An address of Bolivar at the Congress of Angostura (February 15, 1819) Reprint ordered by the government of the United States of Venezuela, to commemorate the centennial of the opening of the Congress

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AN ADDRESS OF BOLIVAR

AT THE

CONGRESS OF ANGOSTURA

(FEBRUARY 15, 1819)

Reprint ordered by the Government of the
United States of Venezuela, to Commemorate the Centennial

of the Opening of the Congress

(Translated from the Original Spanish by Francisco Javier Yanes)

PRESS OF
BYRON 8S, ADAMS
WASHINGTON, D, C.

DECREE
AUTHORIZING THE PRESENT EDITION OF THE
ADDRESS OF BOLIVAR

AT THE CONGRESS OF ANGOSTURA

DOCTOR V. MARQUEZ BUSTILLOS

PROVISIONAL PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC

Whereas:
The 15th day of February, 1919, is the anniversary of the First
Centenary of the meeting of the Second National Congress of Venezuela,
known in history as the Congress of Angostura; and

Whereas:

The Congress of Angostura established the juridical status of the
Revolution; reconstructed its international person, and in giving it the
prestige of constitutional institutions, prepared at the same time for the
expansion of its work of liberation in the South American continent;

and
Whereas:

No document whatsoever can express more fully the scope of the
task intrusted to the Congress of Angostura or the transcendental value
of the ideas of the Liberator in calling it together, than the famous
Address of the Liberator on the very day of its opening meeting;

Be it decreed:

Article 1. That a Spanish and an English edition of the Address of
the Liberator on the opening of the Congress of Angostura be published
as a part of the commemoration by the Government of the United States
of Venezuela of the centennial anniversary of the illustrious Assembly.

Article 2. Each edition shall consist of five thousand copies and each
is to contain a portrait of the Liberator; this present decree; a com-
mentary on the political ideas of Bolivar and the importance of said
Congress; a photographic reproduction of the building where the As-
sembly met, and a fac-simile reproduction of the copy of the Correo del
Orinoco in which the beginning and the end of this historic document
were printed for the first time.

Article 3. The expenses involved in the execution of this decree
shall be defrayed by the National Treasury, as required by law.

Article 4. The present decree shall be countersigned by all the Min-
isters of the Executive, the Ministers of Interior Relations and of Finance
being hereby intrusted with the execution thereof.

Given, signed and sealed with the Seal of the Federal Executive and
countersigned by the Ministers of Interior Relations, Foreign Relations,
Finance, War and Navy, Improvements, Public Works, and Public In-
struction, in the Federal Palace at Caracas, on the nineteenth day of the
month of December, of the year one thousand, nine hundred and
eighteen, 109th of the Independence and 60th of the Federation.

Vv. MARQUEZ BUSTILLOS.

Countersigned:

The Minister of Interior Relations, Iq@Nacio ANDRADE.
Countersigned :

The Minister of Foreign Relations, B. Mosquera.
Countersigned:

The Minister of Finance, RomAN CARDENAS.
Countersigned:

The Minister of War and Navy, C, JIMENEZ REBOLLEDO.
Countersigned:

The Minister of Improvements, G. TorREs.
Countersigned:

The Minister of Public Works, Luis VELEz.
Countersigned:

The Minister of Public Instruction, R. GONZALEZ RINCONES.

BOLIVAR IN 1819
BY THE RUMANIAN PAINTER, SAMYS MUTZNER

THE POLITICAL IDEAS OF BOLIVAR

AT THE

CONGRESS OF ANGOSTURA

THE POLITICAL IDEAS OF BOLIVAR AT THE
CONGRESS OF ANGOSTURA

From its earliest inception the Revolution of Venezuela tended un-
consciously as well as instinctively, towards clearly defined ideas:
absolute independence, a republican form of government, community
of interests with all other countries and the closest touch with European
culture.

Documents relating to the Revolution, both from Miranda and from
the revolutionary leaders of 1797, 1808 and 1810, prove that the aims of
the leading men capable of conceiving and achieving the political and
economic transformation of the Colony, were more far-reaching than
a mere change of authorities.

Scarcely free from the rule of the Captain General, the members of
the Venezuelan Colony, although invoking, as a matter of form, the
rights of Ferdinand VII, proceeded in fact to carry out substantial re-
forms in the political and economic life of the country. They broke
away from old prejudices, opened up a new field to the aspirations of
the popular classes, even encouraging and fostering their desires; they
acted as if they felt thoroughly at home; they performed acts of sover-
eignty; they initiated Latin-American diplomacy by sending represen-
tatives to New Grenada, the United States and Great Britain, and gave
evident proof, in the most solemn manner, of their sentiments of
solidarity with the other Spanish colonies of America.

These facts, however, may be considered as not yet clothed with the
prestige of Law. But the First Congress of Venezuela set its seal on the
process by the well considered declaration of independence of Vene-
zuela, and the Constitution of 1811, its immediate result, endowed the
new born State with all the attributes of a regular government. A new

10 BOLIVAR’S ADDRESS

act was thus accomplished in the history of the Spanish Colonies in
America. On the American Continent, besides the United States, there
was now another constituted nation having the form and the essence of
all Free States, such as separate and definite powers, citizens-rights,
and an electoral system for securing the necessary change of the authori-
ties. Thus the Republic of the United Provinces of Venezuela came into
being.

The first Constitution of Venezuela was the expression of the mind
of the men of letters in whom the thought and the spirit of the Revolu-
tion dwelt. An evidence of the genuineness of their intentions, it was
a digest of the most beautiful principles of democratic doctrines, and in
theory, a monument of political and social progress, which might have
been deemed inconceivable in Spanish America. It was, however, the
fruit of doctrinal speculation without the clarifying assistance of ex-
perience. Put to the test by subsequent events, it could not survive on
the angry waves that the Revolution had stirred up in the heretofore
almost dormant sea of the Colony. The rural and illiterate classes, hay-
ing been called by rights and, above all in fact, to a decisive activity,
while acting in accordance with their instinct and ignorance, far from
being the foundation of the Republic, became the direct instrument of
its destruction. The new democracy perished by the action of its own
internal forces, rather than because of its enemies from without.

