"If three hundred years of former servitude do not suffice to authorize our emancipation, there has been sufficient cause in the conduct of the governments which arrogated to themselves the sovereignty of a conquered nation, which never could have any property in America declared an integral part of the same, whilst they attempted to involve it in conquest. If the governors of Spain had been paid by her enemies, they could not have done more against the felicity of the nation, bound in its close union and correspondence with America. With the greatest contempt of our importance, and of the justice of our claims when they could not deny us the appearance of a representation, they subjected it to the despotic influence of their agents, over our municipalities, to whom the election was committed; and whilst Spain allowed even for the provinces in possession of the French, the Canaries and Balearic islands, one representative for each 50,000 souls, freely elected by these, in America a 1,000,000 scarcely sufficed to have the right of one representative, named by the Viceroy or captain-general, under the signature of the municipality.
"At the same time that we, strong in the right of our own justice and the moderation of our proceedings, hoped that if the reasons we alleged to the regency to convince them of the necessity of our resolution did not triumph, at least that the generous disposition with which we promised not to become the enemy of our oppressed and unfortunate brethren would be successful, dispositions which the new government of Caracas was desirous should not be limited to barren promises; and the unprejudiced and impartial world will know, that Venezuela has passed the time which intervened between April 19th, 1810, to July 5th, 1811, in a bitter and painful alternative of acts of ingratitude, insults, and hostilities on the part of Spain; and of generosity, modesty, and forbearance on ours. This period is the most interesting of the history of our revolution, so much so, that its events present a contrast so favourable to our cause, that it cannot have failed to gain over for us the impartial decision of those nations that have no interest in disparaging our efforts.
"Previous to the result of our political transformation, we received daily new motives sufficiently strong for each to have caused us to do what we have now done, after three centuries of misery and degradation. In every vessel that arrived from Spain new agents with fresh instructions came to strengthen those who supported the cause of ambition and perfidy. For the very same ends, those Europeans who wished to return to Spain, and assist in the war against the French, received a refusal to their request. On the tenth of April, 1810, the schools were ordered to be closed, to the end, that under the pretence of attending solely to the war, both Spain and America might be sunk deeper into a state of ignorance. It was also ordained, that rights and rewards should be forgotten, and that we should do nothing but send to Spain our money, our men, provisions, productions, submissions, and obedience.
"The public press teemed with nothing but triumphs and victories, with donations and acknowledgments wrested from the people, as yet uninformed of our resolution; and under the most severe threats of punishment, a political inquisition with all its horrors was established against those who should read, possess, or receive papers, not only foreign but even Spanish that were not issued at the manufactory of the regency. Contrary to the very orders of the self-constituted sovereignty, previously issued to deceive us, every bound was over-leaped in the re-election of ultramarine functionaries, whose only merit consisted in swearing to maintain the system contrived by the regency. In the most scandalous and barefaced manner, that order which favoured our trade and encouraged our agriculture was annulled, condemned to the flames, and its authors and promoters proscribed. Every kind of aid was expected of us; but we were never informed of its destination, inversion, and expenditure. In contempt of even a shadow of public faith, and without any exception whatever, all epistolary correspondence from these countries was ordered to be opened, an excess unheard of even under the despotism of Godoy, and only adopted to make the espionage over America more tyrannical. In fine, the plans laid for the purpose of perpetuating our bondage now began to be practically realized.
"In the mean time, Venezuela, free, and mistress of herself, thought of nothing less than imitating the detestable conduct of the regency and its agents: content with having secured her fate against the ambition of an intrusive and illegitimate authority, and shielded it against the blackest and most complicated plans, was satisfied with shewing by positive acts her desire for peace, friendship, correspondence, and co-operation with her European brethren. All those of this class who were among us, as such were considered, and two-thirds of the political, civil, and military employments, both of the high and middle classes, remained or were placed in the hands of Europeans without any precaution, but with a sincerity and good faith that nearly proved fatal to our own interests.
"Our treasures were generously opened to our enemies, that they might enjoy every convenience and profusion in their passage from our country: the captains of the packets, Carmen, Fortuna, and Araucana were received into our ports, and assisted with money to enable them to proceed on their voyage, and fulfil their respective commissions, and even the insolence and crimes of the captain of the Fortuna were referred to the judgment of the Spanish government. Notwithstanding the junta of government of Caracas made manifest the motives of precaution which obliged them not to expose the public funds which were destined to recover the nation, to the veracity of government they allowed and exhorted the people to be generous, and use their fortunes according to the impulse of their own sensibility, by publishing in the public papers the mournful statement of the regency, in which was portrayed the agonizing state of the nation, with the view to solicit our aid, and the same time that they represented it, through the medium of their public prints, as vigorous, organized, and triumphant; but these were destined to deceive us. The commissioners of the regency sent to Quito,[2] Santa Fé, and Peru were hospitably received, treated as friends, and their pecuniary wants supplied to their own satisfaction. But we lose time in thus analyzing the dark and cunning conduct of our enemies, as all their endeavours have not sufficed to warp the imperious and triumphing impression of ours.
