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A LECTURE 
 
 ON THE 
 
 |iepblks ijf i\t Witsim Pmisjljere, 
 
 AND THE 
 
 ii 
 
 MONEOE DOCTRmE,"ii^ 
 
 DELIVERED IN THE 
 
 COOPER INSTITUTIi:, TST. Y., 
 
 September 5TH5 1866, 
 
 BY 
 
 WILLIAM BAKON WALSH. 
 
 "Westward tlie star of Empire takes its way, — 
 The three first acts ah-eady past ; 
 The fourth shaU close with the closing day, — 
 Earth's noblest empire is the last." 
 
 Bishop Beekely, A.'D., 1730. 
 
 I='P=LIOEI 2S OJBISTTS. 
 
 PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR, 
 
 AT FRANK McELROY'S MERCANTILE STEAM PRINTING HOUSE, 
 113 Nassau Street. 
 
 1868. 
 J) 
 
 2 
 
j 
 
A LECTURE 
 
 IpWks ijf i\t Witskxu '§tm^\txt, 
 
 AND THE 
 
 "MONROE DOCTEINE," 
 
 DELIVERED IN THE 
 
 COOLER IIS^STITXJTE, IST. Y., 
 
 September 5th, 1866, 
 
 BY 
 
 WILLIAM BAEON WALSH. 
 
 'Westward tlie star of Empire takes its way,— 
 
 Tlie three first acts already past ; 
 The fourth shall close with the closing day,— 
 
 Earth's noblest empire is the last." 
 
 Bishop Bekkelt, A. D., 1730. 
 
 
 PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR, 
 AT FRANK MoELROY'S MERCANTILE STEAM PRINTING ROOMS, 
 No. 113 Nassau Stbeet. 
 
 1868. 
 

 Entered according to an Act of Congress in the year 1868, by 
 
 WILLIAM BARON WALSH, 
 
 In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the 
 Southern District of New York. 
 
 / 
 
 1 
 
 / 
 
 ^ 
 
LECTURE 
 
 Fellow-Citizens : — When Christopher Columbus and 
 others — who were inspired by his genius, and who followed 
 his example — revealed to mankind the elemental and geo- 
 graphical counterpoise of the then known world, — the twin 
 Continents of North and South America — the Westekn 
 Hemisphere ; — a new and startling epoch arose in the history 
 and destiny of the human race. Almighty God in his pro- 
 vidence, — ^by his mysterious and inscrutable wisdom, ordained 
 that a wonderful latitude in wickedness and wisdom, — ^be 
 given to the sons of Earth, in moulding their own destiny 
 and providing for their own happiness — and in order to en- 
 large the field for this purpose, He revealed to them a 
 new world in fulfillment of His decrees. At first, it became 
 a field of sordid gain for the adventurous and hardy sons of 
 the maritime Nations of Europe, who in the pursuit of their 
 object, and guided by the unhallowed instincts of avarice — 
 baptized it in the blood of the wild and untutored children 
 of the forest, — multitudes of whom peopled the wilderness 
 of this new land. A race whose origin and history is still 
 a mysterious subject of speculation. 
 
 That primeval crime perpetrated by the pioneers of civiliza- 
 tion on this Hemisphere, was terribly punished in the persons 
 of the future colonists, — ^by compelhng them to remove, or 
 exterminate them, as their existence became incompatible 
 with the progress of peace and civihzation. 
 
 The early colonists, of course, were the subjects of the 
 various monarchies of Europe, who, under the name and 
 auspices of their kings, claimed and took possession of the 
 land ; — those of Spain and Portugal, settling in Mexico and 
 South America ; — North America being peopled from the 
 kingdoms of the North and West of Europe, — and all paying 
 tribute and allegiance to their respectiye sovereigns, until 
 the whole of the two continents became nothing more or 
 
less than appendages, and territories, owned and governed 
 bj the bloated and tyrannical kings of the Old World. 
 
 The logic of historical and political events; since that time 
 has proved, that it was not in the order of an all-wise, just 
 and overruling Providence, that such relations could long 
 exist between the New World and the Old. 
 
 From the earliest ages of the world the human race — in- 
 fluenced by climate, locality and temperament, — in its various 
 divisions has been strongly characterized, divided and sway- 
 ed, by some leading distinctive and peculiar code of attri- 
 butes, — embodied in their moral, religious, political and 
 social instincts, — which may be clearly perceptible in its 
 progress from brutal barbarism to the most refined civiliza- 
 tion. 
 
 It is with that portion of mankind that inhabits, and owns, 
 and governs, and should govern the Western Hemisphere ; 
 that we wish to commune this evening. 
 
 Fellow- C Itizens : — Two, great, protracted and sanguinary 
 wars, have marked the advent and progress of the peoples 
 of this Hemisphere to tlieu- present status. The first was 
 with the wilderness and its hordes of barbarous and semi- 
 barbarous natives ; — the proud, uncultured and unculturable 
 children of nature — the lost progeny of humanity ; — the tear 
 of sympathy cannot but arise at the contemplation of the 
 hard necessity of their destiny, — but they had to yield, step 
 by step, to the surging waves of civilization and its neces- 
 sities ; — step by step, towards the far West, until they became 
 lost in the golden halo of the setting sun. 
 
