Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 3 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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In Every Form Of Government, In Republics As Well As In
Limited Monarchies, Improvements, To Be Salutary, Must Be Progressive.
New Andalusia, Caracas, Cundinamarca, Popayan And Quito, Are Not
Confederate States Like Pennsylvania, Virginia And Maryland.
Without
juntas, or provincial legislatures, all those countries are directly
subject to the congress and government of Columbia.
In conformity with
the constitutional act, the intendants and governors of the
departments and provinces are nominated by the president of the
republic. It may be naturally supposed that such dependence has not
always been deemed favourable to the liberty if the communes, which
love to discuss their own local interests. The ancient kingdom of
Quito, for instance, is connected by the habits and language of its
mountainous inhabitants with Peru and New Grenada. If there were a
provincial junta, if the congress alone determined the taxes necessary
for the defence and general welfare of Columbia, the feeling of an
individual political existence would render the inhabitants less
interested in the choice of the spot which is the seat of the central
government. The same argument applies to New Andalusia or Guiana which
are governed by intendants named by the president. It may be said that
these provinces have hitherto been in a position differing but little
from those territories of the United States which have a population
below 60,000 souls. Peculiar circumstances, which cannot be justly
appreciated at such a distance, have doubtless rendered great
centralization necessary in the civil administration; every change
would be dangerous as long as the state has external enemies; but the
forms useful for defence are not always those which, after the
struggle, sufficiently favour individual liberty and the development
of public prosperity.
The powerful union of North America has long been insulated and
without contact with any states having analogous institutions.
Although the progress America is making from east to west is
considerably retarded near the right bank of the Mississippi, she will
advance without interruption towards the internal provinces of Mexico,
and will there find a European people of another race, other manners,
and a different religious faith. Will the feeble population of those
provinces, belonging to another dawning federation, resist; or will it
be absorbed by the torrent from the east and transformed into an
Anglo-American state, like the inhabitants of Lower Louisiana? The
future will soon solve this problem. On the other hand, Mexico is
separated from Columbia only by Guatimala, a country and extreme
fertility which has recently assumed the denomination of the republic
of Central America. The political divisions between Oaxaca and Chiapa,
Costa Rica and Veragua, are not founded either on the natural limits
or the manners and languages of the natives, but solely on the habit
of dependence on the Spanish chiefs who resided at Mexico, Guatimala
or Santa Fe de Bogota. It seems natural that Guatimala should one day
join the isthmuses of Veragua and Panama to the isthmus of Costa Rica;
and that Quito should connect New Grenada with Peru, as La Paz,
Charcas and Potosi link Peru with Buenos-Ayres.
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