128 



COUNCIL OF THE INDIES LAWS. 



their power and diminish their original privileges. The Indians 

 who had been divided with the lands among the conquerors by 

 the slavish system of reparti?nientos, 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 homi- 

 nes," — 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 Recopilacioti 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, neces- 

 sary 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 



1 Recop. de las leyes, lib. 2, title 2, ley 2. 



