Page:The History of San Martin (1893).djvu/495

Rh obdurate, until a deputation of ladies waited upon him, to whom he gracefully yielded, and so brought the farce to an end.

The Electoral College of Lima met on the 6th August, and within a hedge of Columbian bayonets voted with unanimity the abrogation of the Constitution of 1823, and the adoption of the Bolivian Constitution. The example was followed by the Provincial Colleges, the new Constitution became law, and Bolívar was acclaimed perpetual President. Of course he declined the honour, but accepted it as soon as it was offered to him a second time.

Now for Columbia. But meantime his idea had achieved a further development, "The Grand Confederation of the Andes." Bolivia was to remain as one unit, Peru was to be divided into two, and Columbia into four States, each one with a President for life, satellites to the central power of the Liberator. Sucre pronounced in favour of the new plan, Santander accepted it, and the Columbian leaders offered it the support of their swords. On this basis a treaty was signed between Bolivia and Peru, giving the two nations one Federal Congress, to which each should send nine deputies; but a special clause was added, that at the death of the Liberator each Republic should be at liberty to withdraw from the union.

"My funeral will then be as sanguinary as that of Alexander," said Bolívar.

Much must be forgiven to Bolívar for the good by him accomplished. He did not wish to be a tyrant, but he did not understand that a people cannot be at once half free and half enslaved. His plan of a Monocracy was a reaction against the Revolution and against the independence of the new Republics; it was a return to another colonial system, even worse than the one which had been destroyed. The paternal government of a distant and hereditary monarch was a less evil than would be a government dependent upon the life of one man. A crown had been offered to Bolívar, he had rejected the idea with scorn, but he now demanded a power greater than that of any king.