The Correspondence of Thomas Jefferson
By Subject
FOREIGN RELATIONS / SOUTH AMERICA
I wish I could give better hopes of our southern brethren. The
achievement of their independence of Spain is no longer a question.
But it is a very serious one, what will then become of them? Ignorance
and bigotry, like other insanities, are incapable of self-government.
They will fall under military despotism, and become the murderous
tools of the ambition of their respective Bonapartes; and whether this
will be for their greater happiness, the rule of one only has taught
us to judge. 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.
to Marquis de Lafayette, 14 May 1817
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