North and South America; A Discourse Delivered Before the Rhode-Island Historical Society, December 27, 1865 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1866 edition. Excerpt: ... IV. Imagine an immense mass detaching itself from the solar matter, and, obeying Bode's empiric law, taking position between Mars and Jupiter, in the hiatus where a hundred asteroids are now wandering What confusion in the orbits of the solar world What oscillations while the equilibrium between the old and the new attracting forces could be established And in the interior of the planets, what unseen commotions; what violent rising of the seas, causing change of their beds, deluges and disorder How long before the new, regular, harmonious and equally balanced order could triumph over the universal confusion Such was the situation of South America at the beginning of our century. The United States detached themselves, at the end of the last century, from the mass of the European world, and took a position among the ancient nations, filling the hiatus which separated the ancient East from the modern West. The commotion was soon felt throughout the whole earth. South America felt herself irresistibly impelled to become independent also; she struggled and battled from one extremity to the other, severed her chains and won her independence. "And it was the evening and the morning of the first day." On the following day she had still another task; to organize a Government. Should they be Republics? The French Republic of 1793 had fallen. Should they be Monarchies? One of the kings of Spain was an imbecile, the other was a captive. Should they be Empires? The great emperor, as a warning, was bound to the rock of St. Helena. The European storm having cleared away in 1819, and the chaos illuminated, the political world appeared in three groups--Continental Europe under the Holy Alliance; liberal and monarchical England; the Republican and Federal...