 That first war triumphantly accomplished its purpose, — 
 it was successful in subduing the wilderness and the prairie, 
 — the great inland seas and thousand-leagued rivers, — the 
 stupendous mountains and their boundmg streams, — all, 
 all of this great flemisj^here has been subdued and made 
 tributary to the progress and necessities of mankind and 
 civilization. That first great battle was fought by the 
 peoples of this Hemisphere with their faces to the West, — 
 and when ended they paused and looked abroad over this 
 wide and bounteous land — washed bv the bUlows of the two 
 
mightiest oceans of the globe ; — and with their souls heaving 
 with emotions of gratitude, exultation and triumph ; — they 
 turned their faces to the East — to the kings and kingdoms 
 who claimed their tribute and allegiance, — and exclaimed 
 with proud, defiant, and exultant voice, — " This land is cues, 
 — it is ours for the reason that we have conquered and sub- 
 dued it, by all the sacrifices that can be demanded of our 
 genius, of our patient skill, and of our indomitable moral 
 and physical courage and endurance, — it is ours by the law 
 of conquest, — it is ours, by the fiat of the ' King of Kings,' — 
 and we here, and now, devote and dedicate it to a new and 
 enlightened destiny, to be perpetuated by our posterity 
 throughout all enduring time, — and furthermore, we here 
 and now proclaim ourselves disenthralled, independent and 
 free from all monarchial governments and institutions now 
 and forever and ever." 
 
 Fellovj- Citizens : — That is the language of the history, the 
 genius, and the destiny of the peoples of the Western Hemi- 
 sphere ; and the fiest Auroea Boeealis of Liberty's light, 
 WAS SHOT UP FROM ITS NORTHERN HoEisoN, — that light ex- 
 tended and expanded until it illumined the Southern Cross. 
 
 Then followed the thundering key-note of Independence, whose 
 reverberations did not cease, until it mingled its sound with 
 the tremendous roarings of the loftiest volcanoes of the 
 Andes. 
 
 The first grand impulse given to the new and enlight- 
 ened destiny of this Hemisphere, was embodied in the De- 
 claration of Independence, by the United Colonies of Great 
 Britain, in North America ; upon that declaration they threw 
 the gage of battle, — that gage was taken up by Great Britain 
 in the proud and arrogant consciousness of her power. 
 
 Then commenced the second great war of this Hemisphere ; 
 the war of the colonists and subjects of the various European 
 monarchies ; — the war of North and South American revolu- 
 tions ; — the war of North and South American Independence ; 
 — the war of North and South American freedom ; — a war in 
 the results of which, that should determine the peoples of 
 this Hemisphere to be one people, — one, in mutual enlighten- 
 
e 
 
 ment, — one, in progress, one, in their federal Bepublican 
 institutions, — and one, in a firm and close alliance, offensive 
 and defensive, for the defense and maintenance of those 
 institutions, — and to sum up, all one in the assertion and 
 maintainence of the "Monroe Doctrine." That noble doc- 
 trine, — that far-sighted policy, was enunciated in 1823, by 
 James Monroe, and is embraced in the following two sections : 
 
 First, " The American Continents, by the free and inde- 
 pendent conditions which they have assumed, are henceforth 
 not to be considered as subjects for future colonization by 
 any European Power." 
 
 Second. " The United States consider any attempt on the 
 part of European Powers to extend their system to any por- 
 tion of this Hemisphere, as dangerous to their peace and 
 
 SAFETY." 
 
 Felloio- Citizens : — On the first enunciation of that policy, it 
 was acquiesced in and accepted as the logical sequence, to the 
 acknowledgment of the independence of the various RepubUcs 
 of both the Continents, — ^but in this, our own day, it has been 
 grossly and treacherously violated by European powers, — and 
 disgracefully overlooked or ignored on the part of the United 
 States government. 
 
 The time has come when the people of this Republic should 
 insist on the re-assertion of that Doctrine, and its main- 
 tenance by the indomitable and invincible power that gained 
 our independence, and established our repubhcan institu- 
 tions, — and this contest should not cease until every vestige 
 of monarchial rule shall be expelled from this Hemisphere. 
 
 Fellow-Citizens : — On the first war of the American revolu- 
 tions, — the first war of American Independence, — I feel that 
 it is not incumbent upon me to dwell, before this enhghtened 
 audience ; enough, that it was gloriously triumphant, — enough, 
 that it resulted in the firm establishment of our free federal 
 Eepublican government, — that revolution in its results, is the 
 wonder and admiration of the contemplative student of his- 
 tory, — the glory and triumi^h of the patriot, — and the sub- 
 ject of deep and dehghtful contemplation by the philan- 
 
thropist and philosopher, — for it succeeded in eliminating 
 a type of men, at once the honor and glory of the human 
 race ; — there was oi^e man among those men that furnishes 
 the most exalted type of human nature — one man whose 
 name has been placed by the universal consent of mankind, 
 Mgh up above the galaxy of the most illustrious names of Jtistory, 
 who has elevated and sanctioned his position as the grand 
 central figure amid the benefactors of mankind ; — need I say, 
 that name and that man was George Washington? — that 
 name will be mingled with the sound of the last trumpet, 
 heralding the last syllable of recorded time. 
 
 That revolution gave the United States of North America 
 a place and a mission among the nations of the Earth ; — from 
 the crucible of that revolution was evolved the grand and 
 enlightened principle of civil and religious liberty — from 
 which emanated the spirit of progress in the material pros- 
 perity of the citizen, under the most admirable system of 
 government, that the genius or capacity of man ever con- 
 ceived, — embodying the great paramount principle of self- 
 government. But as there is no substance without a shadow, 
 there was one principle which was inherited and retained in 
 the National system, — that was inconsistent, — incompatible 
 with, and antagonistic to the whole formula of our free insti- 
 tutions, and which remained ineradicated down to our own 
 day, — ^that pernicious principle was the right of property in 
 man — the principle of human bondage — the principle of 
 Slavery; — ^that principle has been the main disturbing element 
 of this government since 'its organization, — that principle 
 has been the breath of the nostrils of faction, — the argu- 
 ment and weapon of treason, — its hideous discord looming 
 up into gigantic proportions, and causing issue after issue 
 to multiply and accumulate upon each other until they finally 
 culminated into the most stupendous civil war in the history 
 of mankind. 
 