“A son of Caracas escaped from its ruins, physical and political”
at Cartagena de Indias, with that clear vision which ever was the guid-
ing star of his purpose, analyzed the causes of the crumbling down of
his country, and looking ahead, just as he always did until his death,
for the interests of America, he warned the other colonies which were on
the road to emancipation, of the dangers to which the sad experience
of Venezuela clearly pointed. That very same son of Caracas becoming
later through the power of his genius the Armed Leader of the Revolu-
tion, patterned his political action on the counsel he had so clearly
stated in his “Manifest of Cartagena.” While feeling the most profound
respect for the ideal aspirations of a perfect democracy he did not
lose sight for a moment of the well established fact that when idealiza-
tion misses contact with reality, failure ensues, and what is much worse,
the prestige of those very ideals is lost, for the success of which an
ineffectual struggle has been waged.

Above all, he was always guided by the principle that anarchy does
not lead to liberty; that the first condition of success lies in harmonious
efforts, and that such a goal could not be reached except through a
powerful authority, giving the Republic unity of will and unity of pur-

CONGRESS OF ANGOSTURA 11

pose. Such was the political and military work of Bolivar from 1813 to
1819; to master the anarchical attempts of the idealistic patriots who
overlooked reality, and to master the anarchical attempts of the patriotic
leaders who sacrificed the ideals of the revolution to their personal
viewpoint. Bolivar is the great Unifier, and when the task had been
done, we find the idealists and men of action all united, those of the
East with those of the South, the Center and the West. And when the
Revolution had achieved the dream of unification, and all were agreed
as to its final purpose, it was then, and only then, that Bolivar deems the
time ripe to reecommence—as a basis, and at the same time, as a sign
of the normal era which the Republic was triumphantly approaching—
the onward march of republican institutions, and thus convokes the
Second Venezuelan Congress, which was to meet in the historic city of
Angostura.

With all the authority obtained at the cost of numberless sacrifices,
firm in his belief, justified by six years’ experience, Bolivar expresses
once more the same fundamental ideas of the Manifesto of Cartagena
and the Kingston Letter. This is a decisive moment for the fate of the
young nation. Was there to be a repetition of those errors springing
from a generous spirit which had already proved to be incapable of
protecting and fostering the onward march of the Revolution; or was
the new era of regular government to rely on the wealth of experience
gained through contrast, sacrifice and failure? It would have been an
unpardonable mistake to fall a prey to the same disappointing illusions
of the Republic’s first legislators. Eight years of strenuous life in the
midst of the hardships of a war which did not tolerate indifference nor
remissness, had definitely enlisted in political and social activities the
classes constituting the majority of the population of Venezuela. They
had to be accepted with their good qualities, their defects, their potential
energies, their natural limitations. The idea was to establish a republic,
not philosophic and abstract, but a concrete democracy whose subjects
and direct agents stood out clearly and precisely in that midst. This is
the wide difference existing between the exalted Congress of Angos-
tura and the exalted Congress of 1811.

At the opening of the Congress, Bolivar submits his report as to the
exercise of the authority vested in him, which he surrenders to the
Representatives of the People. Having thus become a plain citizen,
exalted because of the services rendered by him to the country and by
his experience in such service, he addresses those in whose hands
rests the future of the Nation, and frankly asks of them all that he deems
indispensable for the stability and happiness of Venezuela. He delves

12 BOLIVAR’S ADDRESS

into history to find that the success of a government does not lie so
much in its extrinsic form as in its harmonious relations with the people
to be guided and led. Thus, even in praising with sincere enthusiasm
the excellent features of democracy, he does not fail to admit that
democracy is not per se the only factor in the welfare of uations; this
must be sought for in something more permanent and deep than the
outward form of a system of government. His conception of a political
ideal is condensed in this doctrine: “the most perfect system of govern-
ment is that which gives the greatest possible sum of happiness, the
greatest sum of social security, and the greatest sum of political
stability.” But it is not possible to attain these ends when the status of
the men for whom legislation is made, has been disregarded. Thus,
after making an ingenuous analysis of the population of Venezuela,
pointing out its characteristics, Bolivar emphatically advises against the
thoughtless copying of the institutions of other peoples, no matter how
far advanced they be in the matter of pure doctrine, and demands
original measures to meet the needs of the people of Venezuela.
Stability is his great anxiety. He is personally aware of the manner
in which authority is challenged by the individualistic instinct which is
latent in every one, but which develops in a violent manner among those
who having distinguished themselves because of their qualifications,
audacity or success, feel that they are fit to grasp such authority and
exercise it. Bolivar fears anarchy as much as he fears tyranny, and his
earnest desire is to safeguard the State against either of these extremes.
Hence the idea of a hereditary Senate, which in his own words “would
be an intermediate power between the government and the people, that
would blunt the shafts these two eternal rivals direct against each
other.” His entire system is inspired by the thought of the imperfec-
tions of the people and the risk there is in trusting them with instru-
ments of government, by far too delicate for their uneducated, inex-
perienced hands. In everything Bolivar shows, besides the greatest ap-
preciation for liberty as the acme of human aspirations, the fear, tem-
pered by prudence, before the possibility that, in aiming at an impos-
sible perfection, the effective benefits of a moderate and dignified free-
dom be sacrificed.

He desires, above all, as the foundation of public happiness, the
formation of a national character, more effective than all the written
laws. He proclaims union as the motto of the new born republic and
urges “as the paramount care of the paternal love of Congress,” popular
education. As a statesman he believes that nothing stable can be

CONGRESS OF ANGOSTURA 13

founded unless based on justice and righteousness, and exacts that
morals be a part of the government of the people.

After earnestly requesting the adoption of these principles, Bolivar
still finds new words, not merely to urge, but to beg for measures which
are a consequence and crown of the great sacrifices he has undergone.
“I leave to your sovereign decision the reform or abrogation of all my
statutes and decrees; but I implore of you to confirm the absolute free-
dom of the slaves, as I would beg for my life and the life of the
republic.” This is conclusively national unification, which otherwise
would not be understood; it is the application of moral principles, and
a safeguard against contingencies and social cataclysms.

Finally, the Liberator asks Congress to sanction the grand political
idea of the formation of a great state inspiring love and respect, with
the necessary force to guarantee its own existence and to carry on its
liberating action far beyond its frontiers.

