_The Declaration of Independence, July 5, 1811. Miranda's Failure_
(1811-1812)
The first acts of the Junta were acts of moderation and wisdom. Emparan and
other Spanish authorities were expelled from the country. The Spaniards
were assured that they would be treated as brothers, with the same
consideration as all Americans. The Junta sent notice of this movement to
the other countries of the continent in the following lofty words:
"Venezuela has placed herself in the number of free nations, and
hastens to give advice of this event to her neighbors so that, if the
aspirations of the new world are in accord with hers, they might give
her help in the great and very difficult career she has undertaken.
'Virtue and moderation' have been our motto. 'Fraternity, union and
generosity' should be yours, so that these great principles combined
may accomplish the great work of raising America to the political
dignity which so rightly belongs to her."
The tributes formerly paid by the Indians were abolished. The alcabala, an
excessive tax on sales, was also suppressed. The introduction of slaves was
forbidden. Different branches of the government were organized.
One of the first works of the Junta was to send emissaries to the several
provinces of the old captaincy general to invite them to unite with Caracas
in the movement. It was the first government of Spanish America to initiate
diplomatic missions abroad. Among her envoys we find Simón Bolívar
representing Venezuela at London.
Most of the provinces followed the example given by Caracas, but some of
them did not take that action, and among these were Coro and Maracaibo,
which exercised powerful influence against the movement for liberty. The
emissaries who went to Maracaibo were even sent to Porto Rico to be tried
there as rebels and were sentenced to prison in that colony.
Among the diplomatic representatives, some were well received and some
were ignored. Bolívar was very highly praised by the London authorities,
although he could obtain no substantial assistance because of a treaty of
alliance then existing between England and Spain. Bolívar worked not only
as a diplomat, but he also wrote and published articles of propaganda
to acquire friends for the cause he represented, and from the first his
influence was felt all over the continent, especially when he was able to
give substantial help to the representatives from Buenos Aires, who went to
London to secure the alliance and friendship of England.
The attitude of Venezuela was not only generous and conciliatory, but it
was even inspired by a great regard for Spain. The junta declared itself
ready to send help to Spain in her fight against the intruder, and also
offered the Venezuelan soil as a refuge for those who might despair of the
salvation and freedom of the mother country. The Council of Regency which
had been established in Spain, instead of thanking Venezuela for her offer,
declared the Venezuelans insurgents, rebels and traitors, and submitted the
province of Caracas to a strict blockade. This decision on the part of the
Council served to arouse the Venezuelans and to change the ends of the
movement. The sea became infested with privateers and pirates and, within
the country, royalist agencies promoted war and insurrection. Towns which
had declared themselves in favor of the Junta were destroyed by the
royalists, and everywhere the situation was very difficult for all who
had expressed any sympathy with the new régime. Nevertheless, the new
authorities persevered in their purpose to show loyalty to Fernando
VII, and tried by all means to avoid bloodshed. Even with regard to the
governors of Coro and Maracaibo, Caracas tried persuasion rather than
force. The uncompromising attitude of the Regency, however, indicated
clearly that the Venezuelans could not expect to effect any agreement with
Spain. Bolívar, thinking that he could be more useful in his own country
than in London, decided to return to Venezuela, but he did not go back
alone. We have mentioned before that General Miranda was then living in
London. Bolívar invited him to return to Venezuela to help the cause of
freedom, for he deemed him the ablest man to lead the movement. He gave him
the hospitality of his own home and praised him generously, increasing his
popularity.
Miranda was very well received, and the Junta at once appointed
him Lieutenant General. At that time the Venezuelans were electing
representatives to Congress, and Miranda was elected deputy from one of the
cities of the East. Congress entered into session March 2nd with forty-four
members, representing seven provinces, and its very first decision was to
appoint three men to exercise the executive power and a council to sit for
purposes of consultation. Thus the first autonomous government in Latin
America was established.
There were several factors active in the creation of public opinion: the
press was free, and popular orators held meetings in which they spoke of
the new ideas and tried to prepare the people for the new institutions.
Special mention should be made of the Sociedad Patriótica (Patriotic
Society) whose promoters and leaders were Miranda and Bolívar. This
association worked constantly for absolute freedom, putting forward as
an example the independence of the North American colonies. Some
representatives distrusted the association, considering it as a rival of
Congress, but Bolívar relieved their fears by an inspired address delivered
on July 3, 1811, which might be considered as the beginning of his career
as a great orator. He denounced the apathy of the deputies, denied that
there were two congresses, and among other things said:
"What do we care if Spain submits to Napoleon Bonaparte, if we have
decided to be free? Let us without fear lay the corner-stone of South
American freedom. To hesitate is to die."
