Declaration of the Independence of the
United Provinces of South America, July 1816
In the well-deserving and most worthy city of San Miguel del Tucuman, on the ninth day of the month of July, 1816, the ordinary sitting being ended, the congress of the United Provinces resumed its previous deliberations respecting the grand, august, and sacred object of the independence of the inhabitants constituting the same. The cry of the whole country for its solemn emancipation from the despotic power of the kings of Spain was universal, constant, and decided; nevertheless, the representatives carefully dedicated to this arduous affair the whole extent of their talents, the rectitude of their intentions, and the interest with which they viewed their own fate, that of the people represented, and also of their posterity. After mature deliberation, they were asked, whether they considered it expedient that the provinces of the union should constitute a nation, free and independent of the kings of Spain and the mother country?
Filled with the holy ardor of justice, they simultaneously answered in the affirmative by acclamations, and then, one by one, successively reiterated their unanimous, spontaneous, and decided votes in favor of the independence of the country; and, in virtue thereof, they concurred in the following declaration:
We, the representatives of the United Provinces of South America, in general congress assembled, invoking the Supreme Being who presides over the universe, in the name and by virtue of the authority of the people we represent, and protesting to Heaven, and to the nations and inhabitants of the whole globe, the justice by which our wishes are guided, do solemnly declare in the face of the earth, that it is the unanimous and indubitable will of these provinces to break the repugnant ties which bound them to the kings of Spain, to recover the rights of which they were despoiled, and invest themselves with the high character of a nation, free and independent of King Ferdinand VII., his successors, and the mother country. In consequence whereof, the said provinces, in point of fact and right, possess ample and full power to assume for themselves such forms of government as justice requires, and the urgency of existing circumstances may demand. All and each one of them publish, declare, and ratify the same, through us; pledging themselves, under the assurance and guarantee of their lives, property, and honor, to abide by and sustain this their will and determination. Let the same, therefore, be communicated for publication, to whomsoever it may concern; and, in consideration of the respect due to other nations, let the weighty reasons which have impelled us to this solemn declaration be detailed in a separate manifesto.
Given in the Hall of our Sittings, signed by our hands, sealed with the seal of the Congress, and countersigned by our secretaries, also members thereof.
(Signed) Francisco Narciso de Laprida, President and Deputy for San Juan.
Mariano Boedo, Vice-President and Deputy for Salta.
Dr. Antonio Saenz, Deputy for Buenos Ayres.
Dr. Jose Darregueyra, Deputy for idem.
Father Cayetano Jose Rodriguez, Deputy for idem.
APPENDIX B.
Dr. Pedro Medrano, Deputy for idem.
Dr. Manuel Antonio Acevedo, Deputy for Catamarca.
Dr. Jose Ignacio de Gorriti, Deputy for Salta.
Dr. Andres Pacheco de Melo, Deputy for Chichas.
Dr. Teodoro Sanchez de Bustamante, Deputy for the city of Jujuy and jurisdiction thereof.
Eduardo Perez Bulnez, Deputy for Cordova.
Tomas Godoy Cruz, Deputy for Mendoza.
Dr. Pedro Miguel Araoz, Deputy for the capital of Tucuman.
Dr. Estevan Agustin Gazcon, Deputy for the province of Buenos Ayres.
Pedro Fransisco de Uriarte, Deputy for Santiago del Estero.
Pedro Leon Gallo, Deputy for idem.
Pedro Ignacio Rivera, Deputy for Mizque.
Dr. Mariano Sanchez de Loria, Deputy for Charcas.
Dr. Jose Severo Malabia, Deputy for Charcas.
Dr. Pedro Ignacio de Castro Barros, Deputy for La Rioja.
Licentiate Geronimo Salguero de Cabrera y Cabrera, Deputy for Cordova.
Dr. Jose Colombres, Deputy for Catamarca.
Dr. Jose Ignacio Thomas, Deputy for Tucuman.
