HISTORY OF THE INDEPENDENCE
In Alto Peru alone, of all the South American colonies, the battle
cry of freedom was, from first to last, an unequivocal and fearless
declaration of independence. It is significant of the character and
sentiment of the whole people that such an audacious stand was possible
from the beginning. In all the other South American countries, loyalty
to King Ferdinand of Spain, who had been deposed by the Bonapartes,
was the pretext for resisting the authority of the viceroys. Even when
the leaders of the revolution themselves favored complete emancipation
they were obliged to disguise their ultimate purpose, as the masses
were still too apathetic or too fearful to look upon the power of
Spain as other than inevitable and eternal. They could not be brought
so suddenly to strike for absolute freedom. It was the despair of the
Venezuelan patriot Miranda that his beloved countrymen would not catch
the inspiration of his noble purpose, and in Buenos Aires, Chile,
Quito, it was first the declaration of loyalty to the Spanish crown and
not a demand for independence that brought about the overthrow of the
viceroys and the establishment of the patriot Juntas de Gobierno.
[Illustration: DON ANTONIO SUCRE, “GRAN MARISCAL DE AYACUCHO.”]
Alto Peru probably suffered more than any other colony of Spain from
injustice and oppression. Although its mines had yielded fabulous
wealth to the royal treasury, it was the least favored of the Spanish
provinces, the most neglected, and its people were the most barbarously
treated. The cruel system of the _mita_ had so depopulated the
Indian race that the few who remained were obliged to do more than
human strength could endure in order to make up for the scarcity of
laborers. In common with the rest of the colonies, it was prohibited to
Alto Peru to cultivate anything that was grown in the mother country;
commerce with foreign countries was forbidden; only Spaniards or
their children could hold public office; merchandise was sold to the
Indians by the _corregidores_, to whom they were always in debt;
instruction was little more than a name, as no books were allowed in
the country except books of devotion. A Bolivian writer on the history
of his country says: “The natives of the country were excluded from
all posts of honor and profit except when they were able to purchase
them at the cost of large sums of money; so that out of one hundred and
seventy viceroys, only four were born in the country; of six hundred
and two captains-general, or presidents, fourteen were American; of
five hundred and fifty bishops, five hundred were Europeans; political
liberty was excluded from our soil.” In fact, the last thought,
apparently, which the Spanish authorities gave to this province was
that which concerned its well being, at least, until later years of
colonial rule, when the warning given to Spain by the example of the
British colonies in North America suggested the necessity for reforms,
and a new commercial regulation was put in force, thirty-three ports
were opened to foreign trade, and greater privileges were granted the
natives of the country than formerly. But the reform came too late.
Even the concession granted by the Council of Regency in 1810 to permit
the colonies to send representatives to the Cortes could no longer stay
the current of public opinion.
Everyone is familiar with the story of Napoleon’s invasion of Spain and
the capture and imprisonment of King Ferdinand in 1808, when Napoleon’s
brother, Joseph Bonaparte, was placed on the Spanish throne, and a
Council of Regency at Cadiz governed the affairs of the colonies. The
effort of King Ferdinand’s sister, the Princess Carlota de Braganza,
to usurp his dominions in America is only of interest in the history
of the revolution of Alto Peru because it furnished a pretext for the
decisive steps finally taken by the patriots to carry out a plan of
campaign which they had been preparing in secret for a long time. An
ambitious agent of the princess, Don José Manuel Goyeneche, who had
been sent on a mission to interview the South American authorities in
her favor, visited Chuquisaca in 1809, and succeeded in winning the
president of the Audiencia and the bishop of the diocese as allies
of the princess. The right of the _oidores_ to a voice in this
matter was ignored, and those who declared their opposition were
promptly ordered to prison. Though the order was fulfilled in the case
of only one of them, and the president was dismissed from office and
imprisoned for his share in the affair, the patriots saw in this event
an opportunity to spread the gospel of freedom more openly, and a few
devoted apostles set out to make a propaganda of liberty throughout the
country. Among them were the intrepid leaders of the revolution which
was installed the following year in Buenos Aires, Cornelio Saavedra,
who became president of the junta there, Bernardo Monteagudo, and
Manuel Moreno.
