pendence existed there as in other places, in which case they may have encouraged, without absolutely exciting, the inhabitants to revolt. The English ambassador, in his note to our Government, in which he offers the mediation of Great Britan to effect a reconciliation with the Insurgents of America, endeavours to clear his Government from the imputation, and states that the only object of the communications into which England has entered with Caracas and Buenos Ayres, is the wish to be able to mediate between the two parties more effectually.
All may be resolved into the desire of Independence, which is the primum mobile. This, again, may be divided into two classes; Independence of the European Spaniards, and Independence of the Government of the Peninsula. We will suppose that the Creoles desire the last, as is affirmed in many of the papers of the day, and, I believe, by most people. Still, the great and principal cause of their criminal intentions will be found in the state of oppression in which they have lived for so many years. This impelled them to take advantage of the first opportunity to shake off the yoke. Without it, they would have acknowledged the Government, although regarding it as illegitimate, in order to conform with the rest of the nation. Bad Government alone has been the cause of the dissatisfaction of the Americans.
In order to form a just idea of the effects produced, and the system pursued, let us consider the Creoles as men, as individuals, and as members of a political community. As men, they believe themselves degraded by the Government, which regards them with contempt as colonists; i.e. as an inferior class, or species of men, who have never enjoyed the rights due to all. The consequence of this is, that the Creoles have been loaded with abusive terms, sarcasms, and opprobrious epithets, by those who fancy themselves superior, only because they are natives of a different soil. As individuals who, for food and raiment, are in want of the fruits of the earth, they complain of restrictions which prevent them from turning the advantages of their soil to account, and manufacturing what they require. As members of society, they lament to see
