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306 post still held by the Spaniards. In New Granada the powerful fortress of Carthagena surrendered to Gen. Santander on 21 Sept., 1821. The naval battle of Maracaibo, in August, 1823, and the capitulation of Puerto Cabello in July, 1824, were necessary to drive the Spaniards from their last foothold. Yet after fhe decisive victory of Carabobo the republicans were masters of the country and free to attend to its political organization. The congress of Colombia assembled in Cucuta in May, 1821, and on 30 Aug., 1821, the constitution of the republic of Colombia was adopted with the general approval of the people. Bolivar was acclaimed the president of the new republic, notwithstanding his protests. Although he had sacrificed his enormous private fortune in the cause of independence, he renounced his claims to the annual salary of 50,000 dollars due him as president since 1819, and also to his share in the public property distributed among the generals and soldiers of the republic. The Spaniards were still in possession of the provinces of Ecuador and Peru, and Bolivar determined to effect the liberation of the whole country. At the head of his army he marched upon Quito, the chief place in Ecuador, whither the Spaniards had retired after being driven from the isthmus of Panama. A severe battle was fought at Pichincha, which was won for the republicans through the able strategy of Gen. Sucre, Bolivar's colleague, Bolivar entered Quito in June, 1822, and incorporated Quito, Pasto, and Guayaquil in the Colombian republic. Then, in response to an appeal from San Martin, the patriot leader in Peru, he left the direction of the government to the vice-president, Santander, and marched upon Lima, which was evacuated by the royalists at the approach of the Colombian army. He made a triumphal entry into the Peruvian capital on 1 Sept., 1823, and on 10 Feb., 1824, the congress of Lima made him dictator of Peru and authorized him to employ all the resources of the country. He tendered his resignation as president of Colombia, but was continued in that office by the vote of a large majority of the congress. The intrigues of the opposing factions in Peru forced Bolivar to retire to Truxillo, whereupon Lima was reoccupied by the Spaniards under Canterac. By June, Bolivar had organized another army, which routed the advance guard of the royalist force, and, pushing forward, defeated Canterac on the plains of Junin, 6 Aug., 1824. After this decisive victory Bolivar returned to Lima to reorganize the government, while Sucre pursued the Spaniards on their retreat through upper Peru, and shattered their forces in the final victory of Ayachuco on 9 Dec, 1824. The Spaniards were reduced to the single post of Callao, in Peru, from which they could not be dislodged until more than a year later. On 10 Feb., 1825. Bolivar convoked a constituent congress and resigned the dictatorship of Peru; but that body, on account of the unsettled state of the country, decided to invest him with dictatorial powers for a year longer. Congress voted him a grant of a million dollars, which was declined.

A convention of the provinces of upper Peru was held at Chuquisaca, in August, 1825, which detached that territory from the government of Buenos Ayres and constituted it a separate state, called, in honor of the liberator, Bolivia. Bolivar was declared perpetual protector of the new republic, and was requested to prepare for it a constitution. He returned to Lima after visiting upper Peru, and thence sent a project of a constitution for Bolivia, which was pt-esented to the congress of that state on 25 May, 1826, accompanied by an address in which he defined the forms of government that he conceived to be most expedient for the newly established republics. The Bolivian code, copied in some of its features from the code Napoleon, contained a provision for vesting the executive authority in a president for life, without responsibility to the legislature, and with power to nominate his successor. This proposal excited the apprehensions of a section of the republicans in Bolivia, Peru, Venezuela, New Granada, and even in Buenos Ayres and Chili. The tendencies that Bolivar had manifested in the direction of political consolidation caused the alarm to spread beyond the confines of the territory affected by the new code, and he was suspected of a design to weld the South American republics into an empire and to introduce the Bolivian code and make himself perpetual dictator. Peru, as well as Bolivia, adopted the new code; but from this time the population of the republics were divided into angry factions on questions raised by that instrument, and a long and bitter struggle ensued between the centralists, or Bolivarists, and the federalists, the military rivals of Bolivar uniting with the latter party. A serious trouble occurred in Venezuela during the absence of the president. Paez, vice-president of that republic, having been accused of arbitrary conduct in the enrolment of the militia, refused to obey the summons of the senate, and, encouraged by a strong separatist party in the northern provinces, openly rebelled against the central government. Bolivar confided affairs in Peru to a council nominated by himself, with Santa C'ruz for its chief, and hastened to the scene of the disturbances, leaving Lima in September, and reaching Bogota on 14 Nov., 1826. On 23 Nov. he issued a decree from Bogota assuming the extraordinary powers conferred upon the president in case of rebellion, and hastened to Venezuela to stop the spilling of blood, reaching Puerto Cabello on 31 Dee. The following day he issued a proclamation declaring a general amnesty. In an interview with Paez he confirmed him in his command, and, fixing his headquarters at Caracas, checked the disturbances in the northern departments. In 1826 Bolivar and Santander were re-elected president and vice-president of Colombia for the term beginning in January, 1827. In February, Bolivar, in order to silence his detractors and prove that he was free from ambitious designs and interested motives, insisted on resigning the presidency and retiring into private life. Santander urged him to retract his decision, declaring that the agitations of the country could only be dispelled through the influence and authority of the liberator, while in the congress there was a majority of his supporters, and a resolution was carried requesting him to continue in the presidency. He accordingly withdrew his resignation, and repaired to Bogota to take the oath of office; but before doing so he issued a proclamation calling a national convention to be held at Ocaiia in March, 1828. Another decree granted a general amnesty, and a third proclaimed the establishment of constitutional order throughout Colombia.

Shortly after the departure of Bolivar from Lima, the Bolivian code was adopted as the constitution of Peru, and under it the liberator was elected, on 9 Dec, 1826, president for life. A few weeks later, while he was restoring order in Venezuela, a counter-revolution was effected in Peru by the third division of the Colombian auxiliary army, then stationed at Lima. This consisted of veteran troops under Lara and Sands, who had hitherto been the liberators most efficacious instruments, not only in conquering the independ-