 It lacks but one decade of a century, since this govern- 
 ment was put on trial, and owing to the genius and spirit 
 of its institutions being so firmly implanted in the heart 
 of the citizens it has been enabled to come out of every 
 contest with both foreign and domestic enemies, at once 
 
•triiimpliant and strong, — and emerging from every contest 
 with enlarged views of its mission, and renewed energy in 
 its career ; — thereby becoming the hope of the oppressed, the 
 terror of tyranny, and the beacon light of Freedom. 
 
 Felloii'-Citizens : — Let ns now tui'n to Mexico and South 
 America, and their conquest by the chivalrous and daring 
 adventurers of Spain, her Cortes', and her Pizarro's ; who 
 found there, myriads of native Indians hovering over the 
 smouldering embers of an expiring civilization. 
 
 The researches of antiquarian philosophers have demon- 
 strated that their civilization was coeval with the most 
 ancient civilizations of the Old World, — that before the 
 Greeks and Romans, — India, Pha3nicia, Egjq^t, — Yucatan in 
 Central America, — Mexico in the North and Peru in the 
 South, — were leagnied together by navigation, religion, and 
 the arts; for the Peruvian ruins do not yield in importance 
 to those of the other countries named, — nor in evident in- 
 dications of the common origin of the Phcenicians, Egyptians 
 and the Ancient American Civilizations. 
 
 The page of history that records the deeds of those con- 
 querors, has been made luminous, and thrillingly descriptive 
 by the captivating pen of Prescott ; from whose pages I will 
 beg leave to quote the two following passages illustrative of 
 the spirit which animated most of the conquerors of South 
 America. 
 
 "The effort to christia,nize the heathen is an honorable 
 characteristic of the Spanish Conquest. 
 
 " The Puritan with equal rehgious zeal, did comparatively 
 little for the conversion of the Indian, content as it would 
 seem, v/ith having secured to himself the inestimable bless- 
 ing and privilege of worshiping God in his own way. Other 
 adventurers who have occupied the New World, have often 
 had too little regard for religion themselves, to be very 
 solicitous about spreading it among the savages. But the 
 Sj)anish missionary from first to last, has shown a keen 
 interest in the spiritual welfare of the natives. 
 
 " Under his auspices, churches on a magnificent scale have 
 been erected, schools for elementary instruction founded, 
 
9 
 
 and every rational means taken to spread the knowledge 
 of religious truth, while he has carried his sohtary mission 
 into remote and almost inaccessible regions, or gathered 
 his Indian disciples into communities, like the good Las 
 Casas, in Cumana, or the Jesuits of California and Paraguay. 
 
 " At all times, the courageous ecclesiastic has been ready 
 to lift his voice against the cruelty of the conqueror, and 
 the no less wasting cupidity of the colonist ; and when 
 his remonstrances, as was too often the case, have proved 
 unavaihng, he has still followed to bind up the broken- 
 hearted, to teach the poor Indian resignation under his 
 lot, and light up his dark intellect with the revelation of a 
 holier and happier existence. 
 
 "In reviewing the bloodstained records of Spanish Colo- 
 nial History, it is but fair, and at the same time cheering 
 to reflect, that the same Nation which sent forth the hard- 
 hearted conqueror from its bosom, sent forth the missionary 
 to do the work of benilicence, and spread the light of Chris- 
 tian civilization over the farthest regions of the New World." 
 
 Again, he says : " At the close of this long array of iron 
 warriors, we behold the poor and humble missionary coming 
 into the land on an errand of mercy, and everywhere pro- 
 claiming the glad tidings of peace. No warlike trumpet 
 heralds his approach, nor is his course to be tracked by the 
 groans of the wounded, and the dying; the means he em- 
 ploys are in perfect harmony with his end; his weapons 
 are argument and mild persuasion ; it is the reason he would 
 conquer, not the body; he wins his way by conviction, not 
 by violence ; it is a moral victory to which he aspires, more 
 potent, and happily more permanent than that of the blood- 
 stained conqueror." 
 
 In order to draw enlightened deduction from the trans- 
 piring events of history, the mind should be transferred 
 to the period ; and to analyse the circumstances under which 
 they occur. 
 
 At the period of the discovery and conquest of Mexico, 
 and South America, Spain was resting after the wars of the 
 Crusades, in which she took a leading part, tltat was the 
 war of Christendom to roll back the Moslem tide of the 
 
 2 
 
10 
 
 Saracen infidels, which flowed in from Asia through the 
 eastern gates of Europe. 
 
 In that war, Spain was engaged for centuries. The 
 standard of the Cross illumined and upheld by the inspira- 
 tion, and under the auspices of the then supreme and all- 
 powerful Church ; enlisted in its support the highest ele- 
 ments of civilization ; — the most exalted personages of Chris- 
 tendom ; — Emperors, Kings and Princes, emulating each 
 other in enthusiastic chivalry and devotion to the cause, 
 swaying the minds of the multitudes of Europe, and elevating 
 them to the very highest pitch of religious fervor, chivalry, 
 heroism and sacrifice. 
 
 The natural consequence of those religious crusades, was 
 the education of the Spanish mind to such a degree, that the 
 advancement of the banner of the Cross, the conversion of 
 the infidel, and the propagation of the faith, became the 
 supreme sentiment of the land, and it was at that period 
 that the gates of a New World were opened to them wherein 
 to enlarge the sphere of their mission, — and it is in that 
 spirit, and with that view, that the conqueror was accom- 
 panied by the humble though zealous missionary, — one of 
 whom, the good Las Casas, was ennobled by the title of 
 " Protector General of the Indians ; but unfortunately when 
 the argument of the missionary failed to convince the idola- 
 trous Indian, the argument of the svrord was too often used 
 to enhghten his perverse understanding. However, the con- 
 quest of the mind and body, had to be accomplished, and 
 history does not produce, in any enterprise, men more com- 
 petent for the undertaking. 
 