Father Justo de Santa Maria de Oro, Deputy for San Juan.
Jose Antonio Cabrera, Deputy for Corodova.
Dr. Juan Agustin Maza, Deputy for Mendoza.
Tomas Manuel de Anchorena, Deputy for Buenos Ayres.
Jose Mariano Serrano, Deputy for Charcas, and Secretary.
Juan Jose Paso, Deputy for Buenos Ayres, and Secretary.
MANIFESTO
Addressed to all Nations of the Earth, by the General Constituent Congress of the United Provinces of South America, respecting the treatment and cruelties they have experienced front the Spaniards, and which have given rise to the Declaration of their Independence.
HONOUR is a distinction which mortals esteem more than their own existence, and they are bound to defend it above all earthly benefits, however great and sublime they may be. The United Provinces of the river Plata have been accused, by the Spanish government, before other nations, of rebellion and perfidy; and as such also has been denounced the memorable Act of Emancipation, proclaimed by the National Congress in Tucuman, on the 9th of July, 1816, by imputing to it ideas of anarchy, and a wish to introduce into other countries seditious principles, at the very time the said provinces were soliciting the friendship of these same nations, and the acknowledgment of this memorable act, for the purpose of forming one among them. The first, and among the most sacred of the duties imposed on the National Congress, is to wipe away so foul a stigma, and defend the cause of their country, by displaying the cruelties and motives which led them to the declaration of independence. This indeed is not to be considered as an act of submission, which may attribute to any other nation of the earth the power of disposing of a fate which has already cost America torrents of blood, and all kinds of sacrifices and bitter privations: it is rather an important consideration we owe to our own outraged honor, and the decorum due to other nations.
We wave all investigations respecting the right of conquest, papal grants, and other titles on which Spaniards have usually founded and upheld their dominion. We do not seek to recur to principles which might give rise to problematical discussions, and revive points of argument which have had defenders on both sides. We appeal to facts, which form a painful contrast of our forbearance with the oppression and cruelty of Spaniards. We will exhibit a frightful abyss which Spain was opening under our feet, and into which these provinces were about to be precipitated, if they had not interposed the safeguard of their own emancipation. We will, in short, exhibit reasons which no rational man can disregard, unless he could find sufficient pleas to persuade a country for ever to renounce all idea of its own felicity, and, in preference, adopt a system of ruin, opprobrium, and forbearance. Let us place before the eyes of the world this picture, one which it will be impossible to behold without being profoundly moved by the same sentiments as those by which we are ourselves actuated. From the moment when the Spaniards possessed themselves of these countries, they preferred the system of securing their dominion by extermination, destruction, and degradation. The plans of this extensive mischief were forthwith carried into effect, and they have been continued without any intermission, during the space of three hundred years. They began by assassinating the monarchs of Peru, and they afterwards did the same with the other chieftains and distinguished men who came in their way. The inhabitants of the country, anxious to restrain such ferocious intrusion, under the great disadvantage of their arms, became victims of fire and sword, and were compelled to leave their settlements a prey to the devouring flames, which were every where applied without pity or distinction.
The Spaniards then placed a barrier to the population of the country. They prohibited, under laws the most rigorous, the ingress of foreigners; and in every possible respect limited that of even Spaniards themselves, although in times more recent the immigration of criminal and immoral men, outcasts, was encouraged; of such men as it was expedient to expel from the Peninsula. Neither our vast though beautiful deserts, formed by the extermination of the natives; the advantages Spain would have derived from the cultivation of regions as immense as they are fertile; the incitement of mines, the richest and most abundant on the earth; the stimulus of innumerable productions, partly till then unknown, but all estimable for their value and variety, and capable of encouraging and carrying agriculture and commerce to their highest pitch of opulence; in short, not even the wanton wickedness of retaining these choice countries plunged in the most abject misery, were any of them motives sufficiently powerful to change the dark and inauspicious principles of the cabinet of Madrid. Hundreds of leagues do we still behold, unsettled and uncultivated, in the space intervening from one city to another. Entire towns have, in some places, disappeared, either buried in the ruins of mines, or their inhabitants destroyed by the compulsive and poisonous labor of working them; nor had the cries of all Peru, nor the energetic remonstrances of the most zealous ministers, been capable of reforming this exterminating system of forced labor, carried on within the bowels of the earth.
