THE CONVENTION OF RANCAGUA.
1820
The army of Cadiz, decimated by yellow fever, was for sanitary reasons
dispersed. On the 1st January, 1820, Don Rafael del Riego, Colonel of
the regiment of Asturias, then in quarters at the village Cabezas de San
Juan, proclaimed in front of his regiment the constitution of the year
XII., opening an era of liberty for his own country, and putting an end
to an era of war in America. The revolution triumphed, the King was
forced to swear the constitution, and, by common accord between the
people and the government, a new policy was inaugurated in regard to the
insurgent colonies, one that sought to solve peacefully the question
which the appeal to arms had only made more complicated.
It was at this juncture that San Martin by his disobedience saved from
destruction in the vortex of civil war the one army which could secure
the emancipation of America. San Martin crossed the Andes carried in a
litter, but it was not in mineral baths that he sought the cure for his
rheumatism and neuralgia; that cure he sought and found in the active
prosecution of the plan which lay at his heart.
Immediately on his arrival in Chile, he proceeded to concert measures
with O’Higgins for the despatch of the expedition. He offered to bring
over from Mendoza 2,000 men and ten guns, but terrible news soon
reached him. The mutiny of the Army of the North had been followed two
days after by a similar mutiny in the 1st battalion light infantry of
his own army, then in quarters at San Juan.
San Martin thought he had secured Cuyo from the anarchy that prevailed
by the presence of his disciplined troops, but when distinguished
officers of his own army and of that of Belgrano headed mutineers and
joined hands with Gaucho chieftains, he saw that the elements of order
were dissolved. The Army of the North, under command of General Cruz,
was on the march to join Rondeau, when in the Province of Santa Fé it
made a truce with the Gaucho levies, styled “montoneras,” and retreated
to Cordoba, and there established a new system of military rule,
withdrawing itself both from the civil war and from the war of
emancipation.
The battalion quartered at San Juan was in reality a small _corps
d’armée_, having both artillery and cavalry attached to it. It numbered
900 men and was under the command of Colonel Sequeira, a gallant
officer, but a martinet who was greatly disliked by his men. At daybreak
on the 9th January the men, headed by their sergeants, silently left
their barracks, occupied the Plaza, and made a party of the civic guard
prisoners, killing the officer; while the Colonel and some of his
officers were left in the barracks under guard of a company. Some
disaffected officers then took command, shouting, “Viva la Federacion!”
and “Down with the tyrant!” but they had no plan of action, and soon
quarrelled amongst themselves, and the Colonel and the officers who were
with him were murdered. Alvarado marched against them from Mendoza, but
fearing to trust his own men went back again. San Martin sent offers of
pardon, which were rejected; the spirit of anarchy prevailed everywhere.
The Governor of Cuyo and his deputy both resigned. The mutinous
battalion soon after dispersed, and the Province of San Juan declared
itself an independent state. Alvarado then, in obedience to orders from
San Martin, joined him in Chile with 1,000 cavalry and two guns, leaving
Godoy Cruz as Governor of Mendoza.
On the 1st February, 1820, the Army of Buenos Ayres was totally defeated
at Cepeda by the Montonera horsemen. Congress was soon after dissolved,
and the nation split up into fragments, of which each one was a small
republic, and most of them fell under the rule of petty chieftains. From
this chaos was presently to rise up a new people, with well-defined
divisions and with one national spirit. For a time the Army of the Andes
obeyed no superior authority, but it still upheld the Argentine flag on
foreign soil, and followed the lead of its own General.
Such being the state of affairs, San Martin, on the 28th January, wrote
officially to O’Higgins, asking him if he could still dispose of 6,000
men for the expedition, but stating that 4,000 were absolutely
necessary. O’Higgins replied that he could promise 4,000 only, fully
equipped. San Martin agreed that they should march under the Chilian
flag, but stipulated that the Army of the Andes should carry its own, as
representing the United Provinces.
Thus San Martin took upon himself the “terrible responsibility” of
disposing of Argentine troops and military stores, without any authority
so to do from his own government. In order to relieve himself in some
measure of this responsibility, he convened a meeting of the officers of
the Army of the Andes, then in cantonments at Rancagua, under the
Presidency of Las Heras. He himself was not present, but a letter from
him was read, which showed that as the Government from which he derived
his commission no longer existed, the army was _de facto_ without a
General, and called upon them to appoint one, to whom he offered his
services in any capacity.
San Martin had requested them to vote without discussion, but Colonel
Martinez and several officers opposed this, on the ground that the
commission of General-in-Chief was granted for a specific purpose which
was not yet accomplished, and was therefore not cancelled by the fall of
the Government by which it had been conferred. In these terms a document
was drawn up and signed by all the officers.
Las Heras, in writing to San Martin an account of the result of the
meeting, expressed his great surprise that he should have given him such
a task, and said that many of his best friends felt themselves greatly
aggrieved at the proposition, as the commissions of all of them were
derived from the same authority as that of the General-in-Chief. Thus
the army endorsed the disobedience of their General, an act which under
any other leader would have had a most evil effect upon its discipline.
While the preparations of the Chilian Government went slowly forward a
new difficulty arose. Cochrane, proud of his recent triumph in Valdivia,
aspired to the command-in-chief of the expedition to Peru. Devoid as he
was of all political talent, a more unfit leader for such an enterprise
it would have been difficult to find. Peru was not to be conquered, it
was to be liberated; he thought only of conquest. He might have won a
battle, but he would never have founded a nation. His dream seems to
have been inspired by the examples of Drake and Anson, who made great
profit by gallant feats of arms; he purposed to enrich himself and his
sailors by plundering the coasts of Peru. San Martin was an American,
and thought only of his great purpose, nothing of its results to
himself. On the 6th May, 1820, San Martin was appointed by the Senate
and by the popular vote, Generalissimo of the expedition.
Still Cochrane insisted, and several times sent in his resignation.
Government was about to appoint Guise to the command of the fleet, as
Spry and many others of the English officers preferred him to Cochrane,
but this was prevented by the intervention of San Martin, and the proud
sailor at last submitted, though with a bad grace, after another
fruitless attempt to supplant San Martin by Freyre. The Chilian
Government was not to be led astray by national susceptibility, and knew
that no Chilian officer could compare with San Martin in military
capacity.
San Martin knew the importance of a thorough understanding between
himself and the Admiral, and went to visit him at Valparaiso, but in
spite of his friendly overtures there was never much cordiality between
them.
The presence of San Martin and his army was not only a great burden to
the Chilian treasury, but it was also a political peril, of which
Government was well aware. Party spirit was only kept in check by the
danger which menaced the country from Peru, and personal ambition would
impel party leaders to seek the aid of so powerful an auxiliary so long
as it was at hand. The Government of Chile in sending off the
expedition, thus performed a deed of heroism which was not only
conducive to their own security as a nation, and was worthy of the
gratitude of America, but was also one that saved the political
situation in their own country.
[Illustration: II.--MAP OF THE VICEROYALTY OF PERU, INCLUDING UPPER
PERU.]