ARTIES IN CENTRAL AMERICA. 195 



Kingdom of Guatimala, as it was then called, declared 

 its independence of Spain, and, after a short union with 

 Mexico, constituted itself a republic under the name 

 of the United States of Central America. By the arti- 

 cles of agreement the confederacy was composed of five 

 states, viz., Guatimala, San Salvador, Honduras, Nica- 

 ragua, and Costa Rica. Chiapas had the privilege of 

 entering if it should think proper, but it never did. 

 Quezaitenango, a district of Guatimala, was afterward 

 erected into a separate state, and added. 



The monster party-spirit was rocked in the very cra- 

 dle of their independence, and a line of demarcation 

 was at once draAvn between the Aristocratic and Demo- 

 cratic parties. The local names of these at first confu- 

 sed me, the former being called the Central or Servile, 

 and the latter the Federal or Liberal, or Democratic 

 party. Substantially they were the same with our own 

 Federal and Democratic parties. The reader will per- 

 haps find it difficult to understand that in any country, 

 in a political sense. Federal and Democratic can mean 

 the same thing, or that when I speak of a Federalist I 

 mean a Democrat ; and, to prevent confusion in refer- 

 ring to them hereafter, I shall call the Aristocratic the 

 Central, and the Democratic the Liberal party. The 

 former, like our own Federal party, was for consolida- 

 ting and centralizing the powers of the general gov- 

 ernment, and the latter contended for the sovereignty 

 of the states. The Central party consisted of a few 

 leading families, which, by reason of certain privileges 

 of monopoly for importations under the old Spanish 

 government, assumed the tone of nobles, sustained by 

 the priests and friars, and the religious feeling of the 

 country. The latter was composed of men of intel- 

 lect and energy, who Ihrew off the yoke of the Romish 



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