The revolution inaugurated on the plateau of Alto Peru on the memorable
16th of July, 1809,--the echoes of which will not cease to vibrate
in the heart of the Bolivian nation as long as a patriot lives to
love his native land,--was not the result of a sudden impulse, but
the natural outcome of deliberate and persistent determination. For
years the leaven had been working, until there was not a pueblo whose
inhabitants were ignorant of the approaching crisis or unwilling to
fight for the cause. In their various uprisings throughout the whole
period of colonial rule, the people had been unconsciously preparing
to initiate one of the greatest patriotic movements in the history of
modern times. With the first years of the nineteenth century, definite
indications of the tendency of affairs began to appear; and from
memoirs written during that period it has been proved that as early
as 1798 the inhabitants of La Paz “meditated the independence of the
whole continent, and communicated this project to various cities of the
kingdom, in every one of which it found patriots ready to undertake the
enterprise.”
[Illustration: CROWDS THRONGING COUNTRY ROADS ON THEIR WAY TO
JOIN A PATRIOTIC CELEBRATION IN LA PAZ.]
La Paz was singularly fitted to be the theatre of the opening scene in
this drama of liberty. Remote from the chief seat of Spanish authority,
out of close range of the Audiencia’s power, the spirit of independence
had been fostered by the tolerance, if not actual complicity, of its
governor, in whose house members of the revolutionary clubs from
various parts of the country were frequently entertained. These clubs
were the organizing headquarters of the patriots in Chuquisaca, La Paz,
Potosí, Cochabamba, and other cities, and it was their combined effort
which installed the revolution in La Paz, by the issuing, in the name
of the Junta Tuitiva, of a proclamation which clearly shows the object
and scope of the patriots’ programme.
The history of the revolution of La Paz displays constant evidence of
the energy, ability, and patriotic ardor of its chief, the president
of the Junta Tuitiva, Don Pedro Domingo Murillo, the first of the
“promartyrs of the Independence.” The events of this revolution,
which was so important in the annals of the Bolivian nation, as the
spark that ignited the continent in a flame of patriotic war, have
been recorded by one of Bolivia’s foremost writers, Don José Rosendo
Gutierrez, from whose gifted pen the story appears, with all the charm
that a graceful literary style lends to the relation of glorious
episodes.
The important crisis, so long awaited, came at seven o’clock in
the evening of July 16, 1809. The conspirators, at whose head were
Murillo, Indaburu, and Graneros, took possession of the quartel and
imprisoned the governor. Assembled in open Cabildo, Drs. Gregorio
Garcia Lanza, Juan Bautista Sagárnaga, and Basilio Catacora were named
representatives of the people and admitted and recognized as such. The
first act was the Declaration of Independence, which ran: “In the noble
and valorous city of Our Lady of La Paz, at eight o’clock at night,
on the 16th of July, 1809, assembled in the Salon of the Cabildo, the
undersigned, in the name of the people, declare and swear to defend
with their blood and fortune the independence of the country.” The
signers constituted themselves a Junta Tuitiva, of which Pedro Domingo
Murillo was elected president. It was organized as a separate body from
the Cabildo, in this way avoiding the confusion from which the Buenos
Aires junta suffered later through its ill-defined relation to that
corporation.
The Junta Tuitiva of La Paz made the first effort in South America
toward democratic government in accordance with republican ideas. Its
laws were inspired by motives of democracy and brotherhood; and one of
its first acts was to give to the race which had been disinherited by
the conqueror a voice in the new government, by appointing an Indian to
the junta from each district. Perpetual alliance was sworn to between
the European Spaniards and the Americans. Its proclamation is a proof
of the courage and sincerity of its authors:
“Until now we have tolerated a kind of exile in the very bosom of
our own country; we have seen with indifference for more than three
centuries our primitive liberty submitted to the despotism and tyranny
of an unjust usurper, who, degrading us below human kind, has reputed
us to be savages and looked upon us as slaves; we have kept a silence
very like the stupidity which was attributed to us, suffering with
tranquillity that the merit of the Americans should be always a sure
presage of their humiliation and their ruin. It is high time, then,
to shake off a yoke so fatal to our happiness. It is high time to
organize a new system of government, founded on the interest of this
our country, which has been so depressed by the spurious politics of
Madrid. It is high time, in short, to raise the standard of liberty
in these unfortunate colonies, acquired without the least title and
conserved with the greatest injustice and tyranny.”
Commenting on the proclamation of the junta, Señor Gutierrez says:
“This was not all of the programme of July. If there had been nothing
more than the document mentioned, the aspiration toward independence
would have been reduced to a mere insurrection. But the programme
of emancipation came united with the social reorganization of the
continent. It insinuated the ideas of democracy and the civil
constitution. The programme of July was not only the _despedida_
of the day previous: the placing of the cornerstone in the edifice of
the day following.”