 When we reflect upon the magnitude of the enterprise, 
 and compare it with the apparently inadequate means for 
 its accomplishment, the mind becomes appalled, and can 
 find no solution in the premises, but that the God whom 
 they invoked, and whose mission and commands they felt 
 themselves to be performing, must have inspired them with 
 the wisdom, the courage and the endurance necessary for 
 its success. It is not to be denied, that avarice and am- 
 bition, were associated in their minds with the religious 
 crusades which they felt themselves called upon to pursue ; — 
 
11 
 
 three of the most powerful motives that sway the human 
 soul. 
 
 But when we behold Cortes, with only some four or five 
 hundred followers, penetrating into the heart of the Mexican 
 Empire ; a land embracing millions of semi-civilized human 
 beings, whose Emperor revelled in more than oriental mag- 
 nificence, and before whose sceptre bowed all the neighbor- 
 ing nations who peopled the great valley of Anahauc, as the 
 elevated table-lands of Mexico were called, raised nearly 
 .8,000 feet above the shores of the Atlantic and Pacific, and 
 enclosed by a cordonic boundary of immense piles of porpho- 
 ritic rock — the Cordillera of the Andes, diverging east and 
 west, embracing in their arms the immense plateau of the 
 great valley of Mexico ; — and, moreover, when we reflect 
 upon the fact of his cutting off the possibility of retreat, 
 by the deliberate sinking of his fleet; — the mind pauses 
 with wondering admiration and astonishment, and awakens 
 to the conviction that he and his followers must have been 
 impelled by more than human power, — and that it was in 
 the order of God's providence that they were there in 
 the fulfillment of his command, " Go ye and teach all na- 
 tions." The story of their mission is as adventurous and 
 romantic as any legend ever devised by Norman or Italian 
 bard of chivalry. 
 
 And what manner of people did they find, among whom 
 to spread the lights and blessings of Christian civilization ? 
 A people whose system of life, social, political and religi- 
 ous, was at once astounding, incongruous and revolting ; 
 the Aztec race and the other Indian races who bowed to 
 their sceptre, combined in their religious code exalted prin- 
 ciples of morality, faithfully observed, with the most de- 
 basing and revolting barbaric sacrificial idolatry ; — a people 
 steeped to the lowest depths in the revelry of human sacri- 
 fices and voracious cannibalism ; — a people who sacrificed 
 from no less than 20,000 to 50,000 human victims annually 
 on the altar of their idols, and who had them served on 
 their tables, cooked in all the refinement of the civiHzed 
 cuisine, where they were devoured with the epicurean gusto 
 of revolting fanaticism, in order to propitiate their gods. 
 
12 
 
 At the dedication of a great temple to their war god, 
 the appalling number of seventy tlionsand victims were 
 sacrificed on the shrine of that terrible deity. The com- 
 panions of Cortes counted 136,000 human skulls of the 
 sacrificed victims in one building appropriated for their 
 preservation ; so that it was perfectly reconcilable with the 
 v/ill of a beneficent Providence that the land should be 
 delivered over to another race, who would rescue it from 
 the brutish superstitions that daily extended wider and 
 wider with the extent of the empire, — the debasing insti- 
 tutions of the Aztecs furnished the best apology for their 
 conquest ; and all who did not come in under the fold or 
 mantle of Christian civilization melted away under the 
 sword of the conqueror. 
 
 The objects and results of the career and exploits of 
 Pizarro in Peru forms almost an exact counterpart to that 
 of Cortes in Mexico. Pizarro found the Peruvian Empire 
 under the benign rule of the Incas, the gorgeous worship- 
 pers of the sun, whose system of government was like 
 that of the Aztecs, a despotic theocracy, but in few other 
 respects alike ; the fundamental principles of both furnish- 
 ing a striking contrast, the Incas' sway being based on 
 mild benignity and love, whilst the fierce Aztec based Ms 
 on bloody and barbaric fear. 
 
 The two races had no knowledge of each other, although 
 they furnish the highest type of Indian civilization that 
 was found on the Western Hemisphere, the Aztec leading 
 in the North — and the Peruvian in the South American con- 
 tinents. 
 
 There was one other, — a strange and mystic race, but 
 whose history is lost, — who passed through Mexico, impart- 
 ing to the Aztecs much of their civilization and arts, but 
 who could not abide their ferocious and war-like institu- 
 tions ; they passed into Yucatan and Central America, 
 where are found at the present day the ruins of a civiliza- 
 tion that forms the wonder and astonishment of the modern 
 world. 
 
 Felloiv- Citizens : — I cannot Hnger amid those ruins, nor yet 
 
13 
 
 dwell on the gorgeous magnificence of the Peruvian temples 
 of the Sun, or to trace the bloody lineaments of the sacrificial 
 shrine of the fierce Aztecs; who annually piled their heca- 
 tombs of human victims, in order to propitiate the idols of 
 their hideous idolatry ; they have all been crumbled into dust 
 under the advancing power of Christian civilization. 
 
 I do not deem it within the province of my theme to describe 
 the viceregal sway of Spain, over her immense possessions on 
 this Hemisphere ; the subject is not a pleasing one, her vice- 
 roys and conquerors were too often men of fierce ambitions, 
 who turned their swords upon each other in their strifes for 
 gold and power. 
 
 Their career furnishes one of the moral anomalies of the 
 frequency by which the ambition and wickedness of man 
 thwart the beneficent designs of Providence, but the ways 
 of Providence are not man's ways, man's times are not 
 God's times. But I must hurry on to my main subject ; 
 the viceroys, governors and emissaries of Spain, continued 
 to succeed each other down to the beginning of the present 
 century, drawing their inspirations of loyalty, and lust of 
 power and gold, from the fountain of a foreign monarchy 
 that in its day was the haughtiest in Europe. 
 
