_Friends and Foes. Sucre's Assassination. The Lees of Bitterness. An
Upright Man's Death_
(1830)
Bolívar prepared to go to Cartagena, where he intended to sail for Jamaica
or Europe. His melancholy was relieved by a message from Quito, in which
the most prominent citizens asked him to select as his residence that city,
where he was respected and admired. "Come," they said, "to live in our
hearts and to receive the homage of gratitude and respect due to the genius
of America, the Liberator of a world." The Bishop of Quito, Monsignor
Rafael Lasso, also sent a communication, in his own name and in the name of
the clergy, endorsing the petition. Bolívar did not accept this invitation.
On May third, the constitution of Colombia was signed, and on the following
day don Joaquín Mosquera and General Domingo Caicedo were elected President
and Vice-President of Colombia, respectively. Bolívar showed his pleasure
at the result, and uttered the following words:
"I am reduced to the private life which I have so much desired
if the Congress wants any special proof of my blind obedience to the
constitution and the laws, I am ready to give whatever may be asked."
He left the palace and went to live in a private residence. There he
received a delegation of the principal citizens of Bogotá, who placed in
his hands a beautiful document containing the following words, especially
worthy of notice:
"You conquered the plane upon which our future happiness will be built
and, believing yourself to be an obstacle to that happiness, you resign
voluntarily the first authority, protesting never again to take the
reins of government. Such a noble, generous and magnanimous action
places you above heroes. History has its pages filled with the actions
of brave soldiers and fortunate warriors, but it can make them
beautiful only with the actions of a Washington or a Bolívar. In
private life, you will receive unmistakable proofs of our devotion to
your person. We shall always remember your merits and services, and we
shall teach our children to pronounce your name with tender emotions of
admiration and gratitude."
This document was signed on May 5, 1830, by Caicedo, the Vice-President, in
the exercise of the executive power, the Archbishop of Bogotá, the members
of the Cabinet and 2,000 distinguished citizens. Three days later, Bolívar
left Bogotá, accompanied for six miles by the members of the Cabinet, the
ministers of the diplomatic corps, many military men and citizens, and
almost all the members of the foreign colonies. The following day, Congress
passed a decree which is an honor to it and to Bolívar, by which homage of
gratitude and admiration was paid him in the name of Colombia, and it was
ordered that wherever Bolívar might choose to live he should be treated
always with the respect and consideration due the first and best citizen
of Colombia. In that same decree, it was ordered that a pension of 30,000
pesos per year, decreed to Bolívar in 1823, be punctually paid for life.
Among the many sad things which can be told of this man of sorrows, is the
fact that this pension was sorely needed. In March of that year he had been
forced to sell his silver, and even then did not have enough money to pay
for his trip.
On his way to the Caribbean, Bolívar received homage in all the towns
he entered. He advised everybody to respect the law and to obey the
government. Every day saw him poorer. His personal fortune in Venezuela had
been greatly diminished, and possessions left to him by his ancestors were
involved in litigation. Consequently, he could count on very little. He
had planned to sail from Cartagena, but was unable to do so. From there he
endeavored to secure some money from his relatives in Caracas, in which
effort he failed.
While in Cartagena he received news of several insurrections in favor of
the integrity of Colombia and of himself as head of the nation. Bolívar
refused to heed these calls, and continued his life of poverty, embittered
and saddened by the news received that Antonio José de Sucre, his beloved
friend and lieutenant, the hero of Pichincha and Ayacucho, had been
murdered on his way to Quito, on the 4th of June, while crossing a mountain
called Berruecos. It is difficult to conceive how Sucre could have had
enemies, he who was perhaps the purest and kindest figure of all the
American War of Independence, all generosity, forgiveness and benevolence.
He was riding alone when shot from an ambush. His orderly, who was at some
distance behind him, rushed to the scene only to find that Sucre was dead.
His corpse remained there that afternoon and all night. On the following
day the soldier buried him in the forest.[1]
[Footnote 1: Sucre's body was lost for a long while. In the Pantheon of
Caracas there are three beautiful monuments: the one in the center contains
Bolívar's ashes; the one to the right, which we have already described, is
devoted to Miranda; the one to the left is devoted to Sucre, and contains
an expression of hope that some day Venezuela can pay homage to her great
son. The body of Sucre has been found at last in Quito, and it is expected
that very soon it will occupy its place near Bolívar, Sucre's leader and
friend. (See: Manuel Segundo Sánchez, Los Restos de Sucre, Caracas, 1918.)]
