284 
GUATEMALA. 
Gainza, joined the rebels, — much as a disappointed politi¬ 
cian of the present day leaves his party for the camp of its 
opponents, — and independence was solemnly proclaimed, 
September 15, in Guatemala. Spain seems to have 
acquiesced in an act which deprived her of her fair 
American colonies; but it may be supposed that her 
mismanagement had left little value in the possession. 
Three centuries of abasement had been a most inoppor¬ 
tune school for the freedom of a republic, and one cannot 
be surprised that the change was no easy one, or that the 
results have not, even after two generations, been all that 
the patriots among these first rebels may have wished. 
Subjectively, “Be thou fed ” is very easy; but objectively 
the result seldom meets the command. Slavery was abol¬ 
ished forty years before the great Republic of the North 
dared to do that right; but this eminently proper step 
was very embarrassing, for not only were there no means 
left for the forced repair of roads, bridges, and other 
means of intercourse, that in a tropical country need 
constant vigilance, but the commerce between town and 
town fell off, and the little traffic that had led a struggling 
existence for some years with Spain and other European 
countries now died out entirely, and the revenues of the 
State were affected with an atrophy that crippled every 
attempt of the Government to improve the internal com¬ 
munications of the country. The clergy, who had perhaps 
made the freest use of forced labor, in covering the land 
with elaborate churches and convents that all the revenues 
of the Government of the present day could hardly keep 
in repair, felt aggrieved and uneasy. All was in transi¬ 
tion, and there were few wise men to guide the counsels. 
The stream was turbulent, and not easily kept within its 