Obeying these feelings, the association sent a memorandum to Congress,
which was read on July 4, 1811. The following day this assembly proclaimed
the independence of Venezuela. The document contained an exposition of the
wrongs suffered by the colony, a decision to live and to die free, and the
pledge of seven provinces to sacrifice the lives and fortunes of their
inhabitants in this great work. On that same day the national flag of
Venezuela was adopted, one containing three horizontal stripes: yellow,
blue and red.
Up to this time the revolution had been peaceful and bloodless, but now
the royalists of Valencia, a very important city to the west of Caracas,
rebelled against the new institutions and asked help from the governors of
Coro and Maracaibo. Miranda besieged and took the city, Bolívar fighting
on his side. Insurrections broke out in other places and were speedily
repressed. In some cities the new state of affairs was welcomed with great
joy. The obvious political needs became the object of study of the new
Congress. From the beginning the federal system and the central system
appeared in opposition. Bolívar was opposed to the federation, arguing that
the people of Venezuela were still ignorant and unable to understand the
obligations of a federation. At last the partisans of the federation
movement were victorious, and Venezuela adopted a federal constitution, in
which the most advanced principles with regard to individual rights were
incorporated. The epoch of independence was to be called the Colombian
epoch, and the first country to free itself from the bond of Spain was to
be called Colombia. Colombia (from the name of Columbus) was an ideal of
the South American patriots, and the greatest apostle of this ideal was
Bolívar, as will be readily seen by this study. Valencia was selected as
the capital, and in this city the government established itself on March 1,
1812.
The work of organizing the new government did not interrupt the royalist
activity in Venezuela nor the preparations made by Spain to suppress the
revolution. The East and the Orinoco valley were in constant agitation,
and we have seen that in the West, Coro and Maracaibo were on the side
of Spain, and their governors ready to send help to the enemies of
independence. Domingo Monteverde, a Spanish naval officer, had arrived in
Coro as a member of a Spanish contingent, and when the governor learned
that a royalist conspiracy was being prepared in a town called Siquisique,
he organized an expedition and gave command of the troops to Monteverde,
with instructions to help the conspirators. At that place more men joined
his troops. Transgressing the orders he had received, which were only
to occupy the town, Monteverde constituted himself head of the army and
advanced to fight the insurgents. Luck was undeservedly on his side. On
March 23, 1812, he defeated a small body of patriots.
The news of this defeat added to the effect of a natural catastrophe, which
came directly on the heels of it, and which was painted by the fanatic
royalists as a punishment of Heaven for the uprising. In the afternoon of
March 26, at a moment when the churches were filled with people, for it was
Holy Thursday, there occurred a violent earthquake in Venezuela. Caracas,
La Guaira and many other towns were reduced to ruins, and some small
dwellings entirely disappeared. It was pointed out that the towns punished
by the earthquake were those that had shown themselves as favoring
independence. Whole bodies of troops were buried. In a church of Caracas,
the coat-of-arms of Spain had been painted on one of the pillars, and the
earthquake destroyed the whole building with the exception of that one
pillar. Orators went out into the streets to proclaim that this was
unmistakably the result of divine anger because of the rebellion of the
people against Fernando VII, "the anointed of God."
In this cataclysm, Bolívar distinguished himself in Caracas, going hither
and thither among the ruins, counteracting with his words the effect of the
speeches of the royalists and assisting to dig out of the debris corpses
and the wounded, giving the latter first aid.
The advance of Monteverde was substantially helped by this earthquake. Many
soldiers of the patriots' army had died in their armories and others
on their way to fight the enemy and on parade grounds. All the patriot
government had was reduced to practically nothing in a moment. Monteverde
continued to advance eastward, and took the important town of Barquisimeto,
where he received a large contingent of men, who flocked to him fearful of
the divine anger. His lieutenants were meeting with success in different
fields and he himself soon entered the city of San Carlos.
On the 4th of April, there occurred a second earthquake which lasted eight
hours, and which destroyed the little remaining courage of those who were
not heart and soul with the movement of emancipation.
[Illustration: MAP TO FOLLOW BOLÍVAR'S CAMPAIGNS
(The boundary lines of Colombia are taken from Codazzi's Atlas, 1821-1823.
The other boundaries are taken from Rand McNally's Atlas, 1919.) **note:
illustration spans two pages.]
In the midst of these difficulties, the executive power appointed General
Francisco Miranda supreme commander of all the forces of the Republic, on
land and sea, and the government withdrew from Valencia to the town of La
Victoria, situated between Valencia and Caracas. Miranda went to Caracas to
obtain some resources, and while there associated Bolívar with him in the
army. Later, Miranda sent him to Puerto Cabello, while Monteverde seized
Valencia, the capital of the country.