The sad history of the unequal fight between the few heroic patriots
and the trained army sent to meet them by the Viceroy of Peru; the
unfortunate quarrels between the revolutionary leaders at a moment
when united strength was indispensable; the antagonism of the Bishop
of La Paz, whose anathemas frightened the superstitious Indians and
half-breeds out of the patriots’ ranks; all the events that conspired
to bring about the disastrous defeat, capture, and final execution of
Murillo and his followers, only serve to show what a bitter struggle
was to be expected before final victory could be hoped for. But the
promartyrs “blazed the trail” and opened a pathway toward liberty which
would later direct the eager footsteps of millions. When the patriot
Murillo, humble of origin, but of great intelligence and a noble heart,
said his farewell from the scaffold on January 29, 1810, exclaiming,
in the words of another martyr: “The torch which I have lighted shall
never be extinguished,” he made a prophecy which time has amply
justified and verified.
[Illustration: GENERAL PEDRO DOMINGO MURILLO, THE FATHER OF
BOLIVIAN INDEPENDENCE.]
Four months after the death of Murillo, the patriots, Saavedra,
Monteagudo, Moreno, and others, who had gone from Chuquisaca,
Cochabamba, and Potosí to stir up the revolution in Buenos Aires and
secure aid for their countrymen, had an army already equipped and on
the march to Alto Peru. With General Cornelio Saavedra as president,
the Buenos Aires junta had been organized, the viceroy deposed, and
a strong revolutionary party, in which General Belgrano and other
Argentine leaders were prominent, had pledged itself to lend assistance
to continue the fight so heroically begun on the heights of La Paz.
Undaunted by the brutal message sent to his Bolivian general by the
Viceroy of Peru, “that the Americans had been born to be slaves and
to vegetate in obscurity and depression,” the auxiliary army from
Buenos Aires, under the command of Balcarce, Diaz Velez, and Castelli,
advanced six thousand strong to meet the viceroy’s troops under Nieto,
Córdova, and Basagoitia on the field of Suipacha. After an hour of
hard fighting the patriots won the day, and the royalist leaders
were shot, to avenge the cruelty shown the year before to the La Paz
patriots, when eighty-six of their number were put to death or exiled
to celebrate the victory over Murillo. Meantime, a revolution in
Cochabamba had resulted in a triumph for the patriots; and the leaders,
Manuel Esteban Arze and Melchor Guzman Quiton marched on Oruro with a
force of one thousand five hundred men, meeting the royalists at Aroma
and completely defeating them. This was the first patriot victory on
the Bolivian Plateau, and it was after this battle that the Buenos
Aires _Gazette_ wrote: “Alto Peru will be free because Cochabamba
wills it so.” The royalist forces sent by the Viceroy of Peru to combat
the revolutionists in Alto Peru and Argentina were under the command
of the same Goyeneche who had treacherously sought to overthrow the
existing authority in favor of the Princess of Braganza. It was by his
orders that the wholesale slaughter of the vanquished had taken place
in La Paz in 1809, and it was his ignoble part to bring defeat and
disaster to the auxiliary army by violating an armistice of forty days
and suddenly invading the camp at Guaqui on June 20, 1811. The patriots
were forced to retreat, the Cochabamba cavalry, under Francisco
del Rivero, coming to the rescue too late to save the situation.
The auxiliary army was broken up, Castelli and Balcarce retired to
Chuquisaca, and Diaz Velez joined Rivero later in Cochabamba. Goyeneche
pursued his advantage as far as Cochabamba, where, by great superiority
in number and military training, his troops were able to defeat the
inexperienced and poorly armed inhabitants. His victory was celebrated
with crime and rapine for the space of three days, after which a
military tribunal was held to punish the revolutionists, many of whom
were condemned to death. Meantime, a second auxiliary army from Buenos
Aires, under the command of General Belgrano, met the royalists at
Tucuman, September 24, 1812, and again at Salta, February 20, 1813,
completely defeating them in both engagements, and obliging their
leader, Pio Tristan, to swear “never again to take up arms against
the patriots.” Goyeneche having satiated his taste for cruelty in
Cochabamba set out for Potosí, but on learning of the approach of
Belgrano’s army, he turned his four thousand troops hastily toward
Oruro, and asked his retirement. The viceroy sent General Joaquin
Pezuela to take Goyeneche’s place.
