Here are my reasons: The real interests of a republic are circumscribed
in the sphere of its conservation, prosperity and glory. Since freedom
is not imperialistic, because it is opposed to empires, no impulse
induces Republicans to extend the limits of their country; injuring its
own center, with only the object of giving their neighbors a liberal
constitution. They do not acquire any right nor any advantage by
conquering them, unless they reduce them to colonies, conquered
territories or allies, following the example of Rome.... A state too
large in itself, or together with its dependent territories, finally
decays and its free form reverts to a tyrannical one, the principles
which should conserve it relax, and at last it evolves into despotism.
The characteristic of the small republics is permanency; that of the
large ones is varied, but always tends to an empire. Almost all of the
former have been of long duration; among the latter Rome alone lived
for some centuries, but this was because the capital was a republic,
and the rest of her dominions were not, for they governed themselves by
different laws and constitutions."
Then Bolivar ventures to prophesy the destiny of all nations of the
continent, from Mexico to the River Plata, and he does so with such
accuracy of vision that almost to the word the history of the first half
century of independence in Latin America was shaped according to his
prediction.
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