the ultramarine dominions were beyond all doubt the equals in rights with the Spanish provinces in Europe;[1] the córtes assuming the duty of providing whatever might conduce to the welfare of the people dwelling beyond the seas, and of establishing the number and form of national representation in both hemispheres. A general and full amnesty was also decreed for all political offences, on condition of the sovereign authority established in Spain being unconditionally recognized.[2]
The American deputies then laid before the chamber on the 16th of December, 1810, eleven propositions embodying the sum total of American grievances. They were sincere in their efforts to do away with all causes of future differences; but it is very evident that they little understood the spirit of the revolution then agitating the Spanish colonies. The propositions embraced the following points: 1. equality of representation, in proportion to population, with Spain; 2. agriculture, manufactures, and mechanical trades to be free from restriction; 3. freedom to export and import produce and merchandise, in national or foreign bottoms, all ports in America to be therefore opened to trade; 4. free trade between America and the Asiatic possessions; 5. all privileges restricting such freedom to be at once abolished; 6. the suppression of government monopolies, compensating the royal treasury for the consequent loss of revenue by a special duty on each article so freed; 7. the working
- ↑ 'El inconcuso concepto de que los dominios españoles de ámbos hemisferios son iguales.' Córtes Diario, i. 7, 10, 12, 24-6, 46.
- ↑ Decree no. 5 of the extraordinary córtes, i. 10. Of this ample amnesty so earnestly called for by the diputacion americana, and from which so many beneficial effects were expected, several persons took advantage, among them the ex-viceroy Iturrigaray, and the lawyer Juan Francisco Azcárate, who had been under arrest since September 1808, though allowed the privilege of his own dwelling for a prison. Others returned to their country to be drawn into the vortex of revolution, and to lose their lives on the scaffold—instance Acuña and Alconedo. Hidalgo and Allende disdainfully refused to accept the tender made them by Cruz at Saltillo, as we have seen. Lesser chiefs accepted the pardon when the law was published by the viceroy. The results of the measure were unimportant, however, as most of the insurgents looked upon it with indifference. Alaman, Hist. Méj., iii. 10-12.