 Notwithstanding the Iron rule of the viceroys, the peo- 
 ple, — God's people, — increased and multiplied until one 
 day they awakened to the glorious consciousness that theij 
 were the rightful owners and possessors of the land, tliey 
 inherited from their fathers, and that they should govern 
 it in the manner which to them seemed best. The time 
 and opportunity soon presented themselves ; the time had 
 come when the misrule of Monarchies, the avarice of 
 monopolies, and the tyranny of viceroys were to be over- 
 thrown forever. 
 
 The invasion of Spain by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1808 
 for the purpose of placing his brother Joseph on the Span- 
 ish Throne, and the abdication of Charles the Fourth, — 
 the deposing and captivity of his son Ferdinand the 
 Seventh, — ^resulted in the absolute surrendering to Joseph 
 Bonaparte all the rights of the Bourbon family to the 
 etrown of Spain. 
 
14 
 
 Then followed tlie formation of Junta's or provisional 
 governments, in several parts of Spain ; finally those Junta's 
 resolved themselves into the Supreme Junta of Seville j 
 which met and proclaimed allegiance to Ferdinand the 
 Seventh. In the meantime orders were immediately for- 
 warded to the colonies from Ferdinand and the council of 
 the Indies, to transfer their allegiance to France ; so that 
 the Spanish Junta, and Joseph Bonaparte hoth claimed the 
 allegiance of the colonies. 
 
 The news of those events produced the first shock to 
 royal authority in the colonies ; both the Junta and King 
 Joseph granted liberal concessions to their suhjeds in 
 America ; but those concessions came too late ; throughout 
 the whole of Spanish Colonial America, the same caiises 
 were everywhere in operation ; and with little or no differ- 
 ence in point of time, they were everywhere producing 
 the same effect ; simultaneously, and without concert of 
 action, the standard of revolution was raised — the people 
 for the first time awoke to the consciousness of their rights 
 and powers, and deposed the European authorities, and 
 in the plentitude of their new-born strength, they trans- 
 ferred the reins of government to Junta's composed almost 
 exclusively of Native Americans. 
 
 The first step had been taken for freedom and inde- 
 pendence; that sentiment must have been long slumber- 
 ing in the hearts of the people ; a fact which is proved 
 by the wonderful and spontaneous unanimity by which the 
 movement was made ; as proved by the following dates : 
 The revolution in Caraccas took place on the 19tli day of 
 April, 1809 ; that of La Paez, 15th of July, 1809 ; of Quito, 
 19th of August, 1809 ; that of Buenos Ayres, 25th of May, 
 1810; that of New Grenada, 3d of July; of Bogota, 20th 
 of July ; of Carthagena, 18th of August ; of Chili, 18th of 
 September, and of Mexico, 16th of September, 1810. 
 
 All those revolutions were inaugurated without concert 
 of action ; when the immense area is considered, there is 
 not such a spontaneous unanimity in a movement for lib- 
 erty on record. 
 
 Although they asserted and continued their allegiance 
 
15 
 
 to Ferdinand the Seventh, and contributed largely for the 
 support of his cause in Spain ; the Spanish Kegency in 
 its blind and arrogant fatuity withdrew the liberal conces- 
 sions which had been granted to the colonies, and sent 
 stringent orders to the Yiceroys, Spanish Monopolists and 
 dependents, to crush out the revolutionary Junta's, and 
 maintain the authority of Spain ; to deal with them as 
 rebels, and continue the iron-handed rule, and monopoliz- 
 ing prerogatives, which crushed the energies of the people 
 • for nearly three centuries ; and on the restoration of Fer- 
 dinand to the throne, he not only sanctioned those pro- 
 ceedings, but instituted still more rigorous measures for 
 their execution. 
 
 The question then became, in the immutable order of 
 events, one of absolute separation and independence ; so 
 the standard of independence throughout all the Spanish 
 colonies was given to the breeze. That standard was up- 
 held and maintained Avith a patriotism, a valor, and a 
 heroic sacrifice on the shrine of Hberty, unparalelled in the 
 annals of any people who triumphed in the same cause ; 
 and was resisted on the part of Spain, in the vain endeavor 
 to perpetuate her rule, with a cruel, bloody, and unrelent- 
 ing energy. 
 
 The Spanish or Creole race, as a people, have immor- 
 talized themselves in their wars for independence ; and 
 the names of Bolivar, San Martin and Hidalgo will be 
 remembered ias long as the spirit of liberty finds a home 
 in the hearts of men. 
 
 The grand results of those long, fierce and bloody wars 
 for independence, was the establishment, in every instance, 
 of free federal Bepublican Institutions similar to our own, 
 thereby forming a sisterhood of Eepublics that should be 
 invincible to the World. 
 
 The time has come, and it is most seasonable and pro- 
 pitious, when a grand federative Congress of all the Eepub- 
 lics of the Western Hemisphere, should be held in order 
 to evolve, enact, proclaim and establish a united inde- 
 pendent Republican alhance, — based upon an uncomprom- 
 ising, non-temporizing, and thoroughly American Conti- 
 
16 
 
 nental policy, supported bj an American Hemisplierical 
 LAW at once firm, comprehensive and just, equally bind- 
 ing upon all ; then the " Monroe Doctrine" would become 
 LAW, and one of the fixed principles in the government of 
 this Hemisphere ; then we should have no more monarch- 
 ies estabhshed under our nose, which are a stench to re- 
 publican nostrils ; — then all those monarchies who are 
 holding on to the skirts of the Hemisphere would soon 
 let go their hold and go home ; — then all obstacles to the 
 destiny and career of this Hemisphere would be removed. 
 
 Since the raising of the standard of revolution in Mexico in 
 1810 by Hidalgo and Morelos, over half a century ago, peace 
 has been unable to find a home in the land. Alas ! it is 
 the Aceldama, the field of blood of the Western Hemisphere. 
 