The auxiliary army, stimulated by victory, advanced toward Oruro to
engage Pezuela’s forces and secure a stronghold for the patriots on
the plateau, but, taken at a disadvantage, it was defeated after
stubborn fighting at Vilcapugio and Ayuma. Pursued by Pezuela, Belgrano
was forced to retreat beyond the Argentine border and once more the
royalists held complete sway in Alto Peru. The “reign of terror” which
followed was so ruthless that thousands of patriots fled to Argentina
to escape the royalist vengeance. Yet the spirit of revolution was not
subdued, and in the midst of defeat, persecution, and death, an ardent
patriot of the south, Don Juan Antonio Alvarez de Arenales, assembling
the remnant of the defeated army of Ayuma, marched on to Cochabamba
and Santa Cruz, and retiring to Vallegrande, succeeded in organizing
an army of four thousand strong. Pezuela sent Don Joaquin Blanco to
meet Arenales and an engagement took place on the field of La Florida,
resulting in an overwhelming victory for the patriots, May 12, 1814.
Blanco died on the battlefield. But, although the news of the victory
at La Florida was encouraging, it was not sufficient to make up for the
disastrous defeats of Belgrano’s army.
To a people less tenacious of purpose, the apparent hopelessness of the
situation, after the battle of Ayuma, would have brought despondency;
but the valiant heroes who held freedom worth undying effort, were not
to be turned aside from their purpose by defeat. When they could no
longer march with an army into the field, they formed themselves into
patriot bands all over the country and carried on a system of guerrilla
warfare that harassed the enemy on all sides. Indomitable warriors,
they set up the standard of their “Republiquetas,” as Bartolomé Mitre
calls them, in the cañons of Ayopaya and Omasuyos to the north; in
Chayanta, which dominated the routes between Oruro, Cochabamba, and
Chuquisaca; in Mizque, surrounding Cochabamba and communicating with
Santa Cruz and Vallegrande; in Cinti and Porco, extending to Tarija and
the Chaco. In each of these guerrilla centres there were innumerable
small bands led by various chiefs, all more or less under the guidance
of a few principals, whose names are honored by posterity for the
splendid records of bravery they perpetuate. In the north were Don José
Miguel Lanza and the indomitable Muñecas; in the central districts,
Arenales and Arze; in the east, Warnes and Mercado; and in the south
the valorous Padilla, the brave Camargo, Zarate, and Betanzos. After
reading the story of their skilful art of war, their unwavering
courage and unflinching patriotism, one cannot help deploring the
circumstances which prevented their combining in the open field to
overthrow the enemy whom they so continually harassed and outwitted.
Even their defeats shed glory on the national spirit, undaunted in
the face of death, unconquered on the scaffold. Mitre extols the
_guerrilleros_ in unmeasured terms, and the Chilean historian,
Sotomayor Valdez, says: “Out of the one hundred and two leaders, more
or less obscure, only nine survived the fifteen years’ struggle which
followed the defeat at Viloma of the third auxiliary army, commanded
by General Rondeau, on November 29, 1815. The remaining ninety-three
perished in the battlefield or on the gallows, and there was not a
single capitulation.”
One of the most renowned of the guerrilla chiefs was Don Manuel
Ascension Padilla, whose military genius and devoted patriotism were
unsurpassed. He was highly esteemed by General Belgrano for his
services to the auxiliary army, and by Don Esteban Arze, who conferred
on him the title of _commandante_. Dr. Valentin Abecia, in an
interesting biography of this guerrilla chief, compares him to Morelos
of Mexico, and regards him as one of the greatest figures among the
heroes of the Independence, “a hero with the soul of a child and the
heart of a lion.” And no one thinks of the warrior without at once
calling to mind the noble woman who fought by his side, Doña Juana de
Padilla, his devoted and beautiful wife. “The Padillas” are enshrined
among the dearest memories of the long fight for freedom in Alto Peru;
and if “Don Manuel” was admired for his military skill, “Doña Juana”
was beloved for her tenderness to the sick and wounded. The Indians
adored her “like the image of the Virgin.” In the field, as well as in
the camp, she was her husband’s ally and helper, and after his death
she continued to fight in the sacred cause until independence was won.
According to the _Revista Nacional_, of Buenos Aires, she took
part in seventeen combats, commanded a battalion at Viloma, and was
wounded at Villar, where her husband was killed; she was given the
title of acting lieutenant-colonel by the Argentine government.
[Illustration: REVIEWING TROOPS IN THE AVENUE ARCE, LA PAZ.]
Padilla was among the first of the patriots to insist upon a separate
constitution for his country, feeling that the revolutionists of Buenos
Aires were disposed to show scant consideration for the interests of
Alto Peru in their treatment of this part of the junta’s territory. He
expressed this sentiment in a letter to General Rondeau in 1815, to the
great disgust of that officer. After repeated and futile efforts on
the part of the royalists to capture Padilla, while he eluded them on
every side, besieged Chuquisaca for a whole month, and brought despair
to the viceroy’s troops, a battle took place at Villar on September 14,
1816. Both sides fought with fury, a thousand victims falling without
any sign of yielding on either side, when suddenly Padilla fell dead,
pierced by a sabre; and his faithful followers lost heart for the
fray, suffering their first and only defeat. They were taken prisoners
and barbarously put to death.