The art of working the mines, among us beheld with apathy and neglect, has been unattended with those improvements which have distinguished the enlightened age in which the live, and diminished the attendant casualties; hence opulent mines, worked in the most clumsy and improvident manner, have sunk in and been overwhelmed, either through the undermining of the mineral ridges, or the rush of waters which have totally inundated them. Other rare and estimable productions of the country are still confounded with nature, and neglected by the government, and if, among us, any enlightened observer has attempted to point out their advantages, he has been reprehended by the court, and forced to silence, owing to the competition that might arise to a few artisans of the mother country.
The teaching of science was forbidden us, and the were allowed to study only the Latin grammar, ancient philosophy, theology, and civil and canonical jurisprudence. Viceroy Joaquin del Pino took the greatest umbrage that the Buenos Ayres Board of. Trade presumed to bear the expenses of a nautical school: in compliance with the orders transmitted from court, it was closed; and an injunction besides laid upon us, that our youths should not be sent to Paris to become professors of chemistry, with a view to teach this science among their own countrymen.
Commerce has at all times been an exclusive monopoly in the hands of the traders of Spain, and the consignees they sent over to America. The public offices were reserved for Spaniards, and notwithstanding, by the laws, these were equally open to Americans, we seldom attained them, and when we did, it was by satiating the avarice of the court through the sacrifice of immense treasures. Among one hundred and sixty viceroys who have governed in America, four natives of the country alone are numbered; and of six hundred and two captains-general and governors; with the exception of fourteen, all have been Spaniards. The same, proportionably, happened in the other offices of importance; scarcely, indeed, had the Americans an opportunity of alternating with Spaniards in situations the most subaltern.
Every thing was so arranged by Spain, that the degradation of the natives should prevail in America. It did not enter into her views that wise men should be formed, fearful that minds and talents would be created capable of promoting the interests of their country, and causing civilization, manners, and those excellent capabilities with which the Colombian children are gifted, to make a rapid progress. She unceasingly diminished our population, apprehensive that, some day or other, it might be in a state to rise against a dominion sustained only by a few hands, to whom the keeping of detached and extensive regions was entrusted. She carried on an exclusive trade; because she supposed opulence would make us proud, and inclined to free ourselves from outrage. She denied to us the advancement of industry, in order that we might be divested of the means of rising out of misery and poverty; and we were excluded from offices of trust, in order that Peninsulars only might hold influence in the country, and form the necessary habits and inclinations, with a view to leave us in such a state. of dependence as to be unable to think, or act, unless according to Spanish forms.
Such was the system firmly and steadily upheld by the viceroys, each one of whom bore the state and arrogance of a vizir. Their power was sufficient to crush any one who had the misfortune to displease them. However great their outrages, they were to be borne with resignation; for by their satellites and flatterers their frown was superstitiously compared to the anger of God. Complaints addressed to the throne were either lost in the extended interval of those thousands of leagues it was necessary to cross, or buried in the offices at home by the relatives or patrons of men wielding viceregal power. This system, so far from having been softened, all hopes that even time would produce this effect were totally lost.
We held neither direct nor indirect influence in our own legislation : this was instituted in Spain ; nor were we allowed the right of sending over persons empowered to assist at its formation, who might point out what was fit and suitable, as the cities of Spain were authorized to do. Neither had we any influence over the administration of government, which might, in some measure, have tempered the rigor of such laws as were in force. We were aware that no other resource was left to us than patience, and that for him who was not resigned to endure all, even capital punishment was not sufficient, since, for cases of this kind, torments, new and of unheard-of-cruelty, had been invented, such as made nature shudder.
