their power and diminish their original privileges. The Indian who had been divided with the lands among the conquerors by the slavish system of repartimientos, were declared to be the king's subjects. In 1537 the Pope issued a decree declaring the aborigines to be "really and truly men,"—"ipsos veros homines,"—who were capable of receiving the christian faith.
The sovereign was ever regarded from the first as the direct fountain of all authority throughout Spanish America. All his provinces were governed as colonies and and his word was their supreme law. In 1511, Ferdinand created a new governmental department for the control of his American subjects, denominated the Council of the Indies, but it was not fully organized until the reign of Charles the Fifth in 1524. The Recopilacion de las leyes de las Indias declared that this council should have supreme jurisdiction over all the Western Indies pertaining to the Spanish crown, which had been discovered, at that period, or which might thereafter be discovered;—that this jurisdiction should extend over all their interests and affairs; and, moreover, that the council, with the royal assent, should make all laws and ordinances, necessary for the welfare of those provinces.[1] This Council of the Indies consisted of a president, who was the king, four secretaries and twenty-two counsellors, and the members were usually chosen from among those who had either been viceroys or held high stations abroad. It appointed all the officers employed in America in compliance with the nomination of the crown, and every one was responsible to it for his conduct. As soon as this political and legislative machine was created it began its scheme of law making for the colonies, not, however, upon principles of national right, but according to such dictates of expediency or profit as might accrue to the Spaniards. From time to time they were apprised of the wants of the colonists, but far separated as they were from the subject of their legislation, they naturally committed many errors in regard to a people with whom they had not the sympathy of a common country, and common social or industrial interests. They legislated either for abstractions or with the selfish view of working the colonies for the advantage of the Spanish crown rather than for the gradual and beautiful development of American capabilities. The mines of this continent first attracted the attention of Spain, and the prevailing principle of the scheme adopted in regard to them, was, that the mother country should
- ↑ Recop. de las leyes, lib. 2, title 2, ley 2.
