, Effects of those parts of the Spanish dominions that were not enriched by mines of gold and silver, were sunk in poverty, in the midst of their natural riches. 7 Products of the soil for a bidden to be cultivated. these regula tions. other nations with the Spanish colonies. p. 201. 11. 'During Queen Anne's War, or, as it was called Trade of in Europe, "the war of the Spanish Succession," France succeeded, for a brief period, in opening a trade with some of the Spanish-American colonies; and by the treaty of 1702 to 1713. Utrecht, in 1713, Great Britain was allowed to send a b. See p. 324, vessel of five hundred tons, annually, to the fair of PortoBello. Some additional privileges were granted between 10, Additional the years 1739 and 1774, at which latter period the inter- trade between dict upon the intercourse of the colonies with each other was removed; and four years later, the colonial trade, which had hitherto been confined almost exclusively to privileges; the colonies permitted, &.c. a. See Note, p. 118. 1 Exclusjon of foreigners and claims ANALYSIS. Seville alone, was opened to seven of the principal ports of Spain. 'Still, foreigners were excluded from the mar ket thus organized, and the court of Spain claimed, and rigidly enforced the right of an exclusive dominion over the Spanish the vast seas surrounding its American possessions.b 12. A recent writer* gives the following description 2. Kennedy's of the administration of the government in Mexico during the the adminis reign of Charles IV., in the latter part of the eighteenth the govern century. "Every office was publicly sold, with the exmeni in Mer- ception of those that were bestowed upon court minions as latter part of the reward of disgraceful service. court. b. See p. 327. description of tration of ico in the the 18th century. 3. The condition of diately pre Revolution. classes of people. Men, destitute of talent, education, and character, were appointed to offices of the greatest responsibility in church and state; and panders and parasites were forced upon America, to superintend the finances, and preside in the supreme courts of appeal. For the colonists, there was no respite from official blood-suckers. Each succeeding swarm of adventurers, in the eagerness to indemnify themselves for the money expended in purchasing their places, increased the calamities of provinces already wasted by the cupidity of their predecessors. Truly might the Hispano-Americans have exclaimed, 'That which the palmer-worm hath left hath the locust eaten, that which the locust hath left hath the canker-worm eaten, and that which the canker-worm hath left hath the caterpillar eaten,' 466 13. The same writer thus forcibly describes the conMexico imme- dition of Mexico immediately previous to the events which vious to the led to the Revolution. The condition of Mexico at the 4. Different beginning of the present century was stamped with the repulsive features of an anarchical and semi-barbarous society, of which the elements were-an Aboriginal popu lation, satisfied with existing in unmolested indigence; a chaos of parti-colored castes, equally passive, supersti tious, and ignorant; a numerous Creole class, wealthy, mortified, and discontented; and a compact phalanx of European officials, the pampered mamelukes of the crown-who contended for and profited by every act of administrative iniquity. 'Public opinion was unrepre sented; there were no popularly chosen authorities, no deliberative assemblies of the people, no independent pub. lications,―for the miserably meagre press was but a shadow, a light-abhorring phantom, evoked to stifle free discussion by suppressing its cause, and bound to do the evil bidding of a blind, disastrous, and suicidal tyranny." 5 Public opinion:-the press, c. • Kennedy, in his History of Texas: 2 vols. 8vo. London, 1841. CHAPTER III. MEXICO DURING THE FIRST REVOLUTION. 2 1808. 1. Prelimina ry remarks separation of from the mother coun upon the The colonies try. Situation of Spain at this period. Divisions 1. The iniquitous system by which Mexico was governed during a period of nearly three centuries, has been briefly explained in the preceding chapter. As it was not in the nature of things that such a system should be endured any longer than the power to enforce it was retained, we are not surprised to find that the subversion of the Spanish monarchy in Europe was followed by the separation of the colonies from the mother country, and the final establishment of their independence. Those European events that led to this crisis require a brief explanation. 2. 'Spain, at this period, was a divided and degraded nation. The King, Charles IV., old and imbecile, was ruled by his queen, whose wicked passions were entirely under the influence of the base and unprincipled Godoy, who had been raised, by her guilty love, from a low station, to the supreme conduct of affairs. This ruling junto was held in hatred and contempt by a powerful party, at the head of which was Prince Ferdinand, heir to the throne. While Napolcon, emperor of the French, was secretly advancing his long-cherished schemes for seizing the throne of Spain, the royal family was engaged in petty conspiracies and domestic broils. "Terrified at 3. Charles IV. length by a popular outbreak against himself and his minister, the king abdicated the throne in favor of his son Ferdinand. among the and in the royal family. Spaniards, Napoleon. abdicates the throne a ence of the French. March 23. 5. Charles IV. assistance of 3. A suitable opportunity was now presented for the 4 Interferinterference of Napoleon. In the general confusion which prevailed, French troops crossed the frontiers, occupied the important posts, and a large army under Murat took possession of the capital. "In the meantime, Charles IV., regretting the steps he had taken, and asserting that his invokes the abdication had been the result of fear and compulsion, "Napoleon. appealed to Napoleon, and invoked his assistance in restoring him to the throne. "Napoleon, however, having suc- 6 The result ceeded in enticing the whole royal family to Bayonne, com- interference. pelled both father and son to renounce the throne; and a few days later Joseph Bonaparte, brother of Napoleon, was proclaimed king of Spain. 4. Although the schemes of Napoleon were abetted by a party among the Spaniards themselves, yet the spirit of the nation, generally, was roused by the usurpation, and first a central junta, and then a regency, was established, which was declared to be the only legitimate source of of Napoleon's 7 Govern ished in ment estab opposition to the schemes Napoleon |