Colombian Presidents [pp. 117-127]

Colombbian Presidents.
charters, the many complications intro duced by church rule, and by the separation of classes, and the ignorance in
which the masses had been held,- and
it is plain that a situation confronted
Bolivar and his contemporaries that far
surpassed the one that the North Americans of Washington's time barely mastered.
While Bolivar strove to bring together all the new nations, the Federalists
gained ground, and the tendency to disruption grew in his own. He had placed
the executive charge of affairs in the
hands of the vice-president, Santander,
while he was absent in Bolivia and Peru,
in pursuit of his plan of union. Santander was himself more or less in sympathy with the Federalists, and gave them
secret encouragement. In I826, under
Paez, they broke into open rebellion.
Bolivar hastened home, promptly assumned dictatorial powers, and marched
to Venezuela. Here he came to an understanding with Paez. At the same
time, he and Santander were re-elected,
and the danger of disruption passed by
for the time.
To the dismay of his friends, and
against the advice of Santander himself,
Bolivar then insisted upon resigning the
presidency. His retirement was soon
followed by such disaffections among
the citizens of the republic, that it was
by invitation of a number of these that
General Lamar, chief magistrate of Peru,
invaded Colombia in I828, blockading
the coast as far as Panama. It was not
until February, 1829, that he was forced
(by the "Marshal of Ayacucho,"-Sucre)
to withdraw; and Bolivar was then formally requested by congress to resume
his office, and did so.
Santander, who had thus far only connived at the disaffection of Paez and the
Federalists, had now decided to come
out openly upon the side to which he
had all along inclined; and had accordingly also resigned office. Upon Bolivar's
return to the presidency the differences
between the two became open feud; San tander was even accused of complicity
in a plot to assassinate the president,
was tried, convicted, and sentenced to
death. But Bolivar commuted the sen tence to banishment. Santander was
really about as strong with the country
as himself. At a convention called the
year before by Bolivar, Santander had
been chosen president, and his faction
had practically captured the convention,
the adherents of Bolivar being reduced
to breaking up the quorum by leaving
the hall and abandoning the convention.
Under stuch conditions government was
thoroughly crippled; and, in fact, public
affairs were fast drifting into chaos.
In I830, the restiveness of the constituent parts of the republic under the centralized r6gime came to a crisis. Venezuela and Ecuador seceded. Bolivar,
just re-elected again, moved against Venezuela, but hesitated to meet Paiez, who
was strongly intrenched, with larger forces; and finally resigned the presidency,
and retired to Cartagena, where, at the
house of a friend, death removed him
from the troubled stage, in the prime of
his life,- aged only forty-seven years.
Whatever Bolivar's failure as the
founder of constitutional government in
the countries he had freed, his right to
the title of "Liberator," and the veneration belonging to it, is undisputed,not only by the world at large, but by
the very districts that were most unwilling to accept the civil order for which
he stood. The Venezuelans celebrated
the centennial anniversary of his birth
(July 3Ist, I883) with great enthusiasm,
marking their estimation of his place in
their history by unveiling a statue of
George Washington on the same day.
Lima also has in a prominent place a
statue of the great South American
hero.
The death of Bolivar put an end to the
plan of a consolidated republic. Colombia, as constituted by him and his party,
was hopelessly disrupted. Nothing re
1889.]
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