new in almost all the arts and sciences, and yet old, after a fashion, in the uses of civil society....

Neither Indians nor Europeans, we are a species that lies midway ....

Is it conceivable that a people recently freed of its chains can launch itself into the sphere of liberty without shattering its wings, like Icarus, and plunging into the abyss?
Such a prodigy is inconceivable, never beheld." Toward the close of his career he declared: "The majority are mestizos, mulattoes, Indians, and negroes.

An ignorant people is a blunt instrument for its own destruction.

To it liberty means license, patriotism means disloyalty, and justice means vengeance." "Independence," he exclaimed, "is the only good we have achieved, at the cost of everything else." Whether the abounding confidence of the prophecy or the anxious doubt of the vision would come true, only the future could tell.