Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 4.djvu/19

Rh whom it was immediately occupied. But this misfortune proved only temporary. By June 1824 the liberating army was completely organized ; and taking the field soon after. it routed the vanguard of the enemy. Improving his advantage, Bolivar pressed forward, and on the 6th of August defeated Canterac on the plains of Junin, after which he returned to Lima, leaving Sucre to follow the royalists iu their retreat to Upper Peru, an exploit which the latter executed with equal ability and success, gaining a decisive victory at Ayacucho, and thus completing the dispersion of the Spanish force. The possessions of the Spaniards in Peru were now confined to the castles of Callao, which Kodil maintained for upwards of a year, in spite of all the means that could be employed for their reduction. In June 1825 Bolivar visited Upper Peru, which having detached itself from the government of Buenos Ayres, was formed into a separate state, called Bolivia, in honour of the liberator. The first congress of the new republic assembled in August 1825, when Bolivar was declared perpetual protector, and requested to prepare for it a constitution of government. We now come to that period in the liberator s career when his care was directed to the administration of the affairs of the freed provinces. He had been suc cessful in raising those districts to the. position of in dependent states, and now devoted himself to the framing of such laws as seemed to him most suitable to the inhabitants. His endeavours to satisfy his countrymen in this respect did not always meet with encouragement, and sometimes exposed him to slander. In December 1824 Bolivar convoked a constituent congress for the February following; but this body, taking into consideration the unsettled state of the country, thought it proper to invest him with dictatorial power for another year. A grant of a million dollars was offered him but declined, and the congress adjourned, leaving the dictator absolute governor of Peru. His project of a constitution for Bolivia was presented to the congress of that state on the 25th May 1826, accompanied with an address, in which he embodied his opinions respecting the form of government which he conceived most expedient for the newly estab lished republics. This code, however, did not give satis faction. Its most extraordinary feature consisted in the provision for lodging the executive authority in the hands of a president for life, without responsibility and with power to nominate his successor, a proposal which alarmed the friends of liberty, and excited lively apprehensions amongst the republicans of Buenos Ayres and Chili; whilst in Peru, Bolivar was accused of a design to unite into one state Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia, and to render himself perpetual dictator of the confederacy. In the meanwhile the affairs of Colombia had taken a turn which demanded the presence of Bolivar in his owu country. During his absence Santander had administered the government of the state ably and uprightly, and its independence had been recognized by other countries. But Pacz, who commanded in Venezuela, having been accused of arbitrary conduct in the enrolment of the citizens of Caracas in the militia, refused obedience to the summons of the senate, and placed himself in a state of open rebellion against the Government, being encouraged by a disaffected party in the northern departments who desired separation from the rest of the republic. Accordingly, having intrusted the government to a council nominated by himself, with Santa-Cruz at its head, Bolivar set out from Lima in September 1 826, and hastening to Bogota, arrived there on the 14th November. He imme diately assumed the extraordinary powers which by the constitution the president was authorized to exercise in case of rebellion. After a short stay in the capital he pressed forward to stop the effusion of blood in Venezuela, where matters had gone much farther than he could have contemplated. On the 31st December he reached Puerto Cabello, and the following day he issued a decree offering a general amnesty. He had then a friendly meeting with Paez and soon after entered Caracas, where he fixed his headquarters, in order to check the northern departments, which had been the principal theatre of the disturbances. In the meanwhile Bolivar and Santander were re-elected to the respective offices of president and vice-president, and bylaw they should have qualified as such in January 1827. In February, however, Bolivar formally resigned the pre sidency of the republic, at the same time expressing a determination to refute the imputations of ambition which had been so freely cast upon him, by retiring into private life, and spending the remainder of his days on his patri monial estate. Santander combated this proposal, urging him to resume his station as constitutional president, and declaring his own conviction that the troubles and agita tions of the country could only be appeased by the authority and personal influence of the liberator himself. This view being confirmed by a resolution of congress, although it was not a unanimous one, Bolivar decided to resume his functions, and he repaired to Bogota to take the oaths. Before his arrival, howerer, he issued simultaneously three separate decrees, one granting a general amnesty, another convoking a national convention at Ocafia, and a third for establishing constitutional order throughout Colombia. His arrival was accelerated by the occurrence of events in Peru and the southern departments, which struck at the very foundation of his power. Not long after his departure from Lima, the Bolivian code had been adopted as the constitution of Peru, and Bolivar had been declared president for life on the 9th December 1826, the anniversary of the battle of Ayacucho. At this time the Colombian auxiliary army was cantoned in Peru, and the third division, stationed at Lima, consisting of veteran troops under Lara and Sands, became distrustful of Bolivar s designs on the freedom of the republic. Accord ingly, in about six weeks after the adoption of Bolivar s new constitution, a counter-revolution in the government of Peru was effected by this body of dissatisfied veterans, and the Peruvians, availing themselves of the opportunity, abjured the Bolivian cede, deposed the council appointed by the liberator, and proceeded to organize a provisional government for themselves. After this bloodless revolution the third division embarked at Callao on the 17th March 1827, and lauded in the southern department of Colombia in the following month. Intelligence of these events reached Bolivar while in the north of Colombia, and he lost no time in preparing to march against the refractory troops, who formerly had placed such implicit confidence in him. But he was spared the necessity of coming to blows, for the leaders, finding the government in the hands of the national executive, had peaceably submitted to General Ovando. In the meanwhile Bolivar had accepted the presidency, and resumed the functions belonging to his official position. But although Colombia was, to all external appearance, restored to tranquillity, the nation was divided into two parties. Bolivar had, no doubt, regained the personal confidence of the officers and soldiers of the third division ; but the republican party, with Santander at their head, continued to regard with undisguised appre hension his ascendency over the army, suspecting him of a desire to imitate the career of Napoleon. In the mean while all parties looked anxiously to the convention uf Ocafia, which was to assemble in March 1828, for a decided expression of the national will. The republicans hoped that the issue of its deliberations would be favour able to their views ; whikt the military, on the other hand, 