The guerrilla chief Lanza, one of the most audacious and cunning of
them all, led the royalists a “wild goose chase” among the mountains of
Ayopaya, without giving them a single advantage. Camargo was no less
successful in guerrilla tactics, until through treachery he was killed,
with eight hundred of his followers, and his head sent on a pike to
Pezuela in token of a famous capture. Warnes, the daring “border chief”
of Santa Cruz, fell in a battle with the enemy, after his men had
killed two thousand eight hundred royalists out of an army of three
thousand. The victorious general ordered the execution of nine hundred
patriots, of all ages and both sexes, to soothe his vengeance. Muñecas,
the curate whose patriotism was no less active than his piety, was
captured after brave resistance, and assassinated while on his way to
trial. History teems with examples of the tenacity and boldness with
which the _guerrilleros_ fought to the end.
On July 9, 1816, the Congress of Tucuman declared the independence of
the Argentine provinces. Several notable patriots of Alto Peru were in
the assembly, among others Pedro Carrasco, president of the congress,
and Pedro Ignacio Rivero, Cochabambans; and José Mariano Serrano,
secretary of the congress, who edited the Act of Independence of
Argentina, and Mariano Sanchez Loria, Chuquisacans. The important rôle
played by the patriots of Alto Peru in the organization and development
of the revolutionary party of Buenos Aires, and the framing of the
Argentine constitution, was due, in great part, to the educational
advantages which Alto Peru offered at that time in the celebrated
universities of Chuquisaca and Carolina, which were among the first in
Spanish America.
One of the first acts of the Argentine government after the assembly
of the Congress of Tucuman was to send a fourth auxiliary army into
Alto Peru. General Pezuela had been appointed Viceroy of Peru, and had
sent General Ramirez to take his place in the command of the royalist
army. After six months, Ramirez was replaced by General La Serna, who
came from Spain with officers and soldiers of very different calibre
from those who had sacked and plundered the country under Goyeneche and
Pezuela. But General La Serna remained only long enough to realize the
horrible condition in which his predecessors had left the people, and
then resigned his command in favor of General Ramirez, who returned to
the field in time to meet the fourth Argentine army of patriots, under
La Madrid. The royalists, led by one of Ramirez’s officers, Captain
Andrés Santa Cruz, who became president of the republic of Bolivia
later, fought the auxiliary army in two engagements, resulting in a
final victory for the royalists, June 24, 1817. Thus, the fourth effort
of the Argentine revolutionists to help the cause in Alto Peru proved
as disastrous a failure as the three preceding, and the fight was again
left to the _guerrilleros_, to whom was chiefly due whatever
the patriot cause gained during the long fifteen years’ struggle. So
exasperating were their tactics, and so effective their methods, that
one of the royalist generals was forced to exclaim, with more fervor
than hope: _Esta guerra es eterna!_--“This war is eternal!”
Olañeta, sent by the viceroy to conquer Lanza, wrote to his chief:
“Lanza sustained the fight with infernal obstinacy!”
The four years of guerrilla warfare that followed the defeat of the
last auxiliary army from Buenos Aires made a continuous record of
alternating successes and defeats. Olañeta, named general of division
of the royalists, fought a wearisome series of engagements with the
various guerrilla leaders, gaining little or nothing in spite of
the superior number and experience of his troops. General Valdez,
who had charge of the garrisons of Oruro and La Paz, was thoroughly
disheartened. The outlook seemed to justify the exclamation: “This war
is eternal.”
In July, 1821, the news came from Lima which gave promise of the rapid
approach of a crisis in the affairs of Alto Peru. The great liberating
army of Chile and Argentina, under the command of General San Martin,
had disembarked in Pisco; his squadron had captured the best Spanish
ships in the harbor of Callao; the patriots were now in possession of
Lima, the viceroy having fled from the capital, and the independence of
Peru was assured in a proclamation bearing the date of July 28, 1821.
Meantime, La Serna had been appointed viceroy to replace Pezuela.
The general rejoicing with which the devoted patriots of Alto Peru
received the glad tidings of the arrival of San Martin’s conquering
hosts may well be imagined. In all the chief cities there were meetings
of the revolutionists, and new courage animated the hearts of the whole
people. Early in August of 1823, an army of six thousand men, commanded
by General Andrés Santa Cruz, who had joined the patriot cause, was
sent by the junta of Lima to establish the independence of Alto Peru.
General Santa Cruz was accompanied by Augustin Gamarra, who commanded
one-half of the division.