Neither so great, nor so repeated, were the hardships which roused the provinces of Holland, when they tool: up arms to free themselves from the yoke of Spain, nor those of Portugal, to effect the same purpose. Less were the hardships which placed the Swiss under the direction of William Tell, and in open opposition to the German emperor. Less those which determined the United States of North America to resist the imposts forced upon them by a British king; less, in short, the powerful motives which have urged other countries, not separated by nature from the parent state, to cast off an iron yoke, and consult their own felicity. We, nevertheless, divided from Spain by an immense sea, gifted with a different climate, possessing other wants and habits, and treated as herds of cattle, have exhibited to the world the singular example of forbearance amidst degradations, by remaining obedient, when, at the same time, we had the most favorable opportunities of breaking the bond, and putting an end to so unnatural a connection.
We address ourselves to the nations of the earth, and we cannot be so rash as to seek to deceive them in what they have themselves seen and felt. America remained tranquil during the whole period of the war of succession, and waited the decision of the question. then at issue between the houses of Austria and Bourbon, and with a view to follow the fate of Spain. That would have been a favorable moment to redeem herself from so many hardships but she did not do it ; rather she sought to arm and defend herself alone, in order to preserve herself united to the parent state. We, without having direct share or interest in the differences of the latter with other powers of Europe, have equally felt and partaken in her wars; we have experienced the same ravages, and, without repining, we have endured the same wants and privations, brought upon us by our weakness at sea, and the manner in which. ,ve were cut off from all communication with her.
In the year 1806 we were attacked. A British squadron surprised and occupied the capital of Buenos Ayres, through. the imbecility and unskillfulness of the viceroy, who, although he had no Spanish troops, did not know how to avail himself of the numerous resources offered to him in defense of the town. At the end of forty-five days we recovered the capital, and the British, together with their general, were made prisoners, without the viceroy having had the smallest share in the affair.
We implored the government at home to send us such aid as would protect us from another invasion, with which we were threatened and the consolation transmitted to us was, a revolting royal order, by which we were enjoined to defend ourselves in the best manner we could. In the following year, the eastern bank of the river Plata was occupied by a, fresh and stronger expedition, and the fortress of Montevideo was besieged and surrendered. There more British forces assembled, and an armament was formed for the purpose of again attacking the capital, which, in fact, within a few months experienced an assault ; but fortunately the heroic courage of the inhabitants and garrison overcame the efforts of the enemy, and a victory so brilliant compelled him to evacuate Montevideo, and the whole of the eastern bank.
No opportunity more favorable for rendering ourselves independent could have presented itself, if the spirit of rebellion and perfidy had been capable of actuating our conduct, or if we had been susceptible of those seditious and anarchical principles imputed to us. But why recur to pleas of this kind? We could not be indifferent to the degradation in which we lived. If victory at any time authorizes the conqueror to be the arbiter of his own destiny, we could at any moment have secured our own; we had arms in our hands, were triumphant, without a single Spanish regiment among us capable of resistance; and if victory and force do not suffice to establish a right, we had still other more powerful reasons no longer to submit to the dominion of Spain. The forces of the Peninsula were not to be dreaded by us; its ports were blockaded, and the seas controlled by British squadrons. Yet, notwithstanding fortune thus propitiously favored us, rye did not seek to separate from Spain, conceiving that this distinguished proof of loyalty would change the principles of the court, and cause them to understand their real interests.
We miserably deceived ourselves, and were flattered with vain hopes. Spain did not receive a demonstration so generous as a sign of benevolence, but as an obligation rigorously due. America continued to be governed with the same harshness, and our heroic sacrifices served only to add a few pages more to the history of that injustice we land uniformly experienced.
