INTRODUCTION. 



53 



important rights in their commercial relation with the 

 old world, and with each other. It is repeatedly 

 asserted, that the Indies are not regarded as colo- 

 nies, l)ut as an independent, integral member of the 

 empire, equal in dignity and rights to Spain. This is 

 fully supported, as well by the laws of the Indies, as by 

 the addition which they give to the king's title. As in- 

 corporated feudatories, the Indies are exempt from any 

 conformity to the laws, customs, or usages of Spain, 

 excepting so far as they are expressly introduced.^ 



The Spanish Americans, as the descendants of the 

 first conquerors and settlers, ground their political 

 rights, on the provisions of the code of the Indies. 

 They contend, that their constitution is of a higher 

 nature than that of Spain; inasmuch, as it rests upon 

 express compact, between the monarch and their an- 

 cestors. They say, it was expressly stipulated, that 

 all conquests, and discoveries, were to be made at 

 their own risk and expense; and that they were for- 

 bidden in any instance to be made at the expense of 

 the king. In consideration of this, the first conquerors 

 and settlers, were to be the lords of the soil; they 

 were to possess its government, immediately under 

 the king, as their feudal head; while the aborigines 

 were given to them as vassals, on condition of in- 

 structing them in the christian religion, and in the arts 

 of civilization. It was in virtue of this compact, that 

 the American junta denied the right of bodies simi- 

 larly constituted in Spain, to exercise authority over 

 them, as this right alone appertained to the king, in 



* The Recopilation, the work of Guerra on New Spain, Blanco, 

 the editor of the Espagnol, are the principal sources whence this 

 sketch of the domestic government is drawn. 