Various events continued to favor Monteverde, and when Miranda came back
to besiege Valencia, Monteverde was so successful that the independent
military commander saw himself forced to take a defensive attitude instead
of an offensive one. From that moment, Miranda committed error after error,
all of which resulted in victories for the fortunate Spanish leader. The
patriots grew distrustful of their chief, who withdrew to La Victoria.
There he was attacked by Monteverde, but defeated him. This victory availed
the patriots little, for Miranda did not want to abandon his defensive
position. He had 12,000 men and could have destroyed his enemy, but he
preferred to wait. Meanwhile, Bolívar was requesting help to defend Puerto
Cabello, where there were deposited many provisions, and also to attack
Monteverde by the rear. Miranda refused assistance. Monteverde, upon being
defeated in a second attack on La Victoria, withdrew in the direction of
Puerto Cabello. Already one of the forts had hoisted the Spanish flag.
Monteverde was successful, and Bolívar sailed for La Guaira. The loss of
Puerto Cabello, and other facts which need not be mentioned here, decided
Miranda to capitulate, at a time when he was still stronger than his enemy.
The capitulation was ratified in La Victoria by Miranda on the 25th of
July, 1812. The following day Monteverde occupied the city and on the 30th
he entered Caracas.
All the patriots denounced Miranda for the capitulation, which meant the
dissolution of the army and the abandonment of all the elements which had
so raised their hopes.
Bolívar, who, ignorant of the capitulation, had arrived in Caracas on
his way to join Miranda, decided to return to La Guaira and to emigrate,
resolved never to submit to the Spanish rule. Before departing, he issued a
proclamation denouncing emphatically the action of Miranda, and the conduct
of Monteverde who had transgressed the laws of war by encouraging the
barbarous actions of the undisciplined crowds which, in the interior of
the country, were committing all kinds of atrocities. Monteverde had also
violated the articles of the capitulation stipulating that the lives and
properties of the inhabitants should be respected and that there should
follow a general oblivion of all past actions.
Bolívar was in La Guaira when Miranda arrived there with many other
officers who were escaping persecution from Monteverde. The generalissimo
intended to remain in La Guaira that night, sailing from there the
following day. That evening the most prominent men of the city assembled
and denounced the supreme commander for his conduct. Among the most bitter
judges of Miranda was Bolívar, the man who had asked the London exile to
return to Venezuela to work for liberty in his country. The word treachery
was uttered and all agreed to imprison Miranda, a culpable action performed
on the morning of July 31. That same day the port of La Guaira was closed
by order of Monteverde, and the most distinguished patriots who fell into
his hands were sent to prison, and cruel persecutions were exercised
everywhere. A committee of public safety was established and immediately
the prisons of Caracas and Puerto Cabello were filled with men, many of
whom died of suffocation. Into a dungeon in Puerto Cabello, a Spaniard
threw five flasks of alkali, thus causing the death by asphyxiation of all
the prisoners locked there.
The properties of the leading citizens were seized. It was enough to have
means of comfortable livelihood to be denounced as an enemy of Spain. The
most peaceful men were dragged from their homes, and the tears of wives and
children never moved to pity Monteverde's agents.
Miranda, a prisoner in Puerto Cabello, appealed in vain to the audiencia
against these crimes. From Puerto Cabello he was sent to Porto Rico and
finally to Cádiz, where he was locked in a fortress called la Carraca.
There he died on July 14, 1816, his remains being thrown with the corpses
of common criminals. Such was the end of the noble man who had been the
guest of Catherine II of Russia, a soldier of Washington and a general of
the French Republic. He spent his last days in a dungeon, chained to
the wall like a dog. Venezuela has erected in the Pantheon of Caracas a
beautiful marble monument in the shape of a coffin, the cover of which is
held open by the claws of a majestic eagle, waiting for the remains of the
great Venezuelan, who committed errors, it is true, but whose devotion to
his country has never been doubted and whose martyrdom, and the fortitude
with which he bore it, place him among the noblest characters of history.
Bolívar remained in La Guaira for a short while, but inactivity was
distasteful. Through the efforts of a Spanish friend, he obtained a
passport from Monteverde and left the port for Curaçao at the end of
August.
This action marks the end of the first part of Bolívar's life, his restless
youth, the preparation for struggles through sorrow and patient study, his
military training under Miranda, and the clarification in his mind of the
supreme purposes to which he was going to devote his life, no longer in a
secondary position, but as a leader, a commanding figure on the American
continent.