 During the long period of fourteen years, the Mexicans 
 maintained the contest for independence with bloody and 
 unyielding tenacity, until they finally succeeded in estab- 
 lishing a republican form of government. But in conse- 
 quence of the discord which remained inherent in her civil, 
 religious and social polity not being removed, — she pre- 
 sented nothing but one continued scene of internal civil 
 strife down to 1857, when a liberal constitution was 
 adopted, which possesses all the elements of peace and 
 prosperity, and, under its guidance and a reliance on its 
 protecting shield, there was nothing to prevent that heroic 
 republic from entering upon a glorious career of pros- 
 perity and peace, if left to herself. 
 
 The world supposed that she had drained to the dregs the 
 cup of misery and misrule, but there was reserved for her 
 lips a bitterer draught, and that was in being unable to re- 
 sist effectually the treacherous invasion of her soil by a 
 European monarch ; that despotic national outrage finds 
 a fit paternity in Napoleon the Third, "nephew to his 
 uncle," the all-grasping tyrant of Corsica. 
 
 That invasion succeeded in overthrowing the republic in 
 the capitol, and erecting in its stead a foreign empire, 
 installed by foreign bayonets under the false and hollow 
 pretense of establishing a permanent, peaceful and pros- 
 perous government. 
 
17 
 
 He placed a scion of tlie house of Hapsburg upon tlie 
 throne ; an Austrian adventurer, who is nothing more 
 than a puppet in his hands, which he uses to establish 
 fabulous claims against the nation. 
 
 It is almost certain that in this proceeding on the ijart of 
 Napoleon the Third, the events that loill have talcen place in 
 its solution, luill have dispelled the halo that surrounds the 
 supposed possession on his i3art of a profound, sagacious and 
 far-reaching intellect. His puppet, Maximilian, true to the 
 despotic instincts of his house has put to death ; murdered 
 in cold blood, by his Neronian decrees, over 25,000 officers 
 and men, taken in the defence of the liberties of their 
 country, — the best blood in Mexico. It v/iU be a lasting 
 disgrace and a source of shame to our giant republic for 
 the cold indifference with which she looks on those bold 
 and bloody atrocities at her very door, when she needs 
 but to speak and stretch forth her arm in help and en- 
 couragement to the gallant and heroic patriots that are 
 fighting for the possession of their homes and country and 
 its republican institutions. Give the men of Mexico the 
 moral and political support of the United States, and they 
 will soon hurl the usurper and his minions into the gulph 
 that rolls its tepid waves against their blood-stained shore. 
 
 The men of Mexico should take heart and courage, and 
 be of good cheer. The dawn of their regeneration is 
 already gilding their political horison ; they have passed 
 through a terrible and fiery ordeal in reaching that re- 
 generation. They tuill yet luin tlie crimson pahn of victory 
 and hear it aloft from all the pieoples of this Hemisphere, 
 as having p>roved the greatest devotion, and having offered 
 up the bloodiest sacrifices at the shrine of their country's lib- 
 erties ; as having given the noblest vindication of the ''Mon- 
 roe Doctrine,^' and given to its interpretation the force of 
 prophecy. 
 
 Fellow- Citizens : — ^When Mexico shall have emerged from 
 the present great trial of her destiny, in firmly re-estab- 
 lishing her republican liberty, luith her pale broto ivreathed 
 with the laurel of victory ; when the political leprosy 
 
 3 
 
1^ 
 
 Tinder whicli she has languished so long shall have been 
 cleansed by the national baptism of blood, she will enter 
 upon a career of well established liberty and progress, 
 peace and prosperity, that will challenge the approbation 
 of all her sister republics. Then will she be seen to rise 
 from the ashes of the past, and to enter upon the develop- 
 ment of the inexhaustible opulence of her mineral wealth, 
 the wonderful fertility of her agricultural resources, and 
 being placed by nature almost in the centre of this Hemi- 
 sphere, she will challenge the enterprise of the commercial 
 nations of the w^orld. 
 
 In order to accelerate that exalted and humane consum- 
 mation, it is the imperative duty of the United States 
 Government to enforce immediately the principles of the 
 "Monroe Doctrine," as applicable to Mexico, in the clearest 
 light of the principles embodied in that doctrine. 
 
 So far as a proper interpretation of that doctrine goes, 
 it is lamentably certain that the statesmen and politicians 
 of our time attach far less importance to that great prin- 
 ciple than did President Monroe, John Quincy Adams, 
 Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, and all the post revolution- 
 ary statesmen of the republic. They understood that they 
 had accomplished a greater work than we are ready to 
 admit or act upon ; they thought the principle had been 
 settled in the courts of Europe, and that it had entered 
 into the recognition of international relations, and inter- 
 national law ; that no European state was to interfere in 
 the affairs of the governments of the Western continents 
 after their independence had been recognized by all the 
 powers of the World. 
 
 It was also understood, not only in the United States, 
 but throughout Europe, that any interference in the 
 affairs of the governments of the Western Hemisphere 
 would be considered an act of hostility to the United 
 States. But not so has it been understood in our times, 
 for we have been left to witness the humiliating spectacle 
 of invasion by France of the soil of Mexico, and the creat- 
 ing of an imperial throne for a European prince to sit 
 upon; established by virtue of French military invasion, 
 and sustained by French military power, no real reference 
 
19 
 
 having been had throughout the whole transaction, to the 
 wishes or to the feelings of the people of Mexico. Had 
 Louis Napoleon supposed that we attached importance 
 enough to the "Monroe Doctrine," to see it vigorously- 
 defended, it cannot be believed that he would have under- 
 taken so bold and unprovoked an act of imperial wrong and 
 invasion. 
 
 The consequence has been that our own government 
 has sunk deep in the opinion of mankind ; either on the 
 score that we did not dare to maintain one of the fund- 
 amental principles of American statesmanship and public 
 law ; or that we could look without concern upon the over- 
 throw of a neighboring sister republic. In either case the 
 result has been the same to us; for it has cost us that 
 prestige which none of the fathers of this republic or its 
 earliest statesmen would have surrendered. 
 