With the arrival of the liberating troops, the famous _guerrilleros_
joined the ranks and fought with new zeal in the cause to which
they had given all their energy for fifteen long years. One cannot
help smiling with satisfaction upon reading that Olañeta, who had
received special instructions from the viceroy a few years before “to
conquer the guerrilla chief Lanza at all hazards,” fled precipitately
in January, 1825, at the notice of the approaching troops of the
independent army “commanded by General José Miguel Lanza!”
On the fifteenth anniversary of the martyrdom which the first patriots
of the Independence suffered in the plaza of La Paz, at the same
hour which had witnessed their execution, the last of the Spanish
authorities evacuated the city, January 29, 1825. The same day, the
Independent Army of Alto Peru, commanded by General José Miguel Lanza,
brother of the martyred patriot, made its solemn entry into the city;
and on the following day General Lanza read the proclamation of Alto
Peru’s independence, and, in the name and with the authority of General
Bolivar and General Sucre, he assumed command of the province of La
Paz, with the title of “president,” which was equivalent to that of
“prefect.” What more fitting than that the noble veteran of the cause,
who had sustained it through good fortune and evil, in the army ranks
and on the guerrilla hunts, the famous warrior who had won and lost
with equal equanimity and had never grown disheartened, should be the
chosen patriot to issue the proclamation of national independence!
The war of independence was ended. The record of final victory had
been sealed on the battlefield of Ayacucho, on December 9, 1824, when
General Antonio José de Sucre, who commanded the liberating army in
the absence of his chief, General Simon Bolivar, swept away the last
shred of hope harbored by the royalists, and realized forever the
liberty of America from European domination. The meeting in Lima of
the two great liberators of South America, San Martin of the Chile
and Argentine army and Bolivar of the Colombian, had resulted in the
withdrawal of San Martin from the field, leaving Bolivar in possession,
as dictator, a title bestowed upon him by the Congress of Lima. The
first victory of Bolivar’s troops over those of the Viceroy La Serna
was on the field of Junin, near Cerro de Pasco, where the royalist
general Canterac was completely defeated and put to flight. Bolivar
then returned to Lima, leaving General Sucre in command of the army,
which met the viceroy in the decisive battle of Ayacucho. The Spanish
troops were overthrown and the viceroy was taken prisoner. General
Sucre, with the magnanimity that characterized him, conceded an
honorable capitulation to the vanquished, authorizing facilities for
their embarking to return to Spain.
[Illustration: MONUMENT TO GENERAL SUCRE IN THE ALAMEDA, LA
PAZ.]
The capitulation of Ayacucho is thus described by the Bolivian
historian, Luis M. Guzman: “The victory of Ayacucho had broken the
Spanish yoke. Great were the losses of that memorable day. The viceroy
La Serna had fallen wounded and a prisoner at the beginning of the
combat. The lieutenant-general Canterac, as the remaining chief of
the royalist army, hastened to formulate on the very field of battle
the eighteen articles in which is comprehended the capitulation of
Ayacucho. In them the Spanish general proposes to save the honor of
his arms; to secure the persons and properties of Spanish subjects;
to guarantee the civil and military posts of those who may wish
to serve in the independent army; to facilitate the departure of
troops returning voluntarily to Spain, and to provide for their
transportation; to give full amnesty for their political opinions. The
vanquished royalists were permitted to dictate the conditions of peace,
which were admitted with few modifications by the victorious patriots.
Thus General Sucre triumphed twice over his enemies. His valor
overthrew them on the field of battle; his heroic generosity disarmed
them with gratitude. A more exigent conqueror would have turned against
himself the arm of despair, which might still have proved fatal for the
independent army, because of the numerous royalist troops and garrisons
that yet remained at various points of upper and lower Peru.”
General Sucre signed two copies of the capitulation, one of which
is preserved in the archives of Madrid. The other, from which the
photograph was made to illustrate this chapter, is a valued possession
of Señora Hortensia Gutierrez de Pinilla, the wife of Bolivia’s foreign
minister, and daughter of one of its foremost scholars. It is treasured
with patriotic pride, and occupies the place of honor in the library of
her beautiful home in La Paz, where it hangs beside a portrait of the
“Gran Mariscal de Ayacucho.”
The victorious army of the Independence, with General Sucre at its
head, marched from the battlefield of Ayacucho to Cuzco and thence, by
way of Lake Titicaca and the Desaguadero River, to La Paz. When the
news of its approach to La Paz was heralded abroad, the city went wild
with joy. For miles around the scene was one of animated expectancy.
