The Central Junta of Caracas responded by raising an army of 2,500 men; placed the Marquis Del Toro in command, and sent him against Coro, the head-quarters of the Royalist reaction. On the 28th November the army attacked the town, but was beaten off. Its retreat was intercepted by a division of 800 men, but it forced its way on and reached Caracas with heavy loss, harassed on the way by a hostile population.
When Miranda again landed on American soil he was sixty years of age. The people received him with ovations; Government appointed him lieutenant-general of their army; youthful citizens looked to him as the oracle of their future destinies; the soldiery regarded him as the herald of victory; yet at first his influence was not felt in public affairs.
Grave, taciturn, and dogmatic, with unflinching opinions formed in solitude, Miranda discussed nothing, though he sought to make proselytes. Government appointed him, with Roscio and Ustariz, republicans of the North American school, to draw up a plan for a Constitution on the basis of the federation of the Provinces. The old dreamer, who mixed up classic traditions with modern theories, sought to combine them with the worn-out institutions of the colonial epoch. According to his plan, the administration should be entrusted to two Incas (Roman consuls), appointed for ten years; the rest of the plan was modelled on the municipal institutions of the colonies. He was far behind the day in which he lived. To propagate his doctrines, and to foment the spirit of independence, he with Bolívar organized a political club on the model of that of the Girondins, of which he had been a conspicuous member.
The first Congress of Venezuela was convened on the 2nd March, 1811; thirty deputies from various Provinces were present, Miranda was one of them. This Congress appointed an Executive Junta of three members, created a High Court of Justice in place of the Audiencia; and named Roscio, Ustariz, and Tobar commissioners to draw up a Constitution. The question of independence was then discussed. Miranda, who was the leading advocate of an immediate declaration, carried the measure, by a majority, on the 5th July. The same day the flag raised by Miranda in 1806, stripes of yellow, blue, and red, was adopted as the national ensign of Venezuela. Thus Venezuela was the first independent republic in South America.
Many of the inhabitants of Caracas were natives of the Canary Islands. Among them the agents of Cortabarria found the leaders for a reactionary movement, which broke out on the 11th July. The insurgents were quickly surrounded by the populace, aided by a part of the garrison, and compelled to surrender. The greater part of those taken in arms were banished, but the leaders were put to death and their heads were exposed on the public roads; sad presage of the war of extermination which was to deluge the soil of Venezuela with blood.
On the same day a more formidable outbreak took place at Valencia. The inhabitants armed, as they said, in the cause of religion, and entrenched the city. An army corps under Del Toro marched against them, but was beaten off, on which Miranda was placed in command. A strong outwork was carried by assault, but the army was again repulsed in an attack on the great square. Bolívar and Del Toro were both present in this affair.
Miranda, after receiving a reinforcement, again attacked the city. Proceeding more cautiously, he gradually shut up the Royalists in the great square, where want of water soon compelled them to surrender at discretion. This short campaign cost the Patriots 800 men in killed alone, but Miranda did not sully his victory by bloodshed, and Congress released all the prisoners, an act of clemency which was severely blamed, in view of the severity with which the Canarians of Caracas had been treated.
The debate on the Constitution produced a lengthy discussion in Congress. A plan drawn up by Ustariz, which was an adaptation of the Constitution of the United States, was adopted almost unanimously, but Miranda voted against it, alleging that a Federal Constitution was not suited to the country.
Valencia was declared the capital of the new Republic.
Congress being in want of funds, had issued a paper currency for the payment of their employés of all classes; its rapid depreciation in value brought about a state of misery and discontent which enervated the spirit of the revolution.