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BOLIVAB. SIMON. 



BOLIVAR, SIMON. 



: i 



A consciousneai of this opinion induced him, in the 

 nbled at Caracas, January 1. 1814, to declare that u he 

 bad accepted UM nuprema power to save bis country from anarchy, so 

 now he deairej to he permitted to resign it, only begging they would 

 leave him the honour of combating their enemies. His retention oT 

 the dictatorial (tower was however agreed upon, for a great enthusiasm 

 till prevailed in his favour, in consequence of t'ue royalisU beginning 

 gain to rally th-ir forces and arm the negro slaves : a desperate expe- 

 dient by which they were much assisted in raising a numerous army. 



At Florae and other places the patriots were surprised, and all put 

 to the sword. The royali.t generals Bores, Rosette, and Morales com- 

 muted the greatest cruelties, destroying eren women and children, 

 arrested and put to death every man who refused to join them, and 

 appeared to emulate the ferocity of the first invaders. Bolivar, in 

 revenge of these and other atrocities, ami for the sake, it U paid, of 

 deterring the enemy from their repetition, ordered about 800 Spaniards 

 in La Guayra and Caracas to be arrested and shot, which accordingly, 

 on the 14th February 1814, was done, and immediately was retaliated 

 by the royalists, who shot several hundreds of patriot prisoners in 

 Puerto Cabello. Bolivar soon came to see the impolicy, as well as 

 wickedness, of this kind of procedure; and formally proclaimed at 

 Ocumare, in July 1816, that " no Spaniard shall be put to death 

 except in battle : the war of death shall cease." Bolivar, after several 

 successes, was beaten on the 14th of June 1814 at La Puerta, between 

 Cura and San Juan Los Morros, where he lost 1500 men, in consequence 

 of over-confidence, and the dividing of liis army ; and again, on the 

 17th of August, at hi* estate of San Mateo, where* but for the fleetness 

 of his burro he would have been taken prisoner. His cousin Ribas 

 was seized and shot, and his brad was stuck on the walls of Caracas. 

 By September the Spaninh generals were again in complete possession 

 of all the provinces of Venezuela ; and thousands of the patriot army 

 deserted to their ranks. The two dictators, bolivar and Marino, 

 repaired as fugitives to Carthagena. They were received with grant 

 respect by the republican congress of New Granada, which commis- 

 sioned Bolivar to compel the revolted province of Cundinamarca to 

 join that republic. With 2000 men he marched, in December 1814, 

 upon the city of Bogota, which, after the outworks were stormed for 

 two days, capitulated, and became the seat of congress. In April 1815, 

 while Bolivar was engaged in reducing Carthagena, the arrival was 

 suddenly announced of General Morillo from Spain, with an army of 

 12,000 Spaniards. The pence of 1S14 with France bad enabled the 

 Spanish government to make a vigorous effort to regain the revolted 

 colonies; and Ikrtivar retired in May 1815 to Jamaica, leaving Morillo 

 to overrun the whole country. While at Kingston in Jamaica, Bolivar 

 employed himaelf in writing a defence of his conduct in the civil war 

 of New Granada, and issued several spirited exhortations to the 

 patriots, for which bis a-sa-smatiou was attempted by the royalist 

 party ; and the negro who was employed for thu purpose stabbed to 

 the heart his srcreUry, who accidentally occupied tin- hammock in 

 which be usually slept. The island of Haj-ti became bis next asylum. 

 By the president IVUon he was supplied with four negro battalions, in 

 addition to a body of several hundred patriot emigrants ; and in May 

 1816 be was enabled, in conjunction with Brion, the commander of the 

 republican naval forces, to laud in the island of Margarita, where 

 General Arismendi had again assembled the independent force*. 

 With these various recruit-, in July he appeared in Cumaua. where 

 he was suddenly surrounded by the royalisU. and defeated with great 

 alaughtrr at Ocumare, after be bad proclaimed the cessation of the 

 war to death.' He for the pre-ent returned to Hayti, but in the follow- 

 ing December reappeared in Margarita, whence, having issued a pro 

 claiuatiun convoking the patriots of Venezuela to a general congress, 

 he sailed to Barcelona and collected a force sufficient to repel Morillo, 

 then advancing upon him with a powerful army. A battle of three 

 dayi ended in the defeat and disorderly flight of Morillo, who was 

 surprised in retreating, and again defeated by the ferocious Llaneros 

 of General Paex. Bolivar, being now again recognised as supreme 

 chief and captain-general, fixed his headquarters in 1817 at Angostura, 

 on UM Orinoco. After numerous and obstinate battles, the republican 



oration, in which, after declaring popular education to be the first 

 concern of toe conpreu, he goes on to lay down the political prin- 

 ciple* which ouxht to govern the infant republic; and with strange 

 faMoostteacT Bolivar on the one band assert* the social equality and 

 niver.al brotherhood of man, and on the other as solemnly and fei- 

 v.ntly advises the adoption of a government system, in which the 

 overesy) power is centred in one presiding individual. This advice 

 of coarse created much distrust of Bolivar's republican professions ; but 

 his own explanation was, that in the circumstances of the country a 

 Mprsme dictator was required by inexorable necessity,' and that 

 this neoMtity alone could have induced Liu, to undertake " the terrible 

 aod dangerous charge of supreme chief," which be then reaignod. 1 1 i. 