A committee of distinguished citizens, headed by General Lanza and
Casimiro Olañeta,--the latter a nephew of the royalist leader,--met
the conquering hero a few leagues out of the city and welcomed him
on behalf of the nation. On February 7, 1825, he made his triumphal
entrance, amid the jubilant acclamations of the people, under arches
of victory garlanded with roses, and through streets gaily decorated
with flags and banners bearing mottoes of eulogy. At the plaza the
hero paused, to pay a tribute to the memory of Murillo and the other
martyred patriots of 1809; and as tears came to his eyes in the
contemplation of the scene, now gay with the joyous manifestations
of a free people, once sad in the shadow of the gallows on which the
nation’s brave sons were sacrificed, the impressive moment created a
sudden stillness, broken again immediately by a burst of cheers and
shouts from the enthusiastic multitude. Feasting, music, and dancing
reigned throughout the city; and the visitors were entertained with
balls, soirées, and banquets for a month. Two days after his arrival,
General Sucre issued a decree convoking a national assembly in Oruro
to determine the future government of the country. In March he set out
to visit the interior, leaving a division of his army in La Paz under
command of General José Maria Córdova. In every city his arrival was
the signal for general rejoicing.
The first national assembly met in Chuquisaca in June, 1825. To General
Sucre belongs the honor of having been the prime organizer of the
republic, and the best beloved of its leaders. In the hall where the
first national assembly met hangs the portrait of the grand-marshal
of Ayacucho, and the words of his testament: “Still another reward I
ask of the entire nation and of its administrators: not to destroy the
work of my creation; to preserve, amid all dangers, the independence
of Bolivia.” And the last words of their liberator have been made the
watchword of the nation.
[Illustration: FACSIMILE OF THE ORIGINAL TREATY OF AYACUCHO,
WHICH SEALED THE SOUTH AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE FROM SPAIN.]
[Illustration: FACSIMILE OF THE ORIGINAL TREATY OF AYACUCHO,
WHICH SEALED THE SOUTH AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE FROM SPAIN.]
[Illustration: FACSIMILE OF THE ORIGINAL TREATY OF AYACUCHO,
WHICH SEALED THE SOUTH AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE FROM SPAIN.]
During the deliberations of the first congress two despatches were
received of portentous significance. One came from the International
Congress of La Plata, leaving to the provinces of Alto Peru perfect
freedom to constitute themselves an independent republic, although
they had been a part of the viceroyalty of La Plata under the colonial
régime. The other was a high-handed message from General Bolivar,
declaring Alto Peru subject to the authority of the Congress of Lima,
and ordering the Congress of Chuquisaca to suspend its sessions.
Indignation blazed up fiercely at the unwarrantable attitude of the
great liberator in thus summarily disposing of the destiny of a
free and independent people who had given the best blood of the country
to secure its sovereign freedom. The fiery and eloquent Olañeta, the
_guerrillero_ Lanza, and others, protested in vigorous terms
against any such despotism, and, overriding Bolivar’s proclamation, a
unanimous vote declared that Alto Peru, “which, on the South American
continent, had been the altar on which was spilled the first blood of
the free and the tomb in which lay buried the last of the tyrants,”
constituted a sovereign state, “independent of all nations, both of
the Old and the New World, to be governed by its own people and ruled
by the constitution, laws, and authorities which they should believe
most conducive to the future happiness of the nation.” The president
of the assembly, Don José Mariano Serrano,--the illustrious patriot
who, as secretary of the Congress of Tucuman nine years before, had,
as we have seen, edited the first constitution of the Argentine
republic,--wrote the Act of Independence of Bolivia, which bears the
date of August 6, 1825. The new state took the name Bolivar, afterward
changed to Bolivia, in honor of the great liberator, and for its
government adopted the republican unitarian system. Chuquisaca was
made the provisional capital, under the name of Sucre, to commemorate
the part taken in the national organization of the new republic by the
great Bolivar’s most distinguished general. Also, with that discretion
which is the better part of valor, in order to avoid a conflict with
Bolivar, a deputation was sent by the congress to convey to that
general assurances of gratitude and esteem in recognition of his great
service to the cause of independence, and to offer his excellency the
presidency of the new republic which had been named in his honor. It
was a diplomatic stroke that won the heart of the liberator--a man not
without vanity.