The Congress of Angostura fulfilled in a large measure the dreams
of Bolivar; it was worthy of the trust and discharged a historic mission.

gathering of tried and illustrious men, the Congress of Angostura

was worthy the importance which the Revolution had assumed, and

\/ in creating the powerful and splendid republic of Colombia, it ceased
to perform a Venezuelan task in order to fulfill an American mission.

After a century, the political ideas of Bolivar appear to be endowed
with that eternal life found in all that is drawn from nature by a deep
and sincere mind. Leaving aside all that which circumstances of the
moment bring into the thoughts of every statesman, there yet remains,
as a store of teachings justified by the history of one hundred years, a
wealth of clear, consistent principles, still having the novelty and fresh-
ness of the most glowing political doctrines. It is towards the unity
of national character, towards a just democracy, free from tyranny and
Jacobinic exaggeration, towards the apotheosis of morals as the only
possible basis of social redemption and stability; towards the abolition
of slavery, the homogeneity of peoples and the effacement of caste; it
is towards the community of continental interests, based on a har-
monious conception of right, fraternity and respect among all the
nations of America; it is towards all these ideals which might have
appeared to be dreams without foundation, had they not been pro-
claimed by one who had already shown himself to be so capable in
action as to secure the liberty of entire countries; it is towards these
different goals that the peoples of America have been marching, some
over wide, smooth, firm and safe roads, others through difficult paths,
between falls and blows, among precipices and chasms. Before the

14 BOLIVAR’S ADDRESS

recent test to which humanity has seen civilization submitted, when it
boasted of most admirable material progress, an awe-stricken world,
its faith shattered, turns its eyes to that obsolete institution which under
the name of Moral Power, Bolivar brought to light “from the depths
of obscure antiquity.”

Does it, perchance, differ from the Court of Nations which, due to
the happy inspiration of President Wilson, is to precede the supreme
reign of justice among all peoples? Bolivar himself thought that some
day “his ingenuous dream,” improved through experience and knowl-
edge, might become most efficacious.

May the memory forever linger of that day in which a great citi-
zen of the world, inspired by a great ideal, divested by his own volition
of the unlimited power he had exercised, asked the representatives of
the people, as the reward for his invaluable services, to deign to grant
his country “a government preeminently popular, preeminently just,
preeminently moral, which would hold in chains oppression, anarchy
and guilt. A government which would allow righteousness, tolerance,
peace to reign; a government which would cause equality and liberty
to triumph under the protection of inexorable laws.”

Caracas, February 15, 1919.

CORREO »:. ORINOCO, |

N®. 19.

ANGOSTURA SABADO 20 DE FEBRERO DE 181% 9

Tou. Mi

onde ade bbdae

CORREO BRAZILENSE.
Continuacion de la Refutacion del Correo
Brazilense.

Supongamos que el rey Juan fuese indife-
rente A esta peticion; y veamos gual seria
la ¢ond de sus Conse} ini f
Bien sabida es la de todas los que sirven estas
plazas en Gobiernos despoticos; pero para
iT la de los empleados de la Corte del
Brazil -alegaremos el dictamen del Correa
Brazilense, é

intereses 4 las comodidades ¥ placeres de una

sola persona 6 familia; el mejor estar de todos
los congregados, ‘su salud y felicidad fué la
mira de su congregacion. Es un crifnen de
blasfemia e} decir que Dios, variando poste-
riormente sus designios en la creacion del
hombre, lo. destino al servicio y udlidad de
cierto niimerd de sus semejantes , abatiendolo
a la clase de los brutes, y demas cosas que
hacen la propiedad de les ricos y se trasmiten

4 sus herederos. Fstos son los efectos y estas

‘
Confiesa que hay abusos, principal:
en la forma de la administracion piblica del
Brazil—que son necesarias muchas reformas
tanto en lo legislativd , como en la adminis-
trativo—y que las leyes del Brazil, S agg
iad: .

las conseqtiencias de Ia falsa 4 e hace
derivar i Ji del Cielo el poder de
los bsol despojando al pueblo

de su soberania. Sobre esta falsa ductrina han
girado los disparates que reproduce el Correo
Bratilense , quando censura la revolucion de

hi

era colonia y ¢esp +n
Brazil descolonizado , poblado, y rico.

Dice que los hombres buenos y espirituosos
son los que el Gobierno debe contemplar y
convencerlos de sus intenciones de mejora-!
miento en las cosas pilblicas: porque la gente’
ignorante va con la corriente, y los emplead:

Per

Adelantando su critica el escritor de este
periodico, duda que hubiese elementos anti-
guos para esta empresa, y desde luego fa llama
obra del » parto de in deracjon :
“se quexa de la precipitacion, error, é injusticia
de sus cond: 233 y los tacha de ignorantes

y alaladores del Gobierno 6 egoistas no cuidan '
del bien general: con tal que reciban su'
scello y coman y beban descansados , todo}
Jo demas les es indiferente. Los que estan}
en poder y autoridad, luego quese les habla]

en materias de Gobierno, administracion , y
modo de conducir los negocios piblicos; y no
como quieta ignorantes, sino con una total
agnorancle, | Lec pitulo por
capitulo. <

| de toda revolucion

de reformp, temen perder sus comodidades ,
y--de consiguiente llaman revolucion toda re-
furma, y jacobinismo toda demostracion de
zbusox, Perturbadores del sosiego piblico son
Hunados los que animados de fatriotismo
denunciaa estos males: porque perturban [a
fricion de los malganados placeres de estos
egoistas. Son sentencias ‘del Correo Bra-
zilense ea el mismo ndmero que estamos
impugnando,

¢ Y sitos que han de prover Ia peticion , son
€506 mlismos emplead RO duladorts
det Gobierno, que aborrecen y detestan la
retorma? como podria ella ener lugar? Mas
claro; el Gobierno se, compone de ests nismos
empleados; ellos son los que gobiernan &
nombre del rey, y los mas opuestos & toda
reforma que desquicie su despotismo: ; como
pues esperar de ellos el suceso de la peticion #
Si el rey fuese un hombre de virtud y talentof
extraordinario, tal vez proveria contra ety
diciamen y voluntad de sus ministros y con-+
sultores; pero siendo tal, qual lo describio un |
papel Ingles despues de su emigracion al Brazil,
nada de provecho podia esperarse de él. « Un |
hombre de escasos talentos, de un caracter
debil € irresoluto , y enteramento entregado ||
a sus favoritos. Asi esti definido en.....:
«A Sketch of the causes and consequences of |
the late emigration to the Brazils. By R.!
Tteylance.” ~ r ao : hie