Such was our situation when the Spanish revolution commenced. Accustomed as the were blindly to obey all the arrangements of the Madrid government, we tendered our allegiance to Ferdinand de Bourbon, notwithstanding he had assumed the crown by ejecting his own father from the throne, through the means of a commotion excited in Aranjuez. We afterwards saw that he passed on to France, was there detained with his parents and brothers, and dispossessed of that throne he had just usurped. We beheld that the Spanish nation, every where overawed by French troops, was in a convulsed state; and that illustrious persons, who either governed the provinces with success, or honorably served in the armies, were assassinated by the people, in a state of open mutiny: that, amidst the oscillations to which the administration of affairs was exposed, distinct governments rose up, each one calling itself supreme, and each arrogating to itself the right of commanding over America in sovereignty. A junta of this kind instituted in Seville was the first that presumed to exact our obedience, and to it the viceroys compelled us to give in our acknowledgment and submission.
In less than two months afterwards, another junta, entitled the supreme junta of Galicia, sought from us a similar acquiescence, and sent over to us a viceroy, with the generous threat that thirty thousand men would also come over if it should be necessary. The central junta was next instituted, yet without our having had any share in its formation; we instantly obeyed, and with zeal and efficacy complied with all its decrees. We sent over succors in money, voluntary donations, and aid of all kinds, in order to prove that our fidelity was in no danger, whatever might be the risk to which it was exposed.
We had been tempted by the agents of King Joseph Napoleon, and flattered by great promises of our situation being ameliorated, if we adhered to his party. We were aware that the Spaniards of the highest class and importance had already declared in his favor; that the nation was without armies, and divested of all vigorous guidance and administration, so necessary in moments of dilemma. We were informed that the troops belonging to the river Plata, which had been carried over as prisoners to England after the first expedition of the British here, had been conveyed to Cadiz, and there treated with the greatest inhumanity; that they had been compelled to beg alms in the streets, to avoid dying of hunger; and that, naked and without any relief, they had been sent to fight against the French. Nevertheless, amidst so many urgent and trying causes of complaint, we remained in the same position till Andalusia was occupied by the French, and the central junta dispersed.
In this state of things, an address was published, without date, and signed only by the archbishop of Laodicea, who had been president of the dissolved central junta. By it the formation of a regency was ordained, and three members who were to compose it were named. A measure as sudden as it was unexpected could not fail to surprise and alarm us. For the first time we were then placed on our guard, fearing that we should be involved in the misfortunes of the mother country: We reflected on her uncertain and vacillating situation, the French being already before the very gates of Cadiz and La Isla de Leon.
We were apprehensive of the new regents, to us totally unknown, since the Spaniards- of greatest credit had already passed over to the French, the central junta had been dissolved, and its members persecuted and accused of treason in the public prints. We were sensible of the informality of the decree published by the archbishop of Laodicea, and his total want of powers to establish a regency. We were ignorant whether the French had taken Cadiz, and completed the conquest of Spain, in the mean time that this same decree had been wafted over to us. We were moreover dubious whether a government rising out of the dispersed fragments of the central junta would not very soon share the same fate.
Intent on the risks to which we were exposed, Ave resolved to take upon ourselves the care of our own security, until we acquired better information respecting the situation of Spain, and saw that the government there attained at least some degree of consistency. Instead of this, we soon beheld the regency fall to the ground, and various changes succeeded each other in moments of great public distress and confusion.
Meanwhile we established our own junta of government, on the model of those of Spain. Its institution was purely provisional, and in the name of the captive King Ferdinand. Our viceroy, Don Baltasar Hidalgo de Cisneros, immediately issued circulars to the interior governors, in order that they might prepare a civil war, and arm one province against the other. The river Plata was soon blockaded by a squadron; the governor of Cordova began to organize an army, that of Potosi, and the president of Charcas caused a division of troops' to march to the confines of Salta; and the president of Cuzco, presenting himself with a third army on the margins of El Desaguadero, entered into a forty days' armistice, in order to throw us off our guard; but before its termination commenced hostilities, and attacked our troops, when a bloody battle ensued, in which we lost more than one thousand five hundred men. The human mind shudders at the recollection of the acts of violence then committed by Goyeneche in Cochabamba. Would to God it were possible to forget this ungrateful and bloody American, who, on the day of his entry into the above place, ordered the honorable governor and intendant, Antesana, to be shot; and, witnessing from the balcony of his house this assassination, in a ferocious manner cried out to the soldiery not to shoot him in the head, because he wanted this to place it on a stake; who, after cutting it off, ordered the lifeless trunk to be dragged along the streets; and who, by his barbarous decree, authorized his soldiers to become the arbiters of lives and property, allowing them, in possession of so brutal a power, uncontrolled to range the streets for several days!
