Nature, and an interesting map of New Spain. For these magnificent and much esteemed favors, accept my sincere thanks. They give us a knowledge of that country more accurate than I believe we possess of Europe, the seat of a science of a thousand years. It comes out, too, at a moment when those countries are beginning to be interesting to the whole world. They are now becoming the scenes of political revolution, to take their stations as integral members of the great family of nations. All are now in insurrection. In several the Independents are already triumphant, and they will undoubtedly be so in all. What kind of government will they establish? Are their chiefs sufficiently enlightened to form a well guarded government, and their people to watch their chiefs? Have they mind enough to place their domesticated Indians on a footing with the whites? All these questions you can answer better than any other. I imagine they will copy our outlines of confederation and elective gov ernment, abolish distinction of ranks, bow the neck to their priests, and persevere in intolerantism. *** But unless instruction can be spread among them more rapidly than experience promises, despotism may come upon them before they are qualified to save the ground they will have gained. Could Napoleon obtain, at the close of the present war, the independence of all the West India Islands, and their establishment in a separate confederacy, our quarter of the globe would exhibit an enrapturing prospect into futurity. You will live to see much of this. I shall follow, however, cheerfully my fellow laborers, contented with having borne a part in beginning this beatific reformation. *** In sending you a copy of my 'Notes on Virginia,' I do but obey the desire you have expressed. They must appear chétif enough to the author of the great work on South America. But from

the widow her mite was welcome, and you will add this indulgence the acceptance of my sincere assurances of constant friendship and respect."

It was natural that Jefferson should observe with interest the efforts of the people of South America to free themselves from the withering sway of the monarchs of Spain. One may well doubt whether in the history of the world a people can be named who have suffered at the hands of despots as terribly as had South America from the government of Spain. James Monroe, some time before announcing what is known as the Monroe doctrine, sent a secret Commission of Inquiry to South America to report to the United States Government the condition and political prospects of the Spanish Provinces. Whoever will look over the State papers presented to the United States government by this important Commission will see that the accounts which they give of cruelty and of tyranny on the part of the Crown of Spain are indeed dreadful. Iteis surprising how little is generally known by citizens of the United States, of the history of the war of Independence in South America-a war in which it has been estimated that a million of lives were lost.* It would not perhaps be too much to say that in Jefferson's day the population south of the United States was four or five times as large as was the population in the English-speaking division of America. Henry Clay, on March 24th, 1818, delivered in Congress a speech in which he urged that the United States should, in addition to what it had already done, recognize the independence of a Spanish State and send to it a Minister. The speech was very eloquent and forcible. It is said to have "burst on Spain herself, and

* See account of the struggle for liberty of the Spanish American States in Encyclopedia Britannica, also Memoirs of Gen. Miller in the Service of Peru, by John Miller (London, 1829).

on all Europe, as a clap of thunder from the skies." In his speech Clay sketched the vastness and natural grandeur of the immense territory known as South America, and reviewed the history of the persecution which the people for three hundred years had been made to suffer at the hands of Spain :-how they had had to submit to a debasing course of education,-how useful books had been kept from them;-and then he characterized the awfulness of the atrocities of the Spanish forces in South America in a deeply impressive manner. This celebrated speech was borne to South America and the governments of the Spanish States voted thanks to Henry Clay. Songs were sung in his honor and monuments were erected to his memory. The South American General Bolivar, who has often been called "The Washington "-" The Liberator" -of South America commanded the speech of Henry Clay to be read to his army.

Let a single instance here suffice to give an idea of the horrors which too often characterized the war for independence in South America. At the capture of the city of Guanaxuato, the Spanish officer, Don Felix Maria Galleja is said to have ordered the prisoners who had been taken in battle, as well as the defenceless citizens of the town,-men, women and children-to be driven into the great square, and several thousand of them-it has even been said that the number was fourteen thousandwere butchered by having their throats cut. Such a wofully tragic scene is one not to be dwelt upon, nor are the dreadful retaliatory measures adopted by Bolivar a subject which it is fit to here present in all its horrid details. The Spanish officer defended his course,-which however he is said in official communications to the Spanish Crown to have exulted over,-on the ground that he could not afford to spare powder and bullets in putting to death

the enemies of his Catholic Majesty.* Should it here be stated that a high Roman Catholic ecclesiastic once estimated, that under the Spanish rule in South America, fifteen millions of the wretched people, who had been reduced to slavery, owing to the hardships incidental to the cruel bondage to which they were subjected, miserably perished, some idea might be formed of the horrors of the tyranny under which they had long groaned. A well written history of South America would be particularly interesting to the American citizen. A Motley has given some faint idea of the acts of the Spanish Monarchy and of the Inquisition in Holland, but where has there arisen a writer of equal gracefulness of style, and of equal research, to give an account of the same awfully instructive history in South America? However wretchedly poor were the people of South America, yet for a long period, whenever any of them collected a little money they were tempted to part with it for indulgences, -or "Bulls" as they were called by the ignorant people. Thus their scanty means were made to flow toward Rome where an Italian Pontiff lived in regal splendor. The student of history is apt to be more and more surprised as he finds how immense was the number of these "Bulls" which were sent to South America. It was natural that such an intelligent lover of civil liberty as was Jefferson, should view with interest the struggle which was taking place in South America.

On December 6th, 1813, writing to Humboldt, Jefferson said: "The livraison of your astronomical observations, and the 6th and 7th on the subject of New Spain,

* See "Memoirs of the Mexican Revolution: Including a Narrative of the Expedition of General Xavier Mina," etc., etc. By William Davis Robinson-a citizen of the United States who was himself in South America during a part of the war.

with the corresponding atlasses, are duly received, as had been the preceding cahiers. For these treasures of a learning, so interesting to us, accept my sincere thanks. I think it most fortunate that your travels in those countries were so timed as to make them known to the world in the moment they were about to become actors on its stage. 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 casts of their inhabitants, their mutual hatred and jealousies, their profound ignorance and bigotry, will be played off by cunning leaders, and each made the instrument of enslaving the others."

To Humboldt, on the 13th of June, 1817, Jefferson again wrote, and alluded to Spanish American affairs. "The physical information you have given us," he said, "of a country hitherto so shamefully unknown, has come exactly in time to guide our understandings in the great political revolution now bringing it into prominence on the stage of the world. The issue of its struggles, as they respect Spain, is no longer matter of doubt. As it respects their own liberty, peace and happiness, we cannot be quite so certain. Whether the blinds of big