"The arrogant mandataries of our country were not, however, the only persons authorized to support the horrid plans of their constituents; the same uniform and universal mission was brought out by all those who inundated America from the sad and ominous reigns of the junta of Seville, the central junta, and the regency, and under the system of political freemasonry, founded on the Machiavelic pact; they all accorded in mutually substituting, replacing, and assisting each other in the combined plans against the felicity and political existence of the new world. The island of Puerto Rico was immediately made the haunt of all the agents of the regency; the place of equipment for all the expeditions; the head quarters of all the anti-American forces; the workshop of all the impostors, calumnies, triumphs and threats of the regents; the refuge of all the wicked; the rendezvous of a new gang of bucaniers, in order that there might not be wanting any of the calamities of the sixteenth century in the new conquest of America in the nineteenth. The Americans of Puerto Rico, oppressed by the bayonets, cannons, fetters, and gibbets which surrounded the bashaw Melendes and his satellites, had to add to their own misfortunes the painful necessity of contributing to ours. Such was the fate of the Americans; condemned not only to be galley-slaves, but to be the drivers of each other.
"The conduct observed by Spain to America is harder and more insulting than that which she appears to exercise towards France. It is well known that part of the dynasty, still resisted by part of the nation, has had decided partizans in many of those who considered themselves the first national dignitaries, for their rank, offices, talents, and knowledge; among these may be counted Morla, Azanza, Ofarrill, Urquijo, Masarredo, and many others of every class and profession; but still there has not appeared one of those who so much desire the liberty of independence and regeneration of the peninsula, that has raised his voice in favour of the American provinces. These, therefore, adopting the same principles of fidelity and national integrity, have of their own accord been ambitious of preserving themselves independent of such intrusive, illegitimate, weak, and tumultuary governments, as have been all those that have hitherto called themselves the agents of the king, or representatives of the nation. It is vexing to see so much liberality, so much civism, and so much disinterest in the cortes with regard to disorganized, exhausted, and nearly conquered Spain, and full of so much meanness, suspicion, prejudice and pride, towards America; tranquil, faithful, generous, decided to assist her brethren, when she alone can give reality, at least in the most essential point, to the theoretical and brilliant plans which make the Spanish Congress so arrogant. How many treasons, murders, assassinations, perfidies and convulsions have appeared in Spain; these have passed by as the inseparable misfortunes of circumstances, yet not one of the provinces that surrendered, or was attached to the French domination, has been treated like Venezuela; their conduct must however have been analyzed, and characterised according to reasons, motives, and circumstances that dictated it; this must have been judged in conformity to the rights of war, and the sentiments of the nation must have been pronounced according to the statements laid before it, but not one of them has yet been declared traitorous, in open rebellion, and unnaturalized as was Venezuela; for none of them has been created a public commission of diplomatic mutineers, to arm Spaniard against Spaniard, to fan the flame of civil war, and to burn and annihilate all that cannot be held in the name of Ferdinand VII. America alone is condemned to endure the until now unheard of condition of being warred upon, destroyed, or enslaved with the very means of assistance which she destined for the liberty and common felicity of the nation of which she was led to believe for a few moments that she constituted a part.
"It appears that the independence of America creates more irritation to Spain, than the foreign oppression that threatens her, for against her are in preference employed measures that have not even been adopted against the very provinces that have proclaimed the new king. The incendiary and turbulent talent of a minister of the council of Indies could not have a more dignified employment than that of again conquering Venezuela with the same arms as those of the Alfingers and the Welzers, those first tyrants of Venezuela, authorized by Charles V., and the promoters of civil war amongst her primitive inhabitants, now re-assumed in the name of a king placed on the throne against the pretensions of the family of him who let out these provinces to the German factors. Under this name of Ferdinand all the sluices of iniquity are opened upon us, and the horrors of conquest are renewed, the remembrance of which we had generously endeavoured to blot out from the memory of our posterity; under this name we are treated with more severity than those who abandoned it before we did; and under this name it is attempted to continue the system of Spanish domination in America, which has been looked upon as a political phenomenon even in the times of the reality, energy and vigour of the Spanish monarchy. And can there be found any law that obliges us to preserve it, and to suffer in its name the torrent of distresses heaped upon us by those who call themselves the agents of the peninsula? By their means this very name obtained the treasures, the obedience, and acknowledgments of America, and by means of their flagitious conduct afterwards, in the exercise of their powers, the name of Ferdinand has lost every consideration amongst us, and consequently we ought to abandon it for ever. Ex qua persona quis lucrum capit, ejus factum præstare tenetur.
"The tyrant of Borrigum (primitive name of Puerto Rico) not content with constituting himself a sovereign, to declare war against us, and with insulting and calumniating us in his flimsy, mean, and self-flattering papers; not satisfied with creating himself the gratuitous gaol-keeper of the emissaries of peace, and confederation sent to him by his comrade Migares from the castle of Zapáras de Maracaibo; because they overturned the plans he had received, and accepted from the regency and the new king of Spain, in exchange for the captain-generalship of Venezuela, purchased at a cheap rate of the regents; not considering such superior merit sufficiently rewarded with the honour of faithfully serving his king; in the most barefaced manner plundered upwards of a hundred thousand dollars from the public funds belonging to Caracas, that had been embarked in the ship Ferdinand VII. in order to purchase stores and military clothing in London, where the insurance was effected; and in order that his insult might be the more complete, he alleged that the Spanish government might waste and misapply them, that England might appropriate them to herself, disowning our resolution, so that in no place they could, or ought to be more secure than in his hands, negociated by means of his partners in trade, as in fact they were in Philadelphia, adding that an account should be given in when Puerto Rico had conquered Venezuela, when the latter should deliver herself up to the regency, or when Ferdinand VII. should return to reign in Spain. Such it appears were the periods that the governor of Puerto Rico imposed upon himself to render an account of so atrocious and scandalous a depredation; but this is not all that this worthy agent of the regency has done in favour of the designs of his constituents.