No one, I hope, can doubt my wish to see them and all mankind
exercising self-government, and capable of exercising it. But the
question is not what we wish, but what is practicable. As their sincere
friend and brother, then, I do believe the best thing for them, would be
for themselves to come to an accord with Spain, under the guarantee
of France, Russia, Holland, and the United States, allowing to Spain
a nominal supremacy, with authority only to keep the peace among them,
leaving them otherwise all the powers of self-government, until
their experience in them, their emancipation from their priests,
and advancement in information, shall prepare them for complete
independence. I exclude England from this confederacy, because her
selfish principles render her incapable of honorable patronage or
disinterested co-operation: unless, indeed, what seems now probable, a
revolution, should restore to her an honest government, one which will
permit the world to live in peace. Portugal grasping at an extension
of her dominion in the south, has lost her great northern province of
Pernambuco, and I shall not wonder if Brazil should revolt in mass, and
send their royal family back to Portugal, Brazil is more populous, more
wealthy, more energetic, and as wise as Portugal. I have been insensibly
led, my dear friend, while writing to you, to indulge in that line of
sentiment in which we have been always associated, forgetting that these
are matters not belonging to my time.
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