The young men talked of the dagger of Brutus, but an attempt to assassinate him failed, and the principal conspirators died on the gibbet. Santander, who had joined the conspiracy but had opposed the assassination, was sent into exile.
The Columbian troops which had mutinied in Peru brought civil war to Guayaquil. Rebellion broke out in the Province of Pasto. Bolívar declared war against Peru. Peru sent a fleet and an army and captured Guayaquil.[23] Their army was defeated by Sucre, but Bolívar, after losing 3,000 men in the marshes in an attempt to retake the city, made peace.
Bolívar had appealed in vain to the Ministers of the United States and of Great Britain to interfere for the prevention of anarchy. He now proposed to Colonel Campbell, the British chargé d’affaires, to appoint a Prince of some one of the reigning families of Europe King of Columbia. Many of the chief dignitaries of Bogotá accepted this idea, and came to an understanding on the point with Messrs Campbell and Bresson, the diplomatic agents of Great Britain and France, but Bolívar, three months after he knew of this, suddenly told them in September, 1829, that the idea could not be carried out, and that it was necessary to separate Venezuela from Columbia.
The idea of a monarchy found no acceptance with the people. On the 14th September a rebellion, headed by General Cordoba, broke out at Antioquia, but was crushed, and Cordoba was brutally murdered. At the end of this year, Venezuela declared herself an independent Republic, under the Presidency of General Paez, and pronounced sentence of perpetual exile against Bolívar.
On the 30th January, 1830, Bolívar convened at Bogotá the Constituent Congress he had promised, and concluded his message:—
“I blush to say that independence is the only good thing we have gained by the sacrifice of all else.”
He then retired to his country-house at Fucha; nevertheless a party, strong both in Congress and among the people, desired his re-election, and he for some time expected it, but seeing that the bulk even of his old friends opposed it, he on the 27th April sent in a formal resignation, couched in very simple terms, which was accepted.
Don Joaquin Mosquera, leader of the Liberal party, was elected President, but Congress decreed that Bolívar “was the first and best citizen of Columbia,” and assigned him a pension of 30,000 dollars a year, for his great wealth had all disappeared.
EPILOGUE.
POSTERITY has pronounced judgment upon the two liberators of South America, upon San Martin and upon Bolívar.