date

1822 April 24 Rid Yourselves
1822 April 24

Rid Yourselves

Lett. 18. Relinquishm. Plan

'.5. Case IV. Subjection uncontested

1. Buyers, inhabitants

V Case IV. Subjection uncontested; supposable purchasers, the

inhabitants: the money, redemption money.

No fairer promise do I see in this case than in the case where the

subjection is in contestation. In that case by the supposition a sort of government

is in existence; in the instance of a part more or less considerable of the

inhabitants in this case, by the supposition there is no such thing. A Commissioner

from Peninsula Spain would have in the first place to form a body with whom he might

treat: a body on whose recommendation the inhabitants would /must/ for the purpose in

question be disposed to tax themselves. But suppose it formed, no sooner were any

such propositions made them if I am not much mistaken /do not much misconceive the

matter/ if they would not desire to be excused. Wherever they are, and whoever they

are the Commissioner will find them with your Constitutional Code in their hands. For

answer they will treat him with a sight of Article 8 th and they

will say to him - Very well, Sir: we will give you any number of dollars that you

please: but at the same time, right being on both sides equal, you will be pleased to

place exactly the same number of dollars in our hands. Counting dollars is a tedious

process: a shorter one is a pair of mutual receipts or releases, which you please. In

an arrangement of this sort - an arrangement than which nothing can be either more

simple or more just, we are ready to bear our parts as soon as you please.

With
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  • Title: [1822 April 15 Rid Yourselves]
    Description: 1822 April 15

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    Lett. 18. Relinquisht. mode

    ' 3. Case II. Subjection contested

    Buyers inhabitants

    2. Case 2. Dominion /Subjection/ contested, hands looked to for

    payment, the inhabitants of the Province - money redemption as before

    This source does not present itself as a very promising one. By the supposition the

    province has not in exercise a set of rulers otherwise than those which yours have

    found for them. Here then a government to treat with and raise the money remains as

    yet to be found. That for any such purpose as the payment of the money there should

    among the influential few be any great disposition to labour in the formation of a

    new government does not seem in any very high degree probable: notwithstanding

    /although/ that independence and self government will be the benefits obtained in

    lieu of it. From one to another this will be apt to be the language If they will set

    us free money, they will set us free gratis: for it will cost them more beyond all

    comparison to make war upon us than it will us to defend ourselves. Whatever be the

    number of men at present employed in governing the country and defending it against

    its inhabitants, if we can but rid ourselves of their hostility any how - by force or

    gifts, by extirpation or adoption, what we are sufficiently assured of is - that

    there will be no more of them. Never will men be at any such expence for the purpose

    of opposing with one hand what they are doing if they have not done it already with

    the other.
  • Title: [1822 Apr. 15 Rid Yourselves]
    Description: 1822 Apr. 15

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    Lett. 18. Relinquisht. mode

    ' 6. Case V. Subjection uncontested

    Buyers, foreigners.

    The Russian attempt to make conquests in the Pacific by an Ukase is an object of

    apprehension to nobody, of ridicule to everybody. For to whom can it be a secret that

    the distance of their ports in the Pacific from the capital and from every inhabited

    province condemns their military exertions to that quarter to an everlasting

    /irremediable/ debility, fortunate in so small degree to every other country.
  • Title: [1822 April Rid Yourselves Lett]
    Description: 1822 April

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    Lett. 18. Relinquishent mode

    '. 6. Case IV. Subjection uncontested

    Buyers, foreigners.

    Case IV. Dominion /Subjection/ uncontested: hands looked to for

    payment, the hands of a foreign power: the money. purchase money.

    This case presents itself to me as affording the best chance. It lies

    within a narrow compass. If a bargain of this sort does not meet the views of the

    Anglo-American United States After looking the world all over, one customer, and one

    alone in any the slightest degree probable can I find for you - the President of the

    Anglo-American United States. The territory which there seems any the least chance of

    their looking upon as suiting them has again its limits: and they seem pretty decided

    ones. It must be contiguous to theirs: it must be defensible and governable without

    additional expence. No islands that your rulers still have will come within this

    condition /these conditions/. Not that the President whoever he is will /would

    //could// / have any objections. But this President has constituents: and these

    constituents know better things than to keep on foot additional fleets and armies for

    the maintenance of such distant dependencies to no better effect than the giving

    encrease /swelling the amount/ to his patronage, and the formation of an Aristocracy

    of which he shall be the head /with his office at the head of it/

    The territories which your rulers still call your own between the Mississippi and

    the Pacific - these are the territories to which you must have seen already, in my

    view of the matter the choice confines itself. /whatever it may be, is confined/.

    Distance vast and greatest: patronage to your rulers small: revenue to yourselves

    none: not so much as the usual shadow of it. Thus so much as to what regards your

    interests.