General Sucre returned to La Paz to meet General Bolivar, who arrived
on the 18th of August, 1825, amid such demonstrations of enthusiasm
as had never before been witnessed in that city. It was the first
meeting between Bolivar and Sucre since they had parted after the
battle of Junin, and the scene was an affecting one, as was also
Bolivar’s inspired eulogy of the noble troops who had won the day at
Ayacucho. The victorious regiment, dressed in full parade uniform in
honor of the arrival of the commander-in-chief, was the first to greet
General Bolivar upon his arrival at the _Altos_, the heights
above the city. Under the gallant escort of his beloved troops the
liberator descended, surrounded by an admiring multitude, who pressed
so eagerly on the advancing hero that the procession could only make
slow progress, enthusiastic _vivas_ continually ringing out from
the midst of the jubilant crowds. At the entrance to the city, where a
grand triumphal gateway had been erected, a golden key was presented
to the liberator by two citizens, who thanked him in the name of the
people for the eminent services he had rendered the cause of liberty.
Opening the gates with impressive ceremony he passed into the city,
and was received by the municipal authorities with the honor due to
such a distinguished guest. In the principal plaza, now the Plaza
Murillo, General Bolivar addressed his army with the affection and
pride that a great leader feels when he stands in the presence of
faithful followers who have successfully carried out his plans, upon
which depended not only the welfare of the nation, but the glory of
his own name in the records of posterity. Napoleon felt the sentiment
when he eulogized his magnificent army. Bolivar felt it when he stood
in the midst of the serried troops that filled the plaza Murillo, and,
in a voice that thrilled by its magnetic quality and fascinated by its
eloquence, expressed in a few words his appreciation and admiration
of their loyal services to the cause of patriotism. From his heart he
spoke: “Soldiers! At last the moment that I have longed for has come,
to salute and embrace you with the affection which I feel and which
you deserve, after your glorious and marvellous deeds on the field
of Ayacucho, whose victory, bestowing upon you imperishable fame and
renown, has crowned your generous efforts in favor of the liberty of
America. The strength, valor, constancy, and loyalty with which you
have fulfilled your vow to save America from its tyrants and oppressors
are sufficient merits upon which to enter the temple of immortality and
glory, and to rest there from the fatigues of the illustrious campaign
which you have just ended, defeating and annihilating the hosts of
tyrants who for three centuries dared to stain the soil of America
with their accursed footprints! Soldiers! Finished the memorable task
that has finally brought us to the feet of yonder colossus [Illimani],
which at this moment looks down upon you as if in proud contemplation,
we shall constitute these provinces free, and we shall leave them in
possession of their political and social rights. May their happiness
be as genuine and their liberty as true as the aspirations of the
Liberating Army and of your general!”
The Colombian troops were deeply moved while listening to the voice
of their beloved general; and as soon as the last words were spoken,
they broke into enthusiastic cheers, and shouts of _Viva el General
Bolivar!_ were repeated on all sides. General Sucre responded in
behalf of the army, and then, in the name of the city of La Paz,
presented a gold chain to the liberator, attempting to put it over
his head as a token of admiration and esteem, “woven by the hands
of Liberty and Victory for their best-beloved son, the genius of
Colombia, the hero of South America.” Bolivar resisted, and placed
the chain around Sucre’s neck, saying: “He it was who gave liberty to
Peru on the field of Ayacucho;” to which the modest victor replied:
“Your name alone made me conquer at Ayacucho!” It must have been a
pretty exhibition of the politeness so characteristic of the race,
and altogether appropriate between two such distinguished heroes. The
author of this description, Don Luis Crespo, says the chain was finally
given by General Sucre to his chief of division, José Maria Córdova.
General Bolivar received with great ceremony the deputation from the
national assembly; and after accepting at their hands the supreme
gift of the nation, which he eulogized as his _hija predilecta_,
“best-beloved daughter,” he left La Paz on September 20, 1825, in
company with General Sucre and a part of his army, and proceeded to the
capital, where his welcome was one worthy of the city which had been
for nearly three centuries the metropolis of social and intellectual
culture in Alto Peru.
With the arrival of Bolivar in Sucre, and his inauguration as first
president of the republic of Bolivia, closes the “storm and stress”
period that had lasted throughout the long war of independence. After
having been the first to start the patriotic movement in South America,
and the first to promulgate its doctrines in the sister province of
La Plata,--which owed the organization of its revolutionary junta and
the preparation of its first republican constitution to the genius
of patriots of Alto Peru,--this long-suffering nation finally reaped
the reward of its labors, though it was the last to benefit by the
blessings of a free and independent government. But when the dawn of
a new life broke over its hills and lighted its valleys with the joy
of hope, the sun shone out all the clearer to brighten the day of
its birth as an independent nation, because of the shadows that had
enveloped the night before.
[Illustration: GROUP OF CAVALRY ON THE ALTOS OF LA PAZ.]
[Illustration: REGIMENT OF CAVALRY ON PARADE IN SUCRE.]