ontest is manifestly settled, the new
governments have a claim to recognition by other powers which ought not
to be resisted. Civil wars too often excite feelings which the parties
can not control. The opinion entertained by other powers as to the
result may assuage those feelings and promote an accommodation between
them useful and honorable to both. The delay which has been observed in
making a decision on this important subject will, it is presumed, have
afforded an unequivocal proof to Spain, as it must have done to other
powers, of the high respect entertained by the United States for her
rights and of their determination not to interfere with them. The
Provinces belonging to this hemisphere are our neighbors, and have
successively, as each portion of the country acquired its independence,
pressed their recognition by an appeal to facts not to be contested, and
which they thought gave them a just title to it. To motives of interest
this Government has invariably disclaimed all pretension, being resolved
to take no part in the controversy or other measure in regard to it
which should not merit the sanction of the civilized world. To other
claims a just sensibility has been always felt and frankly acknowledged,
but they in themselves could never become an adequate cause of action.
It was incumbent on this Government to look to every important fact and
circumstance on which a sound opinion could be formed, which has been
done. When we regard, then, the great length of time which this war has
been prosecuted, the complete success which has attended it in favor
of the Provinces, the present condition of the parties, and the utter
inability of Spain to produce any change in it, we are compelled to
conclude that its fate is settled, and that the Provinces which have
declared their independence and are in the enjoyment of it ought to
be recognized.

Of the views of the Spanish Government on this subject no particular
information has been recently received. It may be presumed that the
successful progress of the revolution through such a long series of
years, gaining strength and extending annually in every direction, and
embracing by the late important events, with little exception, all the
dominions of Spain south of the United States on this continent, placing
thereby the complete sovereignty over the whole in the hands of the
people, will reconcile the parent country to an accommodation with them
on the basis of their un