Americans were often denied the right of public office. Great personal
service or merit was not sufficient to destroy the dishonor and disgrace of
being an American.

The Spanish colonies were divided into vice-royalties and general
captaincies. There were also _audiencias_, which existed under the
vice-royalties and general captaincies. The Indians were put under the care
and protection of Spanish officials called _encomenderos_, but these
in fact, in most cases, were merciless exploiters of the natives who,
furthermore, were subject to many local disabilities. The Kings of Spain
tried to protect the Indians, and many laws were issued tending to spare
them from the ill-treatment of the Spanish colonists. But the distance from
Spain to America was great, and when laws and orders reached the colonies,
they never had the force which they were intended to have when issued.
There existed a general race hatred. The Indians and the mestizos, as a
rule, hated the creoles, or American whites, who often were as bad as, or
even worse than, the Spanish colonists in dealing with the aborigines. It
is not strange, then, that in a conflict between Spain and the colonies,
the natives should take sides against the creoles, who did most of the
thinking, and who were interested and concerned with all the changes
through which the Spanish nation might pass, and that they would help Spain
against the white promoters of the independent movement. This assertion
must be borne in mind to understand the difficulties met by the independent
leaders, who had to fight not only against the Spanish army, which was in
reality never very large, but also against the natives of their own land.
To regard this as an invariable condition would nevertheless lead to error,
for at times, under proper guidance, the natives would pass to the files of
the insurgent leaders and fight against the Spaniards.