“ Ni la Filosofia, ni larevelacion pudieron
ensefiarle al Editor del Correo Brazilense’
que los hombres, creados a imagen y seme-/-
janza de Dios, debian depender de la voluntad, ),
humor y pasion de un individud tal como el’
que esti reinando en el Brazil. Y quando!
fuese mas sabio que Salomon , mas fuerte que,
Hercules, y mas virtuoso que Trajano, tampoco!!
tendria derecho para mandar 4 su antojo yy sin}
las trabas de una Constitucion dictada por ‘4

pueblo, & sus representantes. Toda idady,
que no se derive de este principio, es ilegiti
y tiranica, Todo Gobierno que no redunde’

en utilidad de los gobernados, debe ser aliolida:
6 reformado. Nose hombre =

Los antig
tal como la de Pernambuco » He@ Sen otra cosa
que los sentimientos natarales contfa la opre-
sion: el deseo innato de: Ja libertad en el

; de, 40 promotores han quierido éneidie
tarlas. y celine def modo que pretende el
Correo Brazilense. | En Ya tardanza hat pelie
grado todas las que se han preparado:y ‘mada,
sado conforme al metodo que alld:en su mente
tenis concebido ef Editoy.-quando .reprobata
ta de Pernambuco. . Todas tas Vecs qurmaba. -
prolongado el ‘tiempo ‘de la eruj<ron ae
4g

avmentar el nimero de adeptos y de m

inas alli de Id que’ se acéstumbra en semejanteg
empresas , todo se ha tnalogrado por jas defa-
tiongs ¥ perfidias de alguno de tos coafidentes.”
Los..hoibres buenos y espirifiiosos son en’
todas partes los que conciben y forman: las
Fevolucioness en todas. partes son -pocos los
individuos de esta calidad y ellog son. los que
deben trazar y executar las operaciones irisurrec-
cionales contra el despotisino ;, el secteto de
ellas no debe fiarse & la multitud : esta va con
hh corriente, y casi nunca dexa de seguir a
grito y alarma de sus corifeos.

Nos valemos de la, misma razon que. alega
el Correo Brazilense para decir que los hombfes
buenos y espirituosos son los qae debe contem-
plar el Gobierno y convencerlos de sus ‘intens
ciones de mejoramiento en las cosas pitblicas y
porque la gente ignotante va con fa, carriente.
Casi todas las revoluciones émpiezad par ‘el
rompimiento. de muy pocos ijdividoos.,
la del Duque de Braganza'en Portugal. y se
hallara comprobado el hecho’; Taide los Espa-
foles contra Bonaparte fué ini¢iada: por. un
pufiado de gente en Madrid y por el grito de

Venezuela ‘cgptra las

hombre es el resorte principal que da impul

su maquina para recupdrar sus derechos usiur-

pados. Si estos nobles sentimientos no eran
erales en todo el Brazil. al sistema de su

ona julera; la de.) i
idad ‘Se inclinatranr 2 eétit y pasar
por las cesiones y abdicaciones de Bayona, no
tuvé mas principio. _< ‘de -unjoficial que
lamé diciendo -« Viva Fi do Vil. v

Gobierno debe atribuirse esta gua; al

£2 tl,

habito i do de las cad ¢s ii bt

la indiferencia y apatia con que el pueblo las
tolera, les besa, y lasbendice. A esta degra-
dacion brutal debio el despéta el. que la mayor
parte de los habitantes de-aquellas Provincias
se hybiesen declarado contra la revolucion,
ofreciendo en obsequio. del tirano, con la
mayor prontitud posible, sus personas y bienes.
4 ¥ de donde nace principalmente este embru-
Aecimiento? De doctrinas tales como las del
Correo Brazilense. Esta es la leche que
Maman quantos tienen la desgracia de nacer
£n monarquias tales como Ja de Portugal. A
esta, lactancia debe el Editor de aquel Correo
la baxeza 4 que ha descendido su pluma,
acusando & los Parriotas de Pernambuco, y
tributando incienso 2 la Casa de Braganza.

De ella dieg que es la mas popular que
james goberno & los Portugueses; que la
revolucion de Pernambuco nada tenia de comum
icon el odio que se suponia contez la dinastia

eit : que en oposicion 3 los poquisi

que | ‘on su di Hasta el
punto de rebelion , se podia alégar lasinmenia
mayoria, © totalidad de los habitantes del
Brazil que se declararon contra ellos , ofre-
ciendo en defensa del rey sus personas y bienes
¢on la mayor pronvitud posible. Asi Se explica
en la pag. 210 del Correo de Febrero del afio
pasado, y asjcoopera 3 perpetuar la esclavitud
de los Brazilense.

* “Que fuese obra del momento Ja revolucion ,
age! de la inconsideracion, del error, y de
ja precipitacion , tanto quiere decir en el con-
ceptodel escritor como revolucion no bien me-
ditada ni binada. Pr isi

£

a ero que
pos senalase en la historia de las revoluciones

: [s los :
en sociedad para sacriticar sus derechos. 6,

quales son lag que ban tenido-buen exo,

rr,
de Venezuela por sw independencid-y libertad

error , y precipitacion
juicio’ de Napoleom,y sve partidarios 5 ‘y la
de toda la América insurrecta le: merece el

mismo pto & F do, y sus serv
( Se continuara.’ )

LA MEDIACION
Conclusion de la Exposicion sobre la Me
lusion icion ta Media-
cion entre la Espafia y fa América...

