250 HISTORICAL SKETCH. 



ture political situation of Spanish America : 

 it being obvious, that if the separation of 

 races be an unchangeable law, however 

 they may be brought together in some 

 kind of apparent union, a great augmenta- 

 tion in the numbers of some of those races 

 must have a most material effect with re- 

 ference to the adoption of any internal 

 system of polity. 



In the United States of America no at- 

 tempt has ever been made to render the 

 Indians a component part of civil society ; 

 and persons of colour are generally consi- 

 dered as inferior and degraded beings. In 

 Spanish America, a number of the Indians 

 have been, in some degree, apparently ci- 

 vilized, though it is doubtful whether their 

 dispositions or habits have been much 

 changed ; but the feelings respecting co- 

 lour are there also very decided — the re- 

 lative rank or importance of individuals 



