Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

of commodity took place, in consequence of a general failure of demand: the state banks almost throughout the Union were involved in difficulties, and the management of several became the subject of severe scrutiny; private failures grew alarmingly frequent, and an universal want of confidence impeded and nearly destroyed commercial intercourse. No very permanent check to the prosperity of the country appears however to be apprehended from the result of this commercial crisis, however distressing for the moment; and the president, on his return in August to the city of Washington, after a long progress through the extended territories committed to his administration, thus expressed his general satisfaction in what he had observed in an answer to an address of the corporation and citizens.

"In returning to the seat of the national government, after so long an absence, and so extensive a journey, I derive very great satisfaction, as you will readily conceive, from so kind a reception by my fellow-citizens and neighbours.

In the view which I took during my former, as well as my recent tour, through so great a portion of the Union, I have seen every thing which could give satisfaction to one who takes a deep interest in the welfare and prosperity of his country, abounding as it does in all the means necessary for public defence and individual comfort; a people virtuous and intelligent, attached to their free institutions, and firmly resolved to support them,

displaying on all occasions that manly and independent spirit, without which no institutions, however pure in their principles, can be long sustained; a people attached to each other, by the ties of consanguinity and a common interest-ties constantly gaining strength from causesthat are daily developing themselves.

"While these powerful causes bind us so closely together, and we continue to exhibit such unequivocal proofs of it to the world, rendering justice, as we do, to every other nation, we may expect a like return from them, and shall not fail to obtain it.

"Although in these journies my attention has been principally directed to the great objects of defence, yet to them it has not been exclusively confined. I have endeavoured to examine with care the dependence and connexion of the various parts of our union on each other, and have observed, with great satisfaction, the eminent advantages which they respectively derive from the intercourse existing be tween them.

"To the condition of the Indians I have always paid attention, and shall feel happy in giving effect, as far as I may be able, to the wise and salutary laws of Congress, calculated to promote their civilization and happiness.

"In the improvement of this metropolis the whole nation is interested. It is gratifying to me to find, that there is but one opinion on this subject. In providing the necessary public buildings, and promoting the growth and prosperity of this city, Cor

gress

gress have heretofore displayed a liberal policy, in which, it may be presumed, they will persevere. To give effect to such a policy will afford me peculiar satisfaction."

It may here deserve mention, that since the general peace, large bodies of distressed peasantry from various countries of the European continent, had been impelled to cross the At lantic in search of the means of subsistence which their native soil no longer afforded. Many of these unfortunate emigrants, ignorant in every respect of the state of the country which they had chosen as an asylum, and destitute of every resource against immediate disappointment, found themselves soon after their arrival, in a state of forlorn and help less misery which excited at once commiseration for the immediate sufferers, and alarm for the fate of the thousands who were preparing to follow them. In this emergency M. Maurice de Furstenwaerter, by whom various benevolent efforts had been made to relieve the distresses of German emigrants to the United States, wisely judged it an act of patriotism to publish in Germany the following official communication received from the American government.-A document strikingly illustrative of the genius of a commonwealth.

[blocks in formation]

latter may be of great utility to such of your countrymen as may have formed erroneous ideas with regard to emigration from Europe to this country. It has been clearly shown to you, and you have accurately seized the idea in your report, that the government of the United States has never taken any steps to invite or encourage emigrants to come from any part of Europe to America. It has never held out any inducements to draw to this country the subjects of a foreign state. Motives of humanity have sometimes determined it to offer certain facilities to some emigrants who may have arrived here with the intention of establishing themselves here, and who had need of particular assistance for executing their intention. Neither the government of the Union, nor the different states that compose it, despise or disdain the increase of strength and prosperity which the nation might receive from a mass of new inhabitants, healthful, laborious, and temperate; nor are they more indifferent to the great advantages which this country has derived, and is still deriving, from the concourse of adopted, children coming from Germany; but there is one principle on which all the institutions of this republic are founded, and which is a permanent objection to granting favours to new comers. This is not a country of privileges, but of an equality of rights. The Sovereigns of Europe grant to certain classes of individuals certain privileges, which have some object of political utility; but it is the general opinion here, that privileges

privileges granted to one class of people are necessarily an injury to some other.

