the prejudices of
all, and so powerful was the influence of a state religion, maintained by
an established hierarchy, that it is probable the colonies would have
continued, for successive ages, to be governed by a nation six thousand
miles distant, who had no interest in common with them, and whose
oppressions, they had borne for three centuries, had not that nation been
shaken at home, by an extraordinary revolution, and its government
overturned.[2]

[2] See Huntington's "View of South America and Mexico."

* * *

Among other good results which the ambition of Napoleon Bonaparte
produced without intention on his part, was the uprising against Spanish
oppression in South America. When Napoleon compelled Ferdinand to
abdicate the crown of Spain in favor of Joseph Bonaparte, the loyalty and
spirit of the Spaniards were aroused, and the people refused to submit to
a monarch imposed on them by treachery and supported by foreign bayonets.
In the provinces not occupied by the French, juntas were established
which assumed the government of their districts; and that at Seville,
styling itself the supreme junta of Spain and the Indies, despatched
deputies to the different governments in America, requiring an
acknowledgment of its authority; to obtain which, it was represented that
the junta was acknowledged and obeyed throughout Spain. At the same time
the regency created at Madrid by Ferdinand when he left his capital, and
the junta at Asturias, each claimed superiority, and endeavored to direct
the affairs of the nation.

Napoleon, on his part, was not less attentive to America; agents were
sent in the name of Joseph, king of Spain, to communicate to the colonies
the abdication of Ferdinand, and Joseph's accession to the throne, and to
procure the recognition of his authority by the Americans. Thus the
obedience of the colonies was demanded by no less than four tribunals,
each claiming to possess supreme authority at home. There could scarcely
have occurred a conjuncture more favorable for the colonists to throw off
their dependence on Spain, being convulsed, as she was, by a civil war,
the king a prisoner, the monarchy subverted and the people unable to
agree among themselves where the supreme authority was vested, or which
of the pretenders was to be obeyed. The power of the parent state over
its colonies was _de facto_ at an end; in consequence of which they were,
in a m