SAN MARTIN.
General of Argentine, Liberator of Chile, and Protector of Peru.
San Martin, stoical and silent, yielded to the impetuosity of Bolivar, abandoned Peru to him, the theatre of his future deeds of prowess, renounced his position (1822), and left America. His ambition, like his genius, was circumscribed; he preferred military glory to dictatorships; he believed in the benefits of foreign monarchies: he could organise armies, but he was powerless before anarchy.
Bolivar is the greatest of the American liberators. He surpasses some in ambition, others in heroism, and all in multiform activity, in prophetic insight, and in power. He was, amid the glorious generals and rival caudillos, the hero of Carlyle, "source of light, of intimate and native originality, virility, nobility, and heroism, in contact with whom every soul feels that it is in its element." All powers yielded to him. "Often," writes General Santander, "I go to him full of rancour, and only to see him disarms me, and I go away full of admiration." The people, with an infallible instinct, understood his heroic mission and worshipped him; the clergy praised him, and the glory of Bolivar was sung in the Catholic churches. He was statesman and warrior; he could criticise Olmedo's ode on the battle of Junin, decide the make-up of a journal, draw a plan of battle, organise legions, draft statutes, give diplomatic advice, and direct great campaigns; his genius was as rich and as various as that of Napoleon. Five nations, which he had snatched from the rule of Spain, seemed to him a narrow theatre for his magnificent career; he conceived a vast plan of Continental federation. At Panama he assembled the ambassadors of ten republics, and was already dreaming of an amphictyonic league of nations which should influence the destinies of the world.
Simon Bolivar was born at Caracas on the 24th of July, 1783, of a noble family of Vascongadas. In his youth he travelled through Europe in company with his tutor, Simon Rodriguez: an austere mentor. He studied the Latin classics, Montesquieu, Rousseau, Holbach, and the Encyclopædists. Before his tutor, at Rome, on the Monte Sacro, he swore, like Hannibal of old, to consecrate his life to the liberation of his native country. He was nervous, impetuous, sensual—traits of the American Creole of the South; active and persevering in his undertakings, as an heir to the tenacity of the Biscayan should be; generous to a fault, and valiant to the verge of folly. He had the bearing and the features of a typical caudillo; the forehead high, the back straight; a luminous glance that impressed both friends and enemies, a resolute air, and eloquent gestures. His was a nature shaped for action, unhesitating and immediate; he had the face and the genius of an Imperator. At Caracas, after his long years of travel, he kept his Roman oath. From 1813 to 1830 he fought against the Spaniards and against his own generals, indefatigable in his task of liberation. Two terrible Iberian warriors, Boves and Morillo, carried "war to the death" into Venezuela. Bolivar opposed them, aided by Bermudez Piar, Mariño, and Paez, lieutenants alternately for and against him during his warlike career. In the Antilles he made ready for many expeditions. He was appointed supreme leader, provisional president, and director of the country; his generals doubted him, were jealous of his fame, and conspired against his authority, but Bolivar continued the war in the midst of the anarchy of Colombia.
BOLIVAR IN 1810.
He routed the Spaniards at Boyaca in 1819, and at Carabobo in 1821, and entered Caracas victorious. Colombia liberated, he turned to Quito. One of his lieutenants, Sucre, a man heroic and noble as the heroes of antiquity, won fresh battles at Bombona and Pinchincha (1822). Peru appealed to the Liberator, to "Bolivar, the hero of America."