Courts-martial for the trial of commissioned officers must be formed of general officers; but this clause subjects the officers of the provinces to a great species of tyranny, for the commanding general has taken it upon himself to punish for all offenses not capital, and consequently according to his own judgment and prejudices, from which there is only an appeal to the king, and difficult it is indeed for the complaints of a subaltern to reach his majesty through the numerous crowd of sycophants who surround him, one-half of whom are probably in league with his oppressor. It likewise deprives an officer of the most sacred of all rights, that of being tried by his peers; for, should he be sent to Mexico or Europe for trial, it is possible he cannot take half the testimony which is necessary to complete his justification.
There is another principle defined by the ordinances, which has often been the cause of disputes in the service of the United States. The commandant of a post in the Spanish service, if barely a captain, receives no orders from a general, should one arrive at his post, unless that general should be superior in authority to the person who posted him; for, says the ordinance, he is responsible to the king alone for his post. That principle, according to my ideas, is very injurious to the country which adopts it. For example, we will say that a post of great importance, containing immense military stores, is likely to fall into the hands of the enemy; an officer superior to the commandant receives the information, repairs to the post, and orders him immediately to evacuate it. The commandant, feeling himself only responsible to the authority who placed him in that position, refuses to obey, and the magazines and place are lost. The principle is also subversive of the very root of military subordination and discipline, where an inferior should in all cases obey a superior, who alone should be responsible for the effect arising from the execution of his orders. It will readily be believed that, in my thus advocating implicit obedience to the orders of a superior, that I do not suppose the highest improbabilities or impossibilities, such as an order to turn your arms against the constituted authority of your country, or to be the ensign of his tyranny or the pander of his vices. Those are cases where a man's reason must alone direct him, and are not—indeed, cannot be—subject to any human rule whatever.
Religion. It forms a subject with which I am very imperfectly acquainted; but, having made some inquiries and observations on the religion of the country, I will freely communicate them, fearful at the same time that I lay myself open to the severe criticism of persons who have in any degree applied themselves to the study of theology or the ritual of the catholic church.
The kingdom of New Spain is divided into four archbishoprics, viz.: Mexico, Guadalaxara, Durango, and St. Louis Potosi. Under these again are the sub-bishoprics—deacons, curates, etc., all of whom are subject and accountable to their immediate chief for the districts committed to their charge, and the whole are again subject to the ordinances of the high court of inquisition held at the capital of Mexico, whence are fulminated the edicts of their censure against the heresies and impious doctrines of modern philosophy, both as to politics and religion. I am credibly informed that the influence of that tribunal is greater in his Catholic majesty's Mexican dominions than in any Catholic country in Europe or perhaps in the world. A few years since they condemned a man to the flames, for asserting and maintaining some doctrine which they deemed heretical; and a Jew who was imprudent enough to take the image of Christ on a cross, and put it under the sill of his door, saying privately he would make the dogs walk over their God. They likewise examine and condemn to the flames all books of a modern sentiment, either as to religion or politics, and excommunicate anyone in whose hands they may be found. I recollect to have seen a decree of theirs published in the Mexican gazettes, condemning a number of books, "as heretical and contrary to the sacred principles of the holy Catholic church, and the peace and durability of the government of his Catholic majesty." Amongst these were mentioned Helvetius on Man, J. J. Rousseau's works, Voltaire's, Mirabeau's, and a number of others of that description; even at so great a distance as Chihuahua a officer dared not take Pope's Essay on Man to his quarters, but used to come to mine to read it.
The salaries of the archbishops are superior to those of any officers in the kingdom; the bishop of Mexico's being estimated at $150,000 per annum, when the viceroy's is $80,000, with $50,000 allowed for his table, falling short of the bishop's $20,000.
Those incomes are raised entirely from the people, who pay no tax to the king, but give one-tenth of their yearly income to the clergy, besides the fees of confessions, bulls, burials, baptisms, marriages, and a thousand impositions which the corruption of priestcraft has introduced, and which have been kept up by their superstition and ignorance. Notwithstanding all this, the inferior clergy, who do all the slavery of the office, are liberal and well-informed men; I scarcely saw one who was not in favor of a change of government. They are generally Creoles by birth, and always kept in subordinate grades, without the least shadow of a probability of rising to the superior dignities of the church. This has soured their minds to such a degree that I am confident in asserting that they will lead the van whenever the standard of independence is raised in that country.