That news was perhaps the last blow to Bolívar. The day he received it he
was attacked with a severe cold, which he neglected and which developed
into his fatal illness, an illness which had been long latent in his frail
body. He remarked that the murder had perturbed his spirit. As a matter of
fact, from the day he received the news, he sank rapidly in both mind and
body.
Venezuela was doing her best to thrust the dagger still deeper in Bolívar's
heart. Since she had decided to withdraw from the Union, it was resolved
by Congress that no negotiations should be exchanged between Venezuela and
Nueva Granada while "General Simón Bolívar remains in the territory of old
Colombia." One representative proposed, as a provision for the continued
relations between Venezuela and Nueva Granada, the expulsion of General
Bolívar from all the territory of Colombia, and his motion was accepted.
Most of the former friends of the dying man were now his bitter enemies,
all due to the ambition of Páez and the intrigues of his partisans and of
those who, in good faith, believed that idealistic Repúblican principles
could meet the practical needs of Colombia.
The President of Colombia, Mosquera, committed so many errors in government
that he lost his prestige and was forced to leave Bogotá. The government
then passed into the hands of Caicedo. A military insurrection overthrew
the President and the Vice-President, and the military element proclaimed
Bolívar chief of the republic, granting him full powers. General Urdaneta,
old friend and constant companion of Bolívar, was entrusted provisionally
with the executive power, and he organized a cabinet. He at once sent a
commission to meet the Libertador in Cartagena. Many friends wrote Bolívar
beseeching him to return to Bogotá to establish public order. The foreign
representatives also used their influence to induce Bolívar to accept
authority, for he was the only guaranty of peace.[1]
[Footnote 1: Among the foreign representatives who showed pleasure at the
idea of Bolívar's accepting the power was the representative of the United
States.
It is worthy of notice that the reputation of Bolívar as an ambitious man
was discredited in the State Department at Washington by the very
person thought to be its originator. When Watts was in Bogotá, in his
correspondence with Clay (No. 19, Nov. 28, 1826), he asserted that he did
not believe in the anti-Repúblicanism of Bolívar, who had consolidated the
departments and acted with prudence and discretion. Watts expressed his
firm conviction that Bolívar would not act as dictator but in conformity
with the constitution, stating also the fact that Bolívar had refused the
Bolivian and Peruvian dictatorships. In his communication of March 2, 1827
(No. 26), Watts denies the rumors of the monarchial ambitions of Bolívar,
and says that he has nothing but the greatest magnanimity. On March 15,
Watts himself asked Bolívar to assume power.
All these stories of disinterestedness seem to be contradicted in the
correspondence of Harrison and Van Buren. In his note of May 27, 1829 (No.
13), Harrison speaks of monarchical plots, expressing his belief that
Bolívar is behind them, founding his assertions only on the opposition of
Bolívar to foreign princes. He is very free in speaking of _plans_, but he
gives no precise data about them. In his note of July 28, 1829 (No. 18),
Harrison states that the monarchists are determined to put Bolívar on the
throne, and adds that he saw a letter of "_a man in high position_ who
has enjoyed the entire confidence of Bolívar, but who is now in complete
opposition to all his schemes of personal aggrandizement." Bolívar,
according to this letter, intended to become the monarch of Colombia, Perú
and Bolivia. Then Harrison mentions the printing of a paper on the evils of
free government, and states that that paper, of which he had seen a single
copy, had the purpose of making propaganda in favor of Bolívar, but had
been suppressed for fear that it would injure Bolívar's cause. All this
sounds very much like personal hostility, and shows that the practice of
some diplomatic representatives of making trouble for the countries
where they are accredited instead of representing their own country in a
dignified manner is not new.
After the correspondence of Harrison, we find the papers of Moore to Van
Buren. In No. 10 of December 21, 1829, Moore affirms that Bolívar had no
monarchical designs and encloses a letter of Bolívar to O'Leary, ridiculing
monarchical government. That letter is dated August 21, 1829, and in it
Bolívar suggests the election of another president. Moore accuses Harrison
of insulting the Colombian government. The author is indebted to Dr. Julius
Goebel, Jr., for the references to these papers.]
Bolívar, declining to accept command of the insurrection and condemning the
movement, sent General O'Leary to the assembly provisionally organized
to advise them to use the right of petition and to inform them that he
condemned all other actions. He reiterated his offer to serve as a citizen
and as a soldier, and repeated that he would not accept any position except
as the majority of the people willed. In a letter to Urdaneta he said that
between him and the presidency there was "a bronze wall," which was the
law. He advised them to wait until the election could be held, and said
that he would then assume the executive power in case he were chosen in
free elections held according to the law. This letter was the last public
defense of his career. The last principle he sought to establish was the
most sound of Repúblican principles.
