date

1822 April 15 Rid Yourselves
1822 April 15

Rid Yourselves

Letter 18 Relinquisht. mode

' 4 Case III. Subjection contested.

Buyers foreigners

Case 3. Dominion /Subjection/ contested: hands looked to for payment,

the hands of a foreign power - the money - purchasers money.

In this case, on the part of the refractory province there must be a disposition to

subject itself /be subject/ to the dominion of the foreign power, though not to that

of your rulers: and to prefer that subjection in a state of quiet to the continuance

of the contest for independence. If a disposition to this effect is not thought to

have place, no foreign power will have to do with any such bargain: for no power will

pay money for a pretence for engaging in war: if disposed to engage in any such war

they will employ the money in carrying on the war rather than in the purchase of a

pretence for it. A pretence may be made by any body at any time for any thing: in

addition to the expence of printing, writing or speaking it costs but a few words. Be

the rulers in question who they may if it be too much trouble to them to make it

themselves any lawyer will make them a pretence for a few dollars. Pretence for

universal war and universal despotism are they not every day put on paper, put by men

whose names if put upon the paper would defile it Rulers who give such men offices

and pensions for such service do so from sympathy not from necessity: for as many

dollars as could be held between two fingers as good pretences might be had as are

got for as many offices or pensions.
Similar Items
  • Title: [1822 April 15 Rid Yourselves]
    Description: 1822 April 15

    Rid Yourselves

    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 April 14 Rid Yourselves]
    Description: 1822 April 14

    Rid Yourselves

    Lett 18. Relinquishment mode

    '. 3. Case 11. Subjection contested

    Buyers inhabitants

    II. Now as to the non-gratuitous plan.

    If any advantage as being obtainable in a pecuniary shape from this

    plan my expectations are not very sanguine /abundant/. As above observed, the cases

    to which it is confined are those in which the dominion /subjection/ is actually

    under contestation and then that in which it is as yet uncontested.

    As above the hands from which the profit if any is to be obtained are

    either those of your kinsmen [...?] or those of this or that foreign nation.

    1. First take the case where the dominion is contested, and the hands

    locked in by you for benefit of a pecuniary shape those of their kinsmen themselves.

    Of all four cases this is that which seems to present the fairest chance.

    By this supposition The province in question has /contains/ in point

    of fact - a set of men towards whom others in adequate numbers are seen paying

    obedience. If in the province there be money in adequate quantity here then is the

    faculty of collecting it a chance of it being obtainable for such a purpose. If the

    matter be considered in a view exclusively pecuniary here then a survey is made by

    the Province of this as the price of emancipation a sum be agreed on less than the

    cost /money/ of self-defence with the addition of the loss in all shapes that would

    be produced by the continuance of warfare, loss by expence in money, loss in moneys

    worth by rapine and devastation.

    Here then if the contracting parties are to be considered as belligerent parties,

    and the standard of right and wrong is the sword, something may not impossibly be to

    be got for you. But if the standard appealed to be the Spanish Constitution, the

    Constitution which your rulers made for them as well as for you, cover /veil/ must be

    kept over that Article (Article 8) which declares equality of rights: otherwise while

    you are receiving the money with one hand you will have to give it back again with

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

    Rid Yourselves

    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.