"Emigrants from Germany, or from any other country, have not on arriving here any favour to expect from the governments; but in case they should desire to become citizens of the state, they may flatter themselves with enjoying the same rights as the natives of the country. If they possess property, they may reckon upon finding the means of increasing it with moderation, but with certainty; if they are poor, but laborious, honest, and know how to be satisfied with a little, they will succeed in gaining enough to support themselves and their families; they will pass an independent, but a laborious and painful life, and if they cannot accommodate themselves to the moral, political, and physical state of this country, the Atlantic Ocean will always be open to them to return to their native countries. They must bend their characters to necessity, or they will assuredly fail as Americans in all their schemes of fortune; they must throw off, as it were, their European skin, never more to resume it; they must direct their thoughts rather forwards towards their posterity, than behind them to their ancestors; they must persuade themselves that whatever may be their own sentiments, those of their children will assuredly approach more to the habits of the country, and will catch something of the haughtiness, perhaps a little contemptuousness, which they have themselves remarked with surprise in the general character VOL. LXI.

of this people, and perhaps still more particularly in the individuals of German origin who are born in this country.

"This sentiment of superiority over all other nations, which never leaves them, and which has been so very displeasing to foreigners who have visited our shores, proceeds from the opinion entertained by each individual, that in quality of a member of society there is no person in this country superior to him. Proud of this feeling, he regards with some haughtiness those nations among whom the mass of the people are regarded as subordinate to certain privileged classes, and where men are great or insignificant by the hazard of their birth. But from this it also happens, that no government in the world has so little means of bestowing favour as that of the United States. The governments are the servants of the people, and they are regarded as such by the people, who create and depose them.

"They are elected to administer the public affairs for a short space of time, and when the people are not satisfied with them, they cease to maintain them in their functions. But if the means of the government to do good are limited, the means of doing ill are limited also. Dependence here in the affairs of government is precisely in the inverse ratio of what takes place in Europe. The people here do not depend upon those that govern them; but the latter, as such, depend constantly upon the good will of the people. "We know very well that of [R] the

the quantity of foreigners who every year come to our country to fix their abode, none of them come from taste, or from any regard to a country to which they are totally strangers, and of which the Germans do not understand even the language. We know that they come here not for our advantage, but for their own; not to labour for our prosperity, but to ameliorate their own condition. Thus we expect to see very few individuals of Europe who enjoy in their own country ease, happiness, or even any gratification, come and settle in America. Those who are happy and contented remain at home, and it requires a principle of motion not less powerful than want to remove a man from his native country, and the place where the tombs of his ancestors are placed.

Of the small number of emigrants of fortune who endeavoured to settle in our country, a considerable portion were dissatisfied with our singular customs, and after a certain residence returned home. There are certainly some exceptions; and in the most opulent and distinguished class of our fellow-citizens, we have the good fortune to count some individuals who would have acquired fortune and distinctions, even had they not passed into a new country, and another portion of the world. We should feel great satisfaction in seeing yourself among this number, and that it would accord with your dispositions and sentiments. I have the honour to be, Sir, &c.

"JOHN QUINCY ADAMS."

CHAPTER

[ocr errors]

CHAPTER XVI.

SOUTH AMERICA.

VENEZUELA-Expedition of Morillo against Angustura defeated-Revolution of New Granada-Victory of Bojaca-Flight of the Viceroy -Occupation of New Granada by the Army of Venezuela-BUENOS AYRES-Operations in Chili.

THE progress of that great political operation, the successive enfranchisement of the vast provinces of Spanish America from the control of the mother country, and their formation into a cluster of separate but allied republics, continues to render this portion of the western hemisphere an object of profound attention to every people of the civilized world.

On this ample scene, several distinct centres of action are distinguishable, which it will be expedient slightly to indicate before a more minute detail is attempted of the events of the year.

The city of Angustura on the river Orinoco, has become the capital of the republic of Venezuela, of which Simon Bolivar is the president. It was against this state exclusively that the Spaniards were enabled to carry on military operations during 1819, and the campaign of general Morillo against the patriots of Venezuela, with the progress of the latter in the kingdom of New Granada, will form the most prominent feature of the ensuing narrative. The United States of the river de la Plata, of which Buenos Ayres may be termed the soul, have experienced no

disturbance from the mother country beyond the menace of invasion by the mighty armament which so long a series of impediments has still detained within the harbour of Cadiz. Monte Video, and the surrounding district on the northern shore of the Plata, are held by Artigas, an independent chieftain with whom the authorities of Buenos Ayres carry on by turns hostilities and negotiations.

The republic of Chili united in a strict alliance with Buenos Ayres, besides securing its own independence, has been enabled to carry on offensive war against Spain by sea; and it was with the fleet of Chili that lord Cochrane has attacked Callao, and placed for some time the whole coast of Peru in a state of blockade. Macgregor, by whom Portobello was surprised and plundered, is said to be avowed by none of the new republics, and can therefore be regarded in no other light than a free booter, and the same may be said of the person styled commodore Aury. We now return to the principal seat of war.

Venezuela.-Early in the spring, general Morillo the Spanish commander-in-chief, quitted his head quarters in the city of Caraccas

[R 2]

at

« ZurückWeiter »