which purpose they made their own local regulations or laws, and
appointed town and city magistrates. The Spanish-American governments
were not merely despotic like those of Russia and Turkey, but they were a
more dangerous kind of despotism, as the absolute power of the sovereign
was not exercised by himself, but by deputy.

At first the dominions of Spain in the new world were divided, for
purposes of administration, into two great divisions or vice-royalties:
New Spain and Peru. Afterward, as the country became more settled, the
vice-royalty of Santa Fe de Bogota was created. A deputy or vice-king was
appointed to preside over each of these governments, who was the
representative of the sovereign, and possessed all his prerogatives
within his jurisdiction. His power was as supreme as that of the king
over every department, civil and military. He appointed most of the
important officers of the vice-royalty. His court was formed on the model
of Madrid, and displayed an equal and often superior degree of
magnificence and state. He had horse and foot guards, a regular household
establishment and all the ensigns and trappings of royalty. The tribunals
which assisted in the administration were similar to those of the parent
country. The Spanish-American colonies, in brief, possessed no political
privileges; the authority of the crown was absolute, but not more so than
in the parent State, and it could hardly have been expected that
liberties denied to the people at home would have been granted to
subjects in distant America.

Over the viceroys, and acting for the sovereign, was the tribunal called
the Council of the Indies, established by King Ferdinand in 1511, and
remodeled by Charles V. in 1524. This Council possessed general
jurisdiction over Spanish-America; framed laws and regulations respecting
the colonies, and made all the appointments for America reserved to the
crown. All officers, from the viceroy to the lowest in rank, could be
called to account by the Council of the Indies. The king was supposed to
be always present in the Council, and the meetings were held wherever the
monarch was residing. All appeals from the decisions of the Courts of
Audience, the highest tribunals in America, were made to the Council of
the Indies.

The absolute power of the sovereign did not stop short at the Church.
Pope Julian II. conferred on King Ferdinand and his successors the
patronage and disposal of all ecclesiastical ben