And for a people who knew how to gain their independence, destroying a formidable enemy that they harbored in their breast, will it be impossible to repel a foreign force? A people to whom the rights of liberty are so familiar and who have a more than sufficient knowledge of the eternal maxims of justice, will they be oppressed by an internal despotism? In no way. This outcome is contrary to the experience of all the centuries and does not cohere with natural reason. It is certain that the enemies of independence and liberty will make every effort, first, to compel us to enter the Spanish dominion and, second, to impede or
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make illusory the reforms consequent to the liberal system. But each of these until this day has a small following and, with passing time, no following, as is to be hoped from the liberty of the press and the enlightenment that characterizes the meritorious leaders who have led us to liberty.
3. To conclude this discourse, it remains only to make clear that to sustain the proclaimed independence, the physical force we have is sufficient. This physical force has as its base the population and the means of sustaining that population. With the population numerous and the state rich, there is everything necessary to raise an armed force capable of checking foreign invasions, especially when this armed force is inured to war by having been on campaign a considerable time.
Our population is much superior to that of various independent states of Europe and is indisputably double what the United States of America had when it pronounced itself independent, a force that made the British nation tremble and frustrated entirely all the plans of subjugation that Britain had with respect to its American colonies. This nation, whose maritime force is the greatest and most formidable the world has known, could not subject three million unarmed countrymen lacking in military knowledge and in a land that, as the least fertile of the entire continent, could not provide anything but the scarcest resources. And will Spain be able, threatened by foreign armies, shaken by internal upheavals, and with a navy in the most deplorable state, to reduce to its dominion the Mexican Empire, which has a population, according to the lowest estimate, of six million, an army inured to war, ready to sacrifice itself for the liberty of its patria, a fertile terrain, rich and abundant in every type of crop and, for this very reason, capable of raising and sustaining an army ten times greater than whatever the most formidable power of Europe can transport? It would be delirious to say so, and only a foolish man could enter into the ridiculous undertaking of supporting such a paradox.
Nor can the exigencies we have experienced in these days be avoided, for they are the inevitable consequences of the disorder that must emerge at the outset of a government that is starting to establish itself. Drain the water from the mines, establish freedom of trade, develop agriculture, and the state, by means of direct tax, without an excessive burden on individuals and without the espionage and fetters that the individual and system of customs carry with them, will have what is necessary for all
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the expenses of state, to cover its letters of credit and establish a public bank free, if possible, of taxes on individuals “for the extinction of the debt” or, at the least, noticeably diminish such taxes.
From the principles expressed so far and from the application that we have made of them to the Mexican Empire, one can deduce: that it is the legitimate owner of the land it has and currently occupies; that it has in its favor and in support of its sovereign decrees the requisite enlightenment, the necessary population—that is to say, the physical and moral power—to sustain them; that, for that very reason, it is and must be considered and recognized as a true nation; and that, by reason of such, it has an unquestionable right to alter, modify, and abolish totally the established forms of government, substituting for them those it judges suitable for achieving the ultimate goal of society, which is not nor can be anything other than the happiness of the individuals that make it up; and that for this very reason the Mexican people is not nor can be called rebellious for having pronounced itself independent of the Spanish monarchy, for in this it has done nothing other than use the powers conceded by the author of nature to all societies to provide themselves with their happiness by the means they judge most adequate and conducive to this goal.
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| 2 | Discourse on the Limits of Civil Authority Deduced from Their Source * |
Surely few nations have been in such fortunate circumstances for creating constitutions with all possible human perfection as are the American nations, which a half century ago became independent of European powers: The enlightenment generally disseminated by the freedom of the press established in England, France, Spain, Portugal, and Naples; the spirit of liberty, rapidly diffused to all points of the globe; the enthusiasm with which liberal ideas and the rights of peoples, which have gone on to be the subject of a general discussion, have been proclaimed, maintained, and elevated to the highest state; the conviction, produced by the disasters of the most recent revolutions, that one cannot successfully implement certain theories, which, even though they present a store of speculative truths, cannot be realized in practice; and, finally, being entirely free of the obstacles naturally put in the way of any reform by a despotic government consolidated through hundreds of years on stale preconceived notions such as hereditary nobility, feudal domain, sovereignty of kings derived directly from God, and others of the same sort, which practically convinced peoples of the absurd and monstrous doctrine of natural inequality among the children of Adam and which have not permitted a total reform in the states of Europe through the slow but always progressive steps enlightenment has made in them. This lack of obstacles, we repeat, and this abundance of resources that at present make up the political situation of the American peoples, provide sufficient grounds for expecting, from the congresses established on their vast surface, constitutions much more perfect than those created in Europe.
In effect, the outcome has been completely what was to be expected. The Constitution of the United States of North America not only has
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been highly praised by the most celebrated writers of Europe, but has also created glory and prosperity, in a firm and stable way, in the freest people of the world, even putting that country almost at the level of England in its navy, and of France in its arts and manufacturing. It has done this in the short space of a half century, when those other nations have not been able to get to their current level of prosperity except after hundreds of years and terrible political oscillations and fluctuations. We, then, desirous that our country take advantage of the happy opportunity that has come within its reach to constitute itself with peace and tranquility, have proposed, and have already begun to carry out, placing before our fellow citizens the constitutions of the most notable peoples. At the end of all of them, in a separate discourse, we make the observations and reflections that seem most suitable to us. But before our proposal