 authority as supreme chief, though resigned into the hands of the 

 "'"V * continued to him under the title of President, until 

 the more violent commotions of society should subside, and the enemy 

 be utterly expelled. In the same year be marched to the assistance of 

 Oeteral Sanlaudcr, In Mew Granada, and in July arrived at Tunja, 



which, after a daring and well-planned engagement on the neighbour- 

 in; heights of the Andes, he took from the royalists ; and on the 7th 

 of August a decisive victory at Bojaoa, in addition to several others, 

 gave him complete possession of the whole of Now Granada. Ssnano, 

 the viceroy reinstated by Morill >, precipitately fled; and liolivar 

 entered Bogota in triumph, amid the acclamations of the inhabitant*, 

 who hailed him as their liberator : the congress appointed him presi- 

 dent and captain-general of that republic, and supplied him with men, 

 money, and munitions sufficient to insure the complete expulsion of 

 the Spanish troops. Some opposition was manifested in Venezuela, 

 but it was easily suppressed ; and at a general congress of the pro- 

 vinces of Venezuela and New Granada, on December 17, 1819,adecree 

 was pasaed by which these two republics were united under the name 

 of Colombia ; and the office of president was given of course to 

 Bolivar. 



In November 1820, after numerous advantages gained by the liber- 

 ating army, an armistice for six months was agreed upon. Morillo 

 appeared in fact to be weary of hopeless slaughter ; and in January 

 1821 returned worn out to Spain, leaving tho command to General 

 La Torre. In June 1821 General La Torre was totally defeated by 

 Bolivar at Carabobo, near the city of Valencia, when the royalists lost 

 above 6000 men, with all their artillery and baggage : the victory was 

 secured by tho intrepidity of a body of English and Irish volunteer*. 

 Thu decisive battle concluded the war in Venezuela. The remnant 

 of Spanish troops who escaped to the fortress of Puerto Cabello were 

 compelled to surrender to General Paez. Bolivar the third time 

 entered the city of Caracas in triumph, but the principal inhabitants 

 having emigrated during the war, the streets presented a scene of 

 desolation and misery, with groups only of ragged mendicants, who 

 at once cried welcome and implored relief. A republican constitution 

 was drawn up, and adopted on the 20th of August 1821, decreeing that 

 its arrangements should continue until 1834. Colombia was now 

 cleared of the royalist troops, except the province of Quito, which 

 was liberated by the great victory of General Sucre on the 24th of 

 May 1822 at Pichincha, one of the mountains of the Chimborazo over- 

 looking the city of Quito. General San Martin, the founder of IVi u- 

 viau independence, having solicited Bolivar to assist in driving the 

 Spaniards out of Peru, he left tho administration of government to 

 the vice-president, General Santauder, and putting himself at the 

 head of the Colombian army at Popayan, marched to Guayaquil, 

 where ho had an interview with San Martin, and thence embarked hi* 

 troops for Cnllao. On the 1st of September 1822 he entered Lima. 

 The royalisU on hia approach evacuated the city : and the inhabitants, 

 with every demonstration of delight, received him, and gave him the 

 command of all the country's resources for the completion of its 

 liberation. A republican constitution was adopted on the 13th of 

 November 1823, by a congress from the provinces of Northern, or 

 Lower Peru. 



Saa Martin had gone to Europe ; and the Peruvian congress, unable 

 to govern, in February 1824 dissolved itself, and appointed Bolivar 

 dictator ; but an active dissentient faction at Lima declared that 

 Colombia, in sending her army into Peru, had designs of territorial 

 aggrandisement, and that Bolivar was actuated solely by sinister 

 of ambition: an accusation which Bolivar indignantly repelled. II.- 

 army, consisting of 6000 Colombians under General Sucre, and 4 000 

 Peruvians under General Miller, advanced in July from Huaras toward* 

 Pasco. In a tedious passage of the Andes, the greatest hardships and 

 d.mger* were endured, and by no one with greater fortitude than 

 Bolivar; the cavalry having sometimes to stand throughout the 

 night upon the snow-|>ath of a precipice without any room to lie 

 down or to turn, while the thermometer was several degrees below 

 the freezing point. The Spanish army was encountered on the plains 

 of Juuiu, and defeated on the 2nd of August. Bolivar proceeded to 

 Lima to reorganise the government ; leaving the main army und<r 

 General* Sucre and Miller, who on the 9th of December won the 

 gre.it victory of Ayacucho, when the royalists were defeated with 

 irreparable loss of men and means. Thus ended the revolutionary 

 war of the Spanish American colonies, in which, for the possession of 

 national independence, at least 100,000 lives ware sacrificed. tin 

 February 10th, 1825, a congress was convoked by liolivar, who 

 resigned the dictatorship in tue following words : " I felicitate Peru 

 on being delivered fioin that which, of all things on earth, is most 

 dreadful war, by the victory of Ayacucho and despotism, by this 

 my resignation." 



lie set out in company with General Sucre and Miller, on the 10th 

 of the following April, to visit the province* of southern, or upper 

 Peru ; and proceeded to Arequipa, Cuzoo, La Paz, and Potosi. The 

 whole expedition was one continued scene of triumph and extravagant 

 exultation ; of dinners, ball*, bull-fights, illuminations, triumphal 

 arches, and procession*. A convention of representatives met at 

 Chuquisacoa, and vied with each other in rhetorical resolutions of 

 gratitude to Bolivar and Sucre, whom they designated ' Grand Princu 

 and Valiant Duke; ' and having assumed for their country the name 

 of Bolivia, they appointed Bolivar perpetual protector and requested 

 him to prepare for them a plan of government. A million of dollars 

 were offered to him, which he accepted, on the condition that they 

 should be appropriated to the purchase and liberation of 1000 negro 

 slave* iu Bolivia, In. January 1820 bo returned to Luna, and 011 tho 



