758
THE CONGRESS OF WOMEN.
selves there is a constant struggle for supremacy. They are proud, fond of power, gain, ease and luxury.
The docile peons, although free, are still slaves, and constitute the fighting force in time of war. Through their veins trickles the same blood that coursed through those of the early Spanish discoverers and conquerors. Cortez and Pizarro were religious bigots and fanatics, who came with the sword in one hand and the cross in the other. They fought in the name of Spain’s patron saint, Iago, but showed a greater desire to obtain gold than to convert souls to Christianity. “ They came, they saw, they conquered,” and the descendants of the Incas and the Aztecs rest like an incubus on the sleeping, dreaming Spanish-Americans, who have not only exonerated the crimes of Pizarro, but first exalted him as an hero and later as a saint. After three hundred years his body was exhumed, placed in a glass casket, and enshrined in the cathedral at Lima, Peru, where I saw it on my return home. Minister Hicks, who was present, related to me the ceremonies that attended his consecration. This was done at the close of the nineteenth century. The soil of Peru is so impregnated with niter that the bodies of the dead are preserved.
The early settlements of Spanish America were almost one hundred years in advance of those of North America. The very garden of the continent was their chosen abiding place. From Mexico to Chili, nature has been lavish in her gifts of climate, soil and products. Within a space embracing the tropics and semi-tropics, sea girt on all sides, with ranges of mountains inclosing fertile valleys and rising into tablelands adapted to the culture of every cereal, fruit and plant that may be cultivated for the sustenance and the pleasure of man; gold, silver and precious stones, as well as the baser metals; large domains suited to the grazing of cattle or agricultural purposes; forests in which abound the greatest variety of woods; rivers navigable far into the interior, of the country on the banks of which the soil is inexhaustible; rare and beautiful plants, that may adorn the conservatory or supply the alembic of the chemist for medicinal purposes. Surrounded by the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, barter and trade may be carried on between the two Americas with almost as much ease as on our great rivers of commerce, as the ships that ply up and down the coast are rarely out of sight of land; so that to those who enjoy ocean travel is offered the most delightful opportunity, as summer reigns the year round and the traveler may revel in all the luxuries of the tropic and temperate zones.
Yet, with all these advantages, our Spanish-American neighbors have failed to keep abreast of the times. It is mostly due to two causes: first, the homogeneousness of the people; second, uniformity of religion. In the plan of creation a diversity of races was wisely provided, with the differences of temperament and color to adapt them to the various locations wherein they dwell. The different species of the same race also seems necessary to evolve or develop the highest and best conditions of society. To this variety is due, no doubt, in part, the remarkable advancement and prosperity of the United States. By tacit consent, we all learn to speak the same language which enables us to travel from the Atlantic to the Pacific without guide or courier, and distinguishes us from Europe by removing the insuparable barriers to free intercourse and travel.
The same language is universal in Spanish-America, but there the antecedents have been the same, and their habits and customs gain nothing by contact with each other. Uniformity of religion leads to bigotry and intolerance, as well as persecution of those whose beliefs and forms of worship differ from those of the established church. This is largely true in all of Spanish-America. In Peru, to preach the gospel in Spanish, except after the prescribed methods, subjects the offender to arrest and imprisonment. Chili is more tolerant. Protestant churches are allowed, but they are not permitted to have a belfry or tower in which to place a bell to call the people to worship. Differences of religion and politics are better for the body politic if they may be openly expressed. Free speech, free press, free schools and freedom to worship God according to the dictates of one’s own conscience, lie at the foundation of true republicanism.