 Mexico was entitled not only to our protection in that 
 case, but there are good and substantial reasons why we 
 should have extended it to her, especially under an ad- 
 ministration in which Mr. Seward holds the important 
 portfolio of foreign affairs. 
 
 It cannot be forgotten that, however much we may 
 reflect on Mexico for permitting the discordant elements 
 of political intrigue to rage so long in her bosom, she is 
 entitled to rank far above ourselves in having the very 
 moment she breathed the air of independence, abolished 
 slavery; while our republic cherished its foul embrace 
 afterwards for a whole generation. 
 
 The future historian of Mexico will have one brilliant 
 chapter to write on this subject, ante-dating ours by a pe- 
 riod of more than forty years. 
 
 Felloiv- Citizens : — Let us now turn our attention to the 
 gallant little republics of South America : and what do we 
 see transpiring there? We behold those spirited repubhcs 
 nobly vindicating the " Monroe Doctrine" at the cannon's 
 mouth; we behold their old enemy, Spain, moved by the 
 instincts of blind cupidity, and emboldened by a ridiculous. 
 Quixotic, and imbecile vanity ;— engaged in an aggressive 
 and arrogant expedition for the recovery and revindication 
 
20 
 
 of her former sway, — and advancing as a reason, the gross 
 sophistry of a state of truce, since the war of independence ; 
 an independence those repubhcs have maintained for over 
 forty years, with that untenable plea on her lips, and with 
 avarice and dominion in her heart; she has seized and 
 holds possession of the Chincha Islands belonging to Peru, 
 in order to replenish by their commercial wealth her de- 
 pleted treasury. 
 
 The then existing administration of Peru, traitorously 
 acquiesced in the outrage and robbery, whereat the Pe- 
 ruvian people arose as one man, and deposed the adminis- 
 tration, and put in its place one that was pledged to de- 
 clare war, — instant war, — for the maintenance of their 
 integrity as a nation, and their independence as a people. 
 In those proceedings they enlisted the sympathy and sup- 
 port of the citizens of a neighboring Republic, (whose gov- 
 ernment violated no international law,) the gallant little 
 Pepublic of Chili; "heroic Chili," (that, " country embraced 
 between the Andes and the Pacific ; between Cape Horn and 
 Desert of Atacama ;") for the independent and patriotic action 
 of the citizens of Peru, from the conviction that an attack 
 upon the honor and integrity of one Republic by a Monar- 
 chial Power, was an attack upon all. 
 
 An imperious demand v/as made on their government, 
 on the part of the Spiinish minister for explanations, 
 embracing frivolous charges of want of respect for her sub- 
 jects and the honor of her flag. Those explanations were 
 temperately and satisfactorily given, and accepted by the 
 Spanish minister ; his acceptance of those explanations was 
 repudiated by his government ; he was superceded, and Ad- 
 miral Pareja, clothed with the plenary powers of both minis- 
 ter and admiral, presented an ultimatum, embodying still more 
 extended demands, more rigorous and humiliating conditions. 
 How was that ultimatum answered by the indomitable Re- 
 l^ublic of Chili? it was answered by a prompt, unanimous, and 
 fearless declaration of war. Then was perpetrated the great- 
 est act of naval barbarity of modern times ; the bombardment 
 of a thickly populated, unprepared and defenseless city ; — the 
 city of Valparaiso ; against the united remonstrances and pro- 
 test of the whole diplomatic corps resident in Chili, 
 
This marauding barbarian of tlie Pacific, proceeded frota 
 thence to Callao, where he repeated a similar outrage ; but 
 thanks to the valor of the Peruvians, he was defeated and 
 disabled to such an extent, that he was compelled to retreat 
 for repairs and reinforcements, and as is presumed, in order 
 to re-commence his career of disturbing the peace and security 
 of Independent Republics. 
 
 This Spanish fleet, under the command of this Quixotic 
 admiral, is a menace to every republic on the South Ameri- 
 can Continent, justifying its presence there on the ostensible 
 ground of enforcing greater respect for its honor and its flag, 
 but in reality, it is a part of the programme of CiESARiSM 
 inaugurated in Europe ; — a programme based upon the sup- 
 position, that in the event of the overthrow of the Eepublic 
 of the United States of North America, by the late rebellion, 
 republicanism and the grand principle of self-government 
 would have proved a failure on this Hemisphere ; and that 
 its rule would revert back to the monarchies of Europe. 
 Monstrous hallucination of imbecile Royalty ! Glorious 
 triumph of Eepublicanism ! The tide of Csesarism Vvill be 
 rolled back to the fetid and corrupt limits of its own origin. 
 
 The monarchs of Europe are compelled to concentrate 
 their forces for the preservation of their own households ; — 
 God reigns ; and now we behold them turning their swords 
 upon each other ; the pregnant events of the last few years, 
 have taught them a lesson for their guidance in the future ; 
 and all those audacious and treacherous conspiracies on 
 their part, against our power and progress, our institutions 
 and our honor ; and more especially on the part of England, 
 tvho forges the holts she dare not hurl, should teach us a 
 lesson for all time ; we should profit by that lesson, by im- 
 mediately embodying the grand principles of the Monroe 
 !Doctrine, into the force and majesty of a supreme inter- 
 national republican law ; determining at once and forever 
 the relations between this Hemisphere and all monarchial 
 governments, in regard to the dissemination and propagation 
 of their pernicious crusades, having in view the subversion 
 of our Republican hberty and Institutions. 
 
