Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 1).djvu/335

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BOLIVAR
BOLLAN
307

ence of the South American republics, but in imposing his own ideas of government on the states he had created, but who now became infected with the growing republican reaction against centralized power, and were filled with distrust toward Bolivar. Six weeks after the adoption of the Bolivian code the Peruvian republicans hostile to Bolivar, with the support of the Colombian troops cantoned in Lima, deposed the council appointed by Bolivar, abolished the Bolivian code, and organized a provisional government. Gen. Lamar was chosen president of Peru, and the Colombian troops departed from her soil. Those stationed in Bolivia were expelled, with the aid of the Peruvians, and after a brief war a treaty was concluded between Colombia and Bolivia, by which the boundaries of the latter were extended to their original limits, its debt was separated from that of Colombia, and its complete independence and equality were recognized. The third division sailed from Callao on 17 March, 1827, and in April landed in southern Colombia. Bolivar, who was in the north, prepared to march against the rebellious soldiery; but the latter made no attempt to carry the revolution into Colombia, and quietly submitted to Gen. Ovando. The congress of Ocana met on 2 March, 1828. A new constitution, giving the executive stronger and more permanent authority, was submitted. When it was found that the majority was opposed to its adoption, the friends of Bolivar vacated their seats, leaving the body without a quorum. From his country-seat in the neighborhood of Ocaiia, Bolivar published an address, which, while reprehending the proceeding of his partisans, appealed to the country to support him in introducing stability aiid order. Popular conventions in Bogota, Caracas, and Carthagena called upon the liberator to adopt extraordinary means to establish tranquillity and security, and in August, 1828, he was invested by popular elections with dictatorial powers. The anti-Bolivar republicans entered into a conspiracy to assassinate the president. Vice-President Santander and the other leaders of the party were implicated in this crime. Bolivar was attacked in his bedroom in Bogota, 25 Sept., 1828, but escaped by leaping from the balcony and hiding from the murderers. The chief instigators were tried. Santander was convicted and condemned to banishment, and Gen. Padilla expiated with a felon's death his part in the plot. This occurrence prompted Bolivar to exercise more arbitrary powers, a course that augmented the popular suspicions of his aims and motives and the aversion to a military dictatorship. A decree was issued from Bogota, 27 Aug., 1828, by which Bolivar assumed unlimited authority in Colombia. It was at a time when party passion in Colombia was inflamed to an extraordinary degree that Pei-u, in 1829, declared war against the dictator of Colombia. Bolivar, in a new address to the people of Colombia, asked them to indicate their desires regarding the revision of the constitution. While he was marching against the Peruvians, an assembly in Caracas, on 25 Nov., 1829, condemned him for ambitious designs, declared the separation of Venezuela from Bolivia, and elected Paez president. In Colombia the senate adhered to the liberator ; but insurrections broke out in various places. In January, 1830, Bolivar for the fifth time resigned the presidency, but was again confirmed in his position by the general voice. He then undertook to compel Paez and the Venezuelan disunionists to submit to the Colombian congress. The congress, however, now contained a majority made up from his opponents, and it voted to accept his proffered resignation, granting him a pension of 8,000 dollars on condition of his residing abroad. The patriot leader sent in his final resignation to congress on 27 April, 1830, and left Bogota on 9 May with the intention of embarking for England from Carthagena; but his adherents induced him to remain in the country, and made ineffectual attempts to restore him to power. Suffering from the malady of which he died, he went to Santa Marta to visit the bishop of that see, who was his friend, and there breathed his last. In accordance with an act of the congress of New Granada, his remains were removed in 1842 to Caracas, where a monument was erected in his honor. In 1858 the city of Lima erected an equestrian statue of Bolivar, who was described in the inscription as the "liberator of the Peruvian nation." A statue of him, the gift of the government of Venezuela, was erected in 1883 in Central park. New York city. There is also a fine statue of him in Santa Fe de Bogata.

It was Bolivar's hope and ambition to unite the South American republics into a strong confederation. The congress that met at Panama in 1827, with the object of establishing an international code for the Latin republics, was set on foot by him. The example of Napoleon led him into acts too arbitrary and a policy too autocratic to please the independent temper of his compatriots. During the faction fights that prevailed in his lifetime he was a mark for virulent calumnies; but succeeding generations of South Americans have paid due honor to his memory. His lack of judgment and of coolness in the battle-field betrayed his military incapacity, and brought him at times into contempt and disrepute; yet the pertinacity and patience with which he clung to the cause of independence through every danger and discouragement revealed a noble order of courage. His sacrifices and sufferings, voluntarily undergone for the sake of the cause in which he engaged, are sufficient to disprove the charges brought against him of ignoble ambition and egotism. Of the accounts that have been published of the life of Bolivar, the "Histoire de Bolivar," by Gen. Ducoudrey-Holstein, continued down to his death by A. Viollet (Paris, 1831), was written with a hostile animus, and is full of baseless calumniation and misrepresentation. The "Vida del Libertador Simon Bolivar" (New York, 1866) is, on the other hand, an indiscriminate panegyric. See also "Memoirs of Gen. William Miller (in the Service of the Republic of Peru)" (2 vols., London, 1828) ; Col. Hippisley's "Account of his Journey to the Orinoco " (London, 1831). The publication of the correspondence of Bolivar, including his messages, manifestoes, and proclamations, preceded by his life, was begun in New York, and the first two volumes, containing the life, written in Spanish, by Felipe Larrazabal, appeared in 1871.


BOLL, Jacob, naturalist, b. in Switzerland, 29 May, 1828; d. in Wilbarger co., Texas, 29 Sept., 1880. He was a pupil of Louis Agassiz, and was employed by Edward D. Cope to go to Texas and examine the fossiliferous and iron deposits of that state, with a view to determining their geological character. He had been engaged in these studies six years when he died. Mr. Boll made many important discoveries in the formations that he explored. He was an expert naturalist, and a most successful collector in many departments of natural history, and wrote much on the subject.


BOLLAN, William, lawyer, b. in England; d. in Massachusetts in 1776. He was educated for