Summary
New Granada, from accounts I have heard, would not object much to giving up the Isthmus to the United States, but France and England, from various reasons, no doubt would! Education, and many other advantages, doubtless, would accrue to the people under the enlightened rule of the Americans; but, after all, it seems a republican government is not suited to these South American nations : it becomes a tyranny or a nullity with them. The genius, character, and habits of the people tend towards monarchical institutions in general. Old Spain has left her mark upon them; she trained all her colonies in her own spirit; she deeply imbued them with her own principles: this has grown with their growth, and strengthened with their strength; and though, when they threw off her yoke, and asserted their national independence, the example of the most flourishing and powerful nation in this hemisphere was, as it were, instinctively followed (as if the mere resemblance in the form of government, without any similarity in character, traditions, or habits of thought, could effect equal results), yet the people, it would appear, have generally retained the impressions that the mother country sought always consistently to give them.
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- Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009