~ Si Fernando se resuelve 4 esta grande -
racion. politica, que puede’ covet UiBcoldad al
‘amor proprio; pero no al a6T bién y de la Patria,
se hallara de un solo paso transportadd-del siglo
en que él vive al en que vive Eopops, seUaraa si
mismo ya su nacion una nueva éxistencia y cam=
biara 4 untiempo lafaz dela Europay delMfendo:
—i Sombra de Henrique IV, ! vpela del Bearné
antes que pase este rapido instante dado’ tu
Augusto Nitto para salvar 6 para Noche sa
trono y su’pais ! !—Eleva su imaginacion a la
altura de tus-ideas, muesttale la senda de la
gloria y del heroismo, hazle conocer ef
de un momento en que tan inmensos males. pue-
den evitarse y tan inmensos blenes mdauitirse ,
y excitalo en fin & adoptar las dos :inicas medi-
das, de que depende Ja salud y A-engrandeci-
niento de Espaiia!—Gobierno representatiyo
y alianza con América , 3 de qué otra’
sita ella para levantarse de ese Jecho de Fifac ity
y clevarse 2 un grado de poder'y de Prospeaent

FAC SIMILE OF THE ISSUE OF “EL CORREO DEL ORINOCO”
CONTAINING THE BEGINNING AND THE END OF THE LIBERATOR'S ADDRESS

“ i afcias i Uhertad.” Conclalda } s¢ }ixd de esta deliberccrir, Frestada yr ef juts
ps sine pry leh para retirarse, ye | mento debido: ha aanded Suberano Congresd
idente se bo concedié , nontbrando ana Diputa- }>¢ i sus nombramientos: se haga walt
cion de diez Miembros para que lo soak ite Arainerts poets? oe a taal:
En. seguida se traté on el Congreso de nombrar |genercimente esta Capital por kr noche de este dicey
un Presidente interinode la Repiblica ; ocur. | -y Yue al intento V.B. comuniquk aus respech tag
viendo muchas dificaltades para la i Poion, se] Ordenes ala Cumandancia Gieneval.
dcordé que el General Bouivan exerciese este Poder “ Tengo el honor de trunsumirlo & VE de
por 2s a lo mas por 48 horas, y se mandé =a -6rden del Sobsrano Congreso. = Dios guard? i V0
Dipatacion a icarle esta resolucion. Et | muchos atas.2= Palacio del Canjrresy en Ansostain

General contexté que solo por consideracion & la

17 de Febrero de 1819. 9°. Excmo, Seaurze Kl

urgencia admitia el encargo, bazo la precisa Con-
dicion de que solo faese por el tcrmino prefixado.
"Al signiente dia, tien h de largas Lecce tre ¥

inte.

Vocal Seeretario intvrinus= Diego Boutita Urba:
Abja= Exomo. Seiiur Presidente deta Repiblica.”

DISCURSO

que en las actuales ci re
rinamente el General Bouwan en la ni
: ion fi oy

ae

Presidencia }-

iado por el Gencrul Borivar af Con.
greso, > generat de Venezuela en él aclu de se

Dy
£f

del Estado, y una L fu fs
cv rte Qak vinacion, if dole las
derosas razones en que se funtaba, No obsteente
Gusistié een la megaliva, y »,iculé exponer ptr
escrito los motivos de su.resistencia. Ast lo}
“gerifics en el siguiente + :
OFICIO DEL GENERAL SIMON
CONGRESO DE VENEZUELA, ~

N BOLIVAR Af |

Seaor Secretaria del C sof

bine
. _ Szior—j Dichoso el Ciudadano que baxn,
“el escudo de las armas de su mando ha convo.-
gado la Soberania Nacional, para que exerZa
$u voluntad absoluta! Yo:, pues, me cucaté
entre Jos seres mas favorecidos de la Divina
Providentia, ‘ya que he tenide el honor de
reunir & los Representantes del Pueblo ve

« En este i me ha hionrado ¢f Cont.
geiso Soberano con una, s¢, a Diputacion:|
presidida por el honorable Sefor General Usba-
“WeTA para anunciarme mi continnadion i
‘Presidencia del Estado. Yo estuy confust,
‘rhe hallo oprimido con el cumulo de stnti-

,

‘de réspeto d + ¥ grat
ae me inspira la benevolencia del Soberdho
Congress. Si no consultase mas qué mi obedi-
ericia yy los yotus de mi corazon volaria , como
he sido invitado, 1 tomar'posesion de la dignidad
dé Presid de V | 3 pero la convicci
‘én que estoy de ser incapaz de lenar debida-)
mente las obligaciones de primer Magistrddo,
me fuerza i representar sumisamente las justas
tansas que me impiden servira la Republica
én el Poder Execytivo.

ys la en este Augusto Congreso, fuente
+ ke la Auto: idad gs ore deposito de la volun-

fad soberana y arbitro del Destino Je la
Nacion.

Ak itir & los Rep tes del
‘Pueblo el Poder. Supremo gue se me habia

-colato fos. vords de mi.corazon , los
de mis Conciudadanos y'los dé nuestras futuras
generaciones, que todo losespergn de vuestra
sabiduria, rectiud, y-pradendiay’ Quando cum-
plo con este dulee deberjgme hberto dela
inmensa autoritad qué me agoviaba como de la
responsabililad Stimbeada que pesaba sobre mis
débiles fuerzas: Solamente ‘una necesidad
forzosa unida 2 la voluatad impériosa del Pueblo

a la gloria de ser

> manos ef mando'Sdpremo de Venozmla.sié
{ Mbestro es abora ef avpusto debet da cc i=
ros > la felicidad dela Kepddliea ; «nm ouedtend
manos esta la balanza de nuestros drstinot, Id
medida de nu¢scra gloria: clas sellarin lo
Decretos que fizen nuestra Lilertad, De
est momento el Gefe Supreino deta Repair
blica no es mas que un simple Crudadamd,
tat quiere quedar hasta la muerte. Servite sit
enrbargo cn la carrera de las armas mientras
hatla enemigos en Venezuela. Multiind dé
beneméritos hijos tiene la Patria capaces dé
dirigirla: talentos, virtudes, experiencia y quatt~
to se requiere para mandar a hombres libres,
gon e] patrimonio de muchos de los que squi
reptesentan el Pueblo, y fuera de este Soberano
Cuerpo se encuéiitran Cludadanos opté en todas
pocas han mostrado valor para atrostrar ‘lot
peligros , prudencia para evnarlos, y cl arte en
fin de ¥ de gobernar i otros. Estcé
Huitres Baronés merectran, sia tuda, Ips
dufragios del Longresoy X ellds-se’ enicargard
det Gobierno, que tan cordidl ¥ sitcerdmente
Sabo de renunciar para siempre.