Posterity will be astonished at the ferocity exercised against us by men interested in the preservation of America; and that rashness and folly with which they have sought to punish demonstrations the most evident of fidelity and love will ever be matter of the greatest surprise. The name of Ferdinand de Bourbon preceded all the decrees of our government, and was at the head of all its public acts. The Spanish flag waved on our vessels, and served to animate our soldiers. The provinces, seeing themselves in a bereft state, through the overthrow of the national government, owing to the want of another legitimate and respectable one substituted in its stead, and the conquest of nearly the whole of the mother country, raised up a watch-tower, as it were, within themselves, to attend to their own security and self-preservation, reserving themselves for the captive monarch, in case lie recovered his freedom. This measure was in imitation of the public conduct of Spain, and called forth by the declaration made to America, that she was an integral part of the monarchy, and in rights equal with the former; and it had, moreover, been resorted to in Montevideo through the advice of the Spaniards themselves. We offered to continue pecuniary succors, and voluntary donations, in order to prosecute the war, and we had a thousand times published the soundness of our intentions and the sincerity of our wishes. Great Britain, at that time so well-deserving of Spain, interposed her mediation and good offices, in order that we might not be treated in so harsh and cruel a manner. But the Spanish ministers, blinded by their sanguinary caprice, spurned the mediation, and issued rigorous orders to all their generals to push the war and, to inflict heavier punishments; on every side scaffolds were raised, and recourse was had to every invention for spreading consternation and dismay.
From that moment they endeavored to divide us by all the means in their power, in order that we might exterminate each other. They propagated against us atrocious calumnies, attributing to us the design of destroying our sacred religion, of setting aside all morality, and establishing licentiousness of manners. They carried on a war of religion against us, devising many and various plots to agitate and alarm the consciences of the people, by causing the Spanish bishops to issue edicts of ecclesiastical censure and interdiction among the faithful, to publish excommunications, and, by means of. some ignorant confessors, to sow fanatical doctrines in the tribunal of penance. By the aid of such religious discords, they have sown dissension in families, produced quarrels between parents and their children, torn asunder the bonds which united man and wife, scattered implacable enmity and rancor among brothers formerly the most affectionate, and even placed nature herself in a state of hostility and variance.
They have adopted the system of killing men indiscriminately, order to diminish our numbers; and on their entry into towels they have seized non-combatants, hurried them in groups to the squares and there shot them one by one. The cities of Chuquisaca and Cochabamba have more than once been the theatres of these ferocious acts.
They have mixed our captive prisoners among their own troops, carrying off our officers in irons to secluded dungeons, where during the period of a year it was impossible for them to retain their health; others they have left to die of hunger and misery in the prisons, and mane they have compelled to toil in public works. In a boasting manner they have shot the bearers of our flags of truce, and committed the basest horrors with military chiefs and other principal persons who had already surrendered themselves, notwithstanding the humanity we have always displayed towards prisoners taken from them. In proof of this assertion, we can quote the cases of Deputy Matos from Potosi, Captain General Pumacagua, General Anguloand his brother, Commandant Munecas, and other leaders, shot in cold blood many days after they had been made prisoners.