"The source of legality," he wrote, "is the free will of the people;
not the agitation of a mutiny nor the votes of friends."
From Cartagena he went to a town called Soledad, and then to Barranquilla,
where he remained during October and November, receiving daily news of the
insults with which Venezuela was rewarding his services, and knowing very
little of the good work of his friends, for he still had friends in several
sections of the countries he had set free. All Nueva Granada was in favor
of his assuming power as supreme chief of the republic. Ecuador proclaimed
him father of his country and protector of Southern Colombia, and the
government of Bolivia, learning that he was going to Europe, decided to
appoint him its ambassador to the Holy See.
But Bolívar was preparing for his last voyage. He planned to go to Santa
Marta, where his friends urged him to rest. His physician heartily
approved, thinking that there his health might improve. When he arrived
at Santa Marta, on the 1st of December, he had to be carried in a chair.
Subsequent to an examination by a French and an American physician, he was
sent to a country place called San Pedro Alejandrino, situated about three
miles from Santa Marta, where he obtained temporary relief. On the 10th
there were symptoms of congestion of the brain, but they disappeared. The
same day he drafted his will and, not desiring to die without speaking
again to his fellow citizens, issued his last proclamation, which read as
follows:
"Colombians, you have witnessed my efforts to establish freedom where
tyranny formerly reigned. I have worked unselfishly, giving up my
fortune and my tranquillity. I resigned the command when I was
convinced that you did not trust my disinterestedness. My foes availed
themselves of your credulity and trampled upon what is most sacred to
me--my reputation as a lover of freedom. I have been a victim of my
persecutors, who have led me to the border of the tomb. I forgive them.
"Upon disappearing from your midst, my love prompts me to express my
last wishes. I aspire to no other glory than the consolidation of
Colombia; all must work for the invaluable blessing of union; the
peoples, obeying the present government, in order to free themselves
from anarchy; the ministers of the Sanctuary, by sending prayers
to Heaven; and the soldiers, by using their swords to protect the
sanctions of social order.
"Colombians, my last wishes are for the happiness of our country. If my
death can help to destroy the spirit of partisanship, and strengthen
union, I shall tranquilly descend to my grave."
After this act he became delirious and, calling his servant, he said:
"Joseph, let us go away. They are throwing us out of here. Where shall we
go?" On the 17th of December, at one o'clock in the afternoon, the great
man of the South, one of the greatest men in the history of the world,
died. On that same day, eleven years before, in Angostura, Colombia had
been created by his genius. He died at the age of forty-seven and one-half
years.
"Few men have lived such a beautiful life in the whirlpool of action;
nobody has died a more noble death in the peace of his bed."[1]
[Footnote 1: Bolívar--J.E. Rodó.]
His death was the end of Colombia.
For twelve years his remains rested in Santa Marta, and then they were
carried to Caracas, where they now lie in the Pantheon, between two empty
coffins, that of Miranda on his right and that destined for Sucre on his
left.
There the Venezuelans honor him as the protecting genius of their country.
They have blotted from the memory of man the ingratitude of their
forefathers. They live in constant veneration of the great man, and
consider him as the creator and protector of their country, and the
greatest source of inspiration to live austerely and united within
Venezuela, since they cannot form a part of that greater country, the dream
of which went with Bolívar to his tomb.
A patriot, a general as great as the greatest who ever lived, a statesman
possessing an exceptional wisdom and a vision which has been justified by a
century of American history, a loyal friend, a man of generous and liberal
nature, always forgiving, always opening his arms wide to his enemies,
always giving all that he had in material wealth and in spiritual gifts,
a conqueror of the oppressors of his country, a founder of three nations
(which later were converted into five, by the disruption of Colombia); the
man who consolidated the independence of America, making his power felt as
far as the provinces of the River Plata and Chile; a symbol of freedom,
even in Europe where his name was like a flag to all those who fought
oppression; a sincere Repúblican--all this was Simón Bolívar, and he was
something more. He was the best personification of his own race, the
Spanish race, which made him the brother of Morillo, Latorre and Rodil, a
race which lives in twenty nations of the earth and in whose memory all
names now stand equal, if they represent the same principles, whether they
were written in Covadonga or Carabobo, by the sword of Pelayo or by the
sword of Bolívar.
A man who writes of Bolívar's life, actions and sorrows, can hardly retain
the serenity of the historian, but surrenders to that deep emotion composed
of profound awe and human love, and, though his work may have been begun
impersonally, it ends with the creation in his heart of those deep feelings
which at times have no better expression than tears.