 Now let us glance at the Atlantic slope of the South Ame- 
 rican Continent, where we find the anomolous spectacle of 
 
two republics; the Argentine and Uruguayan Republics, — 
 in alliance witli the Empire of Brazil ; and at war mth the 
 EepubHc of Paraguay ; ostensibly a republic, — ^but in reality 
 a despotism, under the successive dictatorship of two indi- 
 viduals during the last half century ; isolating and excluding 
 herself from all community of interest with her sister re- 
 publics, in the development of her resources, or in their 
 wars for independence. In fact, her whole system of govern- 
 ment renders her amenable to the charge of being the China 
 of the "Western Hemisphere. 
 
 It may be reasonably assumed, that it is in the order of 
 events transpiring in our age, that the war at present raging 
 there, will terminate in the desirable consummation of open- 
 ing up the greatest agricultural and commercial treasures 
 of the torrid zone to the enterprise of the civihzed world. 
 
 Owing to the Hberal and enlightened statesmanship that 
 marks the policy of the government of Brazil, it is per- 
 fectly reconcilable with the progress of the age that the 
 two republics above mentioned should be in alhance with 
 that native empire ; more especially as the war v/as 
 aggressively commenced by Paraguay, who invaded those 
 countries simultaneously without notice or declarations to 
 either of the governments. 
 
 It is to be regretted that the republic of Yenezuela and 
 the united republics of Colombia should hold themselves 
 aloof fi'om all alliance with their sister repubhcs, either 
 of the Pacific or Atlantic ; the time may be at hand when 
 they will be compelled to change their short-sighted policy 
 for their own preservation, for it is more than probable 
 that the eventualities of political events (and of imperial 
 indications) transpiring in Europe may prove that the 
 European Powers have not abandoned their crusade 
 against this Hemisphere ; but, on the contrary, that they 
 will pursue it with redoubled energy, and with redoubled 
 imperial determination to precijjitate upon our shores such 
 an invading force as will require a tldrd great war in order 
 to secure and establish forever the Empire of the West. 
 
 The Argentine Republic or the United Provinces of the 
 River Platte has become of late years a great field for the 
 enterprise and capital of citizens of the United States, where 
 
tliey liave entered into competition with the English, in the 
 construction of steam marine, — of extensive lines of railroads, 
 — and equally extensive lines of telegraphs, — the great 
 scientific and material agents in making all countries tribu- 
 tary to the advancement and necessities of mankind. 
 
 From the date of her independence in 1816 down to 1855, 
 civil wa.rs and internal discords are to be seen on every 
 page of Argentine history, inheriting similar elements of 
 discord with the other republics; but in the following ten 
 years, order, stability and national development seems to 
 have been permanently secured. 
 
 The Argentine Republic has a federal form of govern- 
 ment, which is composed of fourteen States, and has a 
 constitution similar to that of the United States ; it em- 
 braces the extensive area of 900,000 square miles, reach- 
 ing to the frigid zone of the South, and to the torrid zone 
 at the North. In the allied war against Paraguay, which 
 she was far from provoking, she expects no reward but 
 the liberty of the Paraguayan people, and to deliver them 
 from the rule Of stupid and sanguinary despots. She has 
 put into the field an army of 30,000 troops, which, joined 
 with the allied troops, constitute a body of 75,000 men, 
 well armed and equipped, which makes the largest force 
 ever assembled in South America; General Bartholomeo 
 Mitre, President of the Argentine Republic, is commander- 
 in-chief of the armies. 
 
 Felloio- Citizens : — The foregoing is but a brief outline of 
 the Western Hemisphere and its republics ; the magnitude 
 of the subject precludes the possibility of details in one 
 evening's discourse. "When the historical facts embodied 
 in the birth and establishment of a common identity of 
 republican institutions are properly considered, — the great 
 necessity of a common bond of unity and integrity under- 
 lying the councils and policy of all the republics, — based 
 upon the homogeniety of all the peoples of this Hemisphere 
 under the common name of American ; — for that name is 
 broad, and grand and great enough for all. All must be 
 convinced that a combined republican patriotism is the 
 surest and best policy for all. 
 
V5 
 
 24 
 
 It is to be hoped that Cuba and Ca-nada will soon be 
 added to our family of republics ; it is very apparent that 
 the signs of the times indicate such a consummation ; all 
 questions of race or races, or the superioritj^ or the supremacy 
 of one race over another should be discarded and ignored 
 as possessing a subtle and poisonous element of discord 
 which would undermine the fundamental principles of our 
 institutions, — that of equality, progress and prosperity-; — 
 a common indentity of political institutions should foster, 
 encourage and cultivate a common identity of interest. 
 Enlightened statesmanship and common sense, divested 
 of partizanship, will always perceive and direct the true 
 welfare of a people or a nation. 
 
 When the united power of the republics of this Hemis- 
 phere shall have been ehminated and demonstrated into 
 the form of a law, — a Imo not only defining their relations 
 with European monarchies, but also with each other, — in 
 defining and protecting inviolate the integrity of their 
 boundaries ; — a law establishing a closer, more general and 
 extensive friendly intercourse, — ^upon which treaties can be 
 negotiated, granting liberal and comprehensive commercial 
 immunities to each other, thereby enlisting sympathetic 
 emulation in respect and honor ; — and inviting the enter- 
 prise, the capital, the intelhgence of each other, in prefer- 
 ence to that of Europe (which so much prevails), in the 
 development of their boundless mmeral, agricultural and 
 commercial resources ; in all the structural elements of 
 activity and progress ; in the dissemination of the blessings 
 of enlightened Christian education, thereby removing the 
 dark barriers of ignorance, prejudice and bigotry which 
 are so detrimental to friendly interest and mutual good 
 will. When the republics will have accomplished those re- 
 lations with each other, then this Hemisphere will have 
 entered anew upon that enlightened career of Democracy 
 unchecked by the enemy without, or the enemy within ; — 
 that sublime career of raising man — all men ; — and from 
 all climes, to that elevated sphere which the beneficent 
 design of Pro\ddence intended he should occupy. God 
 speed the Western Hemisphere, 
 
 THE END. 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
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