In the town of Valle-Grande they enjoyed the brutal pleasure of cutting off the ears of the inhabitants, and sent off a basket filled with these presents to their head-quarters; they afterwards burnt the town, set fire to thirty other populous ones belonging to Peru, and took delight in shutting up persons in their own houses before the flames there applied to them, in order that they might be burnt to death.
They have not only been cruel and implacable in murdering, but they have also divested themselves of all morality and public decency, by whipping old religious persons in the open squares, and also women, bound to a cannon, causing them previously to be stripped and exposed to shame and derision.
For all these kinds of punishment they established an inquisitorial system, seized the persons of several peaceable citizens, and conveyed them beyond seas, there to be judged for supposed crimes; and many they have sent to execution without any form of trial whatever.
They have persecuted our vessels, plundered our coasts, butchered their defenseless inhabitants, without even sparing superannuated priests; and, by orders of General Pezuela, they, burnt the church belonging to the town of Puna, and put to the sword old women, and children, the only inhabitants therein found. They have excited atrocious conspiracies among the Spaniards domiciliated in our cities, and forced us into the painful alternative of imposing capital punishment on the fathers of numerous families.
They have compelled our brethren and children to take up arms against us, and, forming armies out of the inhabitants of the country under the command of their own officers, they have forced them into battle with our troops. They have stirred up domestic plots and conspiracies, by corrupting with money, and by means of all kinds of machinations, the peaceful inhabitants of the country, in order to involve us in dreadful anarchy, and then attack us in a week and divided state.
In a most shameful and infamous manner they have failed to fulfill every capitulation we have, on repeated occasions, concluded with them, even at a time when we have had them under our own swords; they caused four thousand men again to take up arms after they had surrendered, together, with General Tristan, at the action at Salta, and to whom General Belgrano generously granted terms of capitulation on the field of battle, and more generously complied with them, trusting to their word and honor.
They have invented a new species of horrid warfare, by poisoning the waters and aliments, as they did when conquered in La Paz by General Pinelo; and in return for the kind manner in which the latter treated them, after surrendering at discretion, they resorted to the barbarous stratagem of blowing up the soldiers' quarters which they had previously undermined .
They have had the baseness to tamper with our generals and governors, by availing themselves of and abusing the sacred privilege of flags of truce, exciting them to act traitorously towards us, and for this purpose making written overtures to them. They have declared that the laws of war observed among civilized nations ought not to be practiced towards us ;and their general, Pezuela, after the battle of Ayoma, in order to avoid any compromise or understanding, had the arrogance to answer General Belgrano, that with insurgents it was impossible to enter into treaties.
Such has been the conduct of Spaniards towards us, since the restoration of Ferdinand de Bourbon to the throne of his ancestors. We then believed that the termination of so many sufferings and disasters had arrived; the had supposed that a king schooled by the lessons of adversity would not be indifferent to the desolation of his people, and we sent over a commissioner to him, in order to acquaint him with our situation. We could not for a moment conceive that he would fail to meet our wishes as a benign prince, nor could we doubt that our requests would interest hint in a manner corresponding to that gratitude and goodness which the courtiers of span had extolled to the skies. But a new and unknown species of ingratitude was reserved for America, surpassing all the examples found in the histories of the greatest tyrants.
In the first moments of his restoration to Madrid he declared us to be in a state of mutiny, but since then lie has refused to hear our complaints, to admit our requests; and, as the last favor we could expect from him, he has offered to us unconditional pardon. He confirmed the viceroys, governors, and generals, whom at his return he found carrying on their works of butchery. He declared it to be a crime of high treason for us to presume to frame a constitution for ourselves, in order that the administration of our own affairs might not depend on a tyrannic, arbitrary, and distant government, under which we, had groaned during three centuries; a measure which could alone be offensive to a prince, the enemy of justice and beneficence, ands consequently unworthy of governing.