Politics. It has often been a subject of discussion with politicians, in what manner a mother country should treat her distant and powerful colonies, in order to retain them longest in their subjection; for the history of all nations and all ages has proved that no community of people separated from another by an immense ocean, feeling their power, strength, and independence, will remain long subject to the mother country, purely from the ties of consanguinity and similarity of habits, manners, and religion. Society itself having arisen from the mutual wants, fears, and imbecility of the infancy of human institutions, a large body of that society will remain no longer subject to another branch, at the immense distance of 1,000 leagues, than until they feel their maturity, and capability of providing for their own wants and their own defense. Therefore we may draw a conclusion that no political course of conduct whatever will eventually prevent the separation; but there is a line of conduct which certainly must retard it in a great measure; and prudence would dictate to the mother country the policy of giving way without a struggle to an event beyond her power to prevent.
The two great examples of English and Spanish America are before our eyes. England gave us liberty to pursue the dictates of our own judgment with respect to trade, education, and manners, by which means we increased in power, learning, and wealth, with a rapidity unknown in the annals of the world, and at the first attempt to infringe the rights which we had hitherto enjoyed, asserted that claim which nature and the locality of our situation gave us a right to demand and a power to defend. Had Great Britain yielded to the storm with grace and dignity, she would have secured our gratitude, ancient prejudices, and affections in her favor; on the contrary, by a long and arduous conflict, the murder of thousands of our citizens, the destruction of our country, the profanation of our altars, and the violation of every right, divine and human, she implanted in the breast of the Americans an antipathy approaching nearly to horror, a desire of revenge almost hereditary; and destroyed the bonds of brotherhood which might have subsisted between the two countries. It will take ages of just conduct from her to the United States to eradicate this. Spain pursued a different line of conduct toward her Mexican dominions, which were settled by Europeans 60 years previous to any part of the United States, and might be termed a conquered kingdom, rather than the settlement of a savage country. This country she has therefore bound up in all the ligatures of restrictions, monopolies, prohibitions, seclusions, and superstitions; and has so carefully secluded all light from bursting in on their ignorance, that they have vegetated like the acorns in the forest, until the towering branches have broken through the darkness of the wild which surrounded them and let in the light of heaven. The approximation of the United States, with the gigantic strides of French ambition, have begun to arouse their dormant qualities, and to call into action the powers of their minds on the subject of their political situation.
An instance of their disposition for independence has been exhibited in their feeble attempts at a revolution on the 15th of January, 1624, under the viceroyalty of Don Diego Carrello Galves; the insurrection on the 8th of June, 1692; and more recently, in 1797, under the Count de Galves,[IV'-51] when they proclaimed him king of Mexico in the streets of the capital, and 130,000 souls were heard proclaiming, "Long live Galvez, king of Mexico!" It was then only for him to have willed it, and the kingdom of Mexico was lost to Charles IV. forever. But preferring his loyalty to his ambition, he rode out attended by his guards to the mob, with sword in hand, crying out, "Long live his Catholic majesty, Charles IV.," and threatening to put to instant death with his own hand any persons who refused immediately to retire to their houses. This dispersed the people. In another quarter of the kingdom an immense number had also collected and proclaimed him king. He sent 10,000 men against them, dispersed them, and had four beheaded. Those firm measures saved the country at that period, and for them he received the greatest honors from the court of Spain; but was poisoned a short time after, fulfilling the maxim that "it is dangerous to serve a jealous tyrant." For such always conceive that the same power which stilled the ocean's rage can by its will raise the storm into all the majesty of overwhelming fury. Thus, by taking his life, it relieved them from the dread of his influence with the Mexicans.
England would naturally have been the power they would have looked up to, in order to form an alliance to secure their independence; but the insatiable avarice and hauteur exhibited by the English in their late descents at La Plate [La Plata, in South America], with the disgrace of their arms, has turned their views from that nation.