“lu i ‘ion de la idad eh un
*mitsmo indivittuo freqiientermente ha sido el cér-
mino de los Gobiernos Democraticas, Lus
repetidas elecciones sow e-encial’s en los sis.
temas populares, por que nada es tan peligroso
como dejar permanecer largo tiempo en yn mis-
mo Ciuidadano el Poder. El Pueblo se acos-
‘tumbra & obedecerle, y él se acostaumbra 4
mandarlo, de donde se oriyina la usurpacion
y latiraria. Unjusto zeloes la garantia de
la Libertad Repivlicana ; Ciudad
‘wos debon temer con sobrada justicia que el
mismo Magisuady, que losha mando mucho
tiempo, los mande perpetuamente.

“Ya, pues, que por este acto de mi adhe-
ciun a la Libertad de Venezuela puedo aspirat
centado cotte sus may fieles

T » Sefer, que e

VO. F me habria al y peli en- xPONTA

Nhe Una dolorosa experiencia ba mostrado quan cargo.de Dictador Geéfe mo de la Repii- | .con la tranqueza de un verdadero Rep oti
epee son las ncio de Magistradd » | blica. Pero ya respiro. devolviendoos esta mi respetuoso dictumen en este Proyects de Con-
de Defensor de la Repidlica: muchos revests idad , que.con tanto riesgo, dificultad y | stiucion, que me tom Ix libertad de sieceres
mos sufrido por estar reunidos cl Poder Mili, | fena--he logrado mantener en medio: de “Jag 4 en testimonio de Ia sinceridad y del candor de
tars y erivil ; pucs que un hi SO Te Tet alacinnes has horrors que pueden afligir |) Mis sentimicntos. Como se trata de la sald
puede atender a la conseryacion de la paz, ball nackte jal Sige : “}. de todos, me atrevo a creer que tengo derecho
al exercicio de la ‘guerra, y un hombre solo} * i ‘No ha ado la dela Repdblica , }j Pat? 5° vido por los Representantes del Pucblo.
dificilmente reune las virt y lostalentos que} « ur Premed &poca or Titi >} Yo sé muy bien que vuestra subiduria no ba
requieren el’Tribunal y el Campo. | Ademas he | 4U€ he p » una mera temp politica, jas, y sé tambien que mii Pro-
ido en, la p de los pabli- | ae ewer ak ahem ee avis Yecto caso OS parecera erroneo , impracticable.

’ LEDs Shy ‘desarrollo ;

cos que mis fuerzas son insuficientes para sopor-
tar la formidable carga de un Estado Militante ,
y_al mismo tiempo en la infancia. Los Repre.

elementos desorganisadores : hasido ta inun-
@acion de un torrente infernal que ha sumer- ;

‘entcntes del Pueblo deben saber que apenas | gido Ja tierra de Venezuela. Un hombre
scrian b ies todas las fi de todos } jy uh hombre'tomd yo! ,zque diques podria
; Concit para componer un Go-} oponer al impetu de estas devastaciones ?—
podrh, pues apene wleslsede? <a gee bated ran ae : ias no he
peg Mh ard aie ido mas que un vil juguete del,hutacan: rev
a 2 “")} lucionario que ba como una dé

Vice-Presidente para suplir mi ausencia de
Capital. Yo debo estar siempre , por mi estado,
ausente de la residencia del Gobicrno; por con-,

5 que me es
ja. Yo no he podido hacer ni bien ni mal.
Focre

bt

Puro, Sefior, aceptad con benignidad este tra-
bajo, que mas bien és el tributo de Mi siccra
suinisivi: al Coxcneso que el efecto de una leve-
day presuntuosa, Pot otra parte, siendo vues-
: tras tunciones la creacion de vn cucrpo politico,

= y aun se podria dicir la creacion de una socie-

dad entera, rodcada de tedos los inconvenientes
nes presenta una situacion la mas singular y

ificid , quizas el grito de un Ciududaco puede
avertir la presencia de un peiigru excudicrto
& desconocido. (1.)

iguiente este Vice-Presidente sera el Buestrossucesos. Atribuirmelos no seria justo, oP lies

prced me cory ag de la Nacion; y si = y Que darme Oe aaa sere satis ‘4 Legisladores ! Por | Proyecto de Cons-
y sabia la eleccion que doen uereis conocer los autores de aconteci- |... “ 3
honorable Representante Zea , actual Presidente ones pasados y del orden actual? Consul- . is mvath ppdenihetanmenye ' net vigera ‘ Cee
del Congreso, yo me atrrevo & rogar alos Ré-} tad los anales de Espafia, de “América, de Gitta. Al propeneres Ja division de les
presentantes del Pueblo, de 4d admitir la | Venezuela: examinad las leyes de Indias, el © Giydadanos en activos y pasivos, he preten-
eere eee que hago de la Presides:iz | regi a i cf datarios, lainflue Gido excitar la prosperidad nacional por tas
sor SBay os encia de la religion y del domini 2.) al de la industri

“ Mi amor la Patria y mi deseo is oe = dos mas: indes palancas de la industria,
tribuir a la. clpetdion' de los Tissoos beg Pace Repablicanos a o oan dene del Ga ecno fe trub.joy y el saber. : Estimusanco estos
a. - a pre ye < RE EEN i bx pred : pin de Ay Coayru tied
qué tengo el jor de communicar 2 V.S. ‘oe ft aleanza to vas dificil entre lo» hoamres, fia-
“Dios guarde & V.8. muchos afios.=- Angos- § 20b%¢ loselectos de estos trastornos para, sict=t:lcerlos hnralos y felices. Poniendo restric
tura a 16 de Febrero de 1819. 9°. ==Bouivin.” hdr ae Fades puede is cra “clones justas y p en kes _ bless
: . F instr ge } me F Primari Eh i ¢e} primer
uaieeat wee meg Maw prent ey Srcctan casts que han obrado sobre Venezuela. Sin embar- ‘Dique a h licencia popular , envitamto ta
quales y del resultado se dard noticia al piblico por j} 8° ™! vida, mi » todas mis /concurrencia tumultuaria y ciega que en todos
un Suplemento 2 esta Gazeta) publicas y privadas estan sujetas ala censura‘del | ooo. hha imprimido el. desacterto en Jas
_ blo. — Representantes! vosotros debeis |: Fiecciones, yha ligado por cou--gmente, le