By the aid of his ministers, he then applied himself to the forming of large armaments, with a view to employ them against us. He has since caused numerous armies to be conveyed over to these countries, in order to consummate the work of devastation, lire, and` robbery. He has caused the first felicitations of the potentates of Europe, on his return to Spain, to be used as pleas in order to engage them to refuse us all aid and succor, and thus behold us tear each other to pieces with an eye of indifference. He has made special regulations for cruising against vessels belonging to America, containing barbarous clauses, and ordering, that the crews shall be hung. He has forbidden, with regard to us, the observance of the laws of his naval regulations, framed according to the rights of nations, and denied to us all that the grant to his subjects when captured by our cruisers.
He has sent over his generals with certain decrees of pardon, which they cause to be published for the purpose of deceiving tweak and ignorant minds, and under a hope to facilitate their entry into the towns; but at the same time he has given to them other private instructions; and, authorized by these, as soon as possession is gained, they hang, burn, plunder; confiscate, and connive at private assassinations, plotting all kinds of injury against those thus feignedly pardoned.
In the name of Ferdinand de Bourbon it is, that the heads of patriotic officers who have been taken prisoners are placed on the highways; that one of our commanders of a light party was killed with sticks and stones; and that Colonel Camargo, after also being murdered: with blows by the hand of the villain Centeno, had his head cut off, which was sent as a present to General Pezuela, with this revolting notification, “that this was a miracle of the Virgin del Carmen."
Such is the extent and force of the evils and sufferings which have impelled us to adopt the only alternative left to us. We have long and deliberately meditated on our fate, and, casting our eyes every where around us, we have beheld nothing but the vestiges of those elements by which our situation was necessarily distinguished opprobrium, ruin, and patience: What had America to expect from a king who ascends the throne animated by sentiments so cruel and inhuman? from a king who, before he commences his ravages, hastens to prevent any foreign prince from interposing in order to restrain his fury?
from a king who with scaffolds and chains rewards the immense sacrifices made by his own subjects of Spain to release him from the captivity in which lie lay? those very subjects, who, at the expense of their own blood, and under every species of hardship, had, without any intermission, fought to redeem him from prison, and till they had again placed the diadem on his head! If men to whom he is so much indebted, only for forming to themselves a constitution have received death and imprisonment as a return for their services, what could we suppose was in reserve for us? To expect from him and his butchering ministers benign treatment were to seek among the tigers of the forest the magnanimity of the eagle.
Had we hesitated in our resolve, we should have beheld repeated among us the sanguinary scenes of Caracas, Carthagena, Quito, and Santa Fe; we should have implicated the ashes of eighty thousand persons who have been victims of the enemy's fury, whose illustrious memories would have risen up in judgment against us and demanded vengeance; and we should have called down upon ourselves the execration of so many future generations condemned to serve a master at all times ready to ill-treat them, and who, owing to his impotency at sea, liar been completely disabled from protecting them from foreign invasions.
In consequence whereof, and impelled both by the conduct of Spaniards and their king, we have constituted ourselves independent, and prepared for our own natural defense and against the ravages of tyranny, by pledging our honor, and offering up our lives and property; We have sworn to the King and Supreme Judge of the universe that we will not abandon the cause of justice; that we will not suffer that country which he has given us to be buried in ruins; and immersed in blood spilled by the hands of our executioners; that we will never forget the obligations we are under of saving our homes from the dangers by which they are threatened, and the sacred right vested in our country to demand from us every sacrifice, in order that it may not be polluted, crimsoned with blood, and trampled under foot, by usurpers and tyrants.
We have engraved this declaration on our hearts, in order that in its behalf we may never cease to combat; and while we manifest to the nations of the earth the reasons which have so powerfully induced us to adopt the present measure, we have the honor to proclaim it as our intention to live in peace with all, even with Spain herself, from the moment she is desirous of accepting it.-Given in the Hall of Congress, Buenos Ayres, this 25th day of October, eighteen hundred and seventeen.
Dr. Pedro Ignacio de Castro y Burros, President.
Dr. Jose Eugenio de Elias, Secretary.
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