“"SPUESTA DEL SECRETARIO DEL CONGRESO 2) Yo someto la historia de mi mando | desacierto & 16s Magistrados . ‘a
. AL GENERAL BOLIVAR. -# & vuestra imparcial decision , nada afiadiré para > 401 Gobierno; pues este acto prevordel’. 3
ain Nits Seior No habiendo et Soberano Con- excusarla: ya he dicho quanto puede hacer mi} 41 sero generutivo de la Libera, 0 vc

seenadle Poedidcna taoine dal’ Eaed | apologia. Simerezco vuestra cion habré } .psctasitud de un Pueblo. d
confi a v. nla Sesi inari eat alcanzado el sublime titulo de buen Ciudadano , «A do en la balanza ve les poderes ef
CE en eee lene Oe Tt prefrible para mil de Libertador que medio | * ie sort
Gente del ed rise sige Venezuela, al de Pacificador que me did J (..) oar nce un extyose analisis ae 6 Constita -

: spans Seior Diputado \' Oo aimamarca ; y a los que’el-mundo entero | wterior de ta Republica y del anuevo Prusecic «
Faancisco Axtonso Zea, por la de hoy hasta gue »y a presenta. Se ha ereido comveniefite suprimitiv, y s+:
estos destinos sean constitucionalmente clgidns i puede darme. ° : z < } solamente el principio y. fin del Discursa (asta yur pac?
ya fiencia de la gue OVE. “L res! Yo dep en as Jf; amp todo por sep

h i aa é di 2 + a: e
meia.? “Noss per cbanibe took Zor

extremidad de Europa
puertos y tavorecida del Cielo con un clima
delicioso, un suelo liberal, excelentes produc.

‘cion¢s, no pocas minay, y un pueblo sobrio,
‘capazde las mus ultas empresas, y dotado de
‘un carhcter 'y de una constancia sinkular, sulo
Ye fattuba un Gobierno que hiciera valer tantas
veptajas, y wn comerclo activo que reanimara,
las Artes y la Industria aletargadas pot su bar-
baro sistema de exclusion y de intolerancia.—
Pero este cumercio ye debe durle al movimiento
vital, nO puede existir sino a faver de la amis.
tad de América, y amistad la mas intima y
la mas gonerosa, Es de toda evudrucia que ne-
cesiva por algunas aiios de concesiv.cs liberates,
y aun de ciertos privilegios para soscencr la con-
currencia con las nctores industriosas en nues

tros mercados. Y¥crée ella que terminada por
Tis amas la conquista eutera de nuestra Inue-
pendencia, hemos de tener la estupida condes-
couden¢ia de perjudicurnoy en nuesteas rela-
ciones comerciales para favorecer lox adelanta-
mientos ds sus fabricas y mauufacturas hasta
que Heguen a competixv con las mejores de
Europa?—Nc, ta América no hara sacrificios
Sino por MNa pronta paz, Cuya posesion antici
pada puéda servirle de compensacion. Cada
dia que ella difiera el reconecimicnto de la Inde

jrconcidados a este acto solemne, y

.” El. Seitor Diputadb de los Pstados-Uwi.tc:, ,% No eve en ed Capit
B. Invxe, y uno de los Comennrciantes |“
jtos de la Indepen- |“

Ingucses mas’.
ia,'en representacion de los demas, fuerun °
dos |
“entre el Sr. Provisor, Gobernador del Obispado
'y los primeros Gefes militares. El concurso
de extrangeros y de Ciudadanos fué muy

KMerOsO. .

t Gere Surxemo brid la Sesion per to
lectura de un Discurso tan Ileno de interes y
tan patética, que ni Ciudadanos ni Extr..»~
geros xucdieron contener las ldyrimus.—St ae~
cion , %« ecento, da espresion de su sembiante
todo acreditaba ta verdad de sus sentimien*os , ,°
y su intina adhesion @ los principios filar.tro- |
picos y liberales de que hacia en aqueLacty la
mas patética u solemne profesion. Et objeto |
principal de sa Discursu era exponer los fur.-
damentos de un Proyecto de Constitucion , gre
S.L. presentuba al Congreso , y hacer ver “que
era lu mas adaptada @ rinestru pais. Lave
Jnesiones con que concluia , detaranda insta-
lads et Congreso, y rrconeeienda en él ba
Soberania Naciunal, exrcitarun el ma, vivo ;
jas sobre tody quando empuisnde ta
{ire con une energia extracrdtiaria
© Mi espuda y las de wis uetlites companere,
de armas estin siempre promtas @ susten ©
Auguste ft cridad.~ Viva el Congres» ¢
Venesucla” A esta wut, vepetida nachas
veces por el concurso, se sighid una sulze de
Artillexia, r

pendencta absoluta todo esce -Contineme,
sin cuya condicion preliminar jamas se firmara
ningy tratadd, es wh nuciy cbstauly para
obtener una pz ventijosa, y vn gran paso;
hacia su perdicion. Parece imp sible que el

Geinete de Fernanda VIL. dexe de conocer la

‘ur jencia del peligrm, y su inico remedio,}
Gomienso Revnisentative ¥ atiayza peas!
teawat coy Ameniea. En estos dos puntos |
esta cifrada toda'su politica , y de ellos deperte |
su salud y el reposo de 1a Europa, a que na.ta |
seria tan funesto como tina retolucion en Esp:
La de Francia oakabria sidv.mas que un sucho
comparada'con Ix de un pueblo no més terri-
dle por la firmezt de su caracter, que por su
ee age desesperaciot, y su fanatismo, ¢

He aqnggin objéto verdudcramente digno de
la Mediacion de
Fernando 3 proclamar uri Gobierno Kepresc n-
tative y la Independencia de“Afm@rita : plsicus
medios de evitar en Espafia una regoiucion ,
que no dexaria de comunicarse a Francia) y
turbiria por largos aiios la tranquilidad de
Europa y lis relaciones del Mundo. Entonres
obtendrian el trulo divine de bienhechoras.de
Ja humunidad, lograrian asegurar ba pes file
concordia ‘universal , y merecerian sl 1 *
miento de todas los pueblos , los aplausos desu
siglo, y Lis-bendiciones de la posteridad.

{ Concur tos. )

ANGOSTURA 2¢ de Sn ia de 1819.

ANSTALACION pe. CONGRESO GENE-
RAL pe VENEZUELA. :

Atlas Porencias—intitar a4

El Gere Supremo tiritd entonces al Con-
gresu 2 que procediese @ la eleccion de + .
Presidente Interina, para entregarle el manda,
Resdtando electo a viva’ vor el Diputate”
Francisco Antonto 74, S.E. le tom alk
Juramenta sobre lus Santes L'vangelios, 9 ex
seguida @ todys lo Miembros uno & uno—

Coneluido el juremenio, SB. culuci al Presi %

dente enta silla que ocupaba é mismo bars det
soltay y dirigiendose al cuerpo militar dia:
© Scitores Generales, G.fes y Oficiales, i
companrros de armas y nosulrus ne sumos si
que siunples Ciuladanos hasta que et Con;
Suberana se_dizne emplearnos en le
grade ghe a bien ténga. Contando con veer-;
fra sumision vy @ darle en mi nombre.
el vuestro las pruebas mas"claras de tine,
abedicncia ,-enttegandule el mandogle que yo's
estaba encaryelo.” Diviendo esto sé aceres
al Presidente del Congreso, y presentandorey
subaston , continus: % Devucho dla Kepir |
bliew - ef baston de General que me © ff. 5
eePara servirla quatgquier grado 6 ose @
j old Congreso me destine, es para eA
: en ldaré elexemplo dela sabordis;
nacion y de la ciega udediencia que deten
distinguir a todo Slade de ba Repitlica”
EL Presidente dirigiendose ab Congreso dio:
“ Parece quenoadmite dixeusiontaconfirmacion
de todo. les grados y enpleos conferilos jor
S.E. ef General Simon Borivan durante sic
Gobierno; sin embargo pido para declararto.
ta uprobacion etpresa del Congreso.” ¢ Patere'

Mo

* Reonidos los Diputados cn esta Capucl,
& reepwetdes las Actas de Llection ey todo
sealer Al Reslagienia. Soe SB, bh Cree

WsREMO para él 1S al eerrtente d Tow ST
‘del dia la Instolacign del Congres,

Une salea de Artillria al ponerse el Sot,
yuna tluminacion general, aruncid et 14 la
*solemnidad del dia siguiente.
ie 15 ef saber ‘el Sol se hizo otra salva de

lleria,” Las Diputades sc vennieron a las
nher y neta én ta Sala del Palacio del Go-
breras dettinadad sua sesiones , y el Estado-.

Moyma-General, e Gobernador de la Plaza

y Conandante-yeneral de la Provincia, Gefes }.

fer eh ta casa del Gefe Srgreme
Se agelid fan augusta ceremonia.
“Ties cammawes awmeiaron la marcha de la
‘ liva 5 yputad die @ recibir

a SE. facade las puertas del Palacio—
Us aa ’ fic up le el
rente, le los Aurores militares.

al Congreso que los grados y empleos confer:
des pur SE. et Genrral Simox Bortvan ,'
seu Gofe Supreme de la: Repitlica, seen:
Torfrawdes 7 Toats ts Lipwtadus pomem
dose en pre respondreron que iy y eb Presi
de ite coutimes : “ El Suberano Congreso de
ta Hepiblia confirma, en la Persona de 8.B

los grados y cmpleos, cunferidos por él migna.'
durante su Gobierno; y devolviendole et baston, ti
le dit asieilo @ su derecha. Despues de
obgungs monentes de silencio, el Presidente
hablé ru estos términas *—>

» © Todas las Nocivues y todos Ins Imperio: gue-]
% rgnen su infancia détiles 3 pequenos, coma et
« hombre misma & quien deben su instituciotnmes
+ Estas grandes Ciudades todavia Fexsyy. 2
® la inac.on, Menfis, ira, Tebas,

“ sandra, Tyro, la Cagital misino de Belo y cs
© Semirgnis, y tu tambien, suberbia Row
“ Sefiora de ln terra, no Juiste en tas prine

“ otra Cosa que una mezguina y miserasle ce.

| asbueral ; y entre ellos obtendra las,

fe

4 Capitzn-Grneral Simon Borivar, todas 4.

é » mo en los palecios de
Agripe FL vajand; era en una humilde
é : un techd pagtzo, que Romulo,
“ sencillamente ‘vestido, trazaba la Capital dei
™“ Mando y poniaylos fundamentos de su inmenso
“ Inperio, Nada brillaba alli sino sw genio:
“ veda habia de xrande sino & mismo. . 0 es por
* ef aparato ni la.magnificencia de nuestra instalas
“* cron ; sino por las inmensos medios gue la Natu.
“ rusrza nos ha proporeieuads y por los inmensos
pe que vosotros cunilicrers para aprovechat-
“los, que deberds calcularse la grandiza y el poder
* fiduro de nuestra Kepicblica.—Esta misma sen-
~ Mex y ef esplendor de ese grande acto de patrio-
» somo de que el General Botivar acaba de dar
ton ilustre y mi exemplo,, imprime 2
esta sulemnidod un caracter antiguo, que-es ye
“ un presagio de los altus destinos.de nuestro pais.
“ Na Roma ni Atenas, Esparta misma en los her-
“* mosos dias de la heroicidad y las virtudes pablicay _
“aw presente unr excena mas sublime ni~ wee
“ enlecesante. La inunginacion se exalta al contett-
" ,‘arla, desaparccen los sighs y las. distancias,
“ ym sotros mismos nos creémos cohlempotanéor

” ane Aristides y los Phociones , de lot Castilos
yl Fpanunrday. Lat mismé fil yp a
«prince pios liberates gue toe vee Ses

Gers Rey iheanos dela alta antlgutdadton tide
© henvficon Emperaderes Vespatiano 4 Tite:
“20, Marco Aurelio , gue tos di
“mente, culocun hay entre ellue a gate rbodesto,
sewers os ds hemsores de ig
# Ammtoria y las bendiciones de la poieriderh—
Sides ahora gue puede justamente apreciarse eh
Sy oe ra-gu de virtwd patribtica de que hemos
« Gil admis adores mas bien gue testigos. * Quanta
“ witestras Lustilucionés hagan, recibido la sancion
“ del Tiempo, quando todo lo débil y todo to pe-
i qreiio de naestra tong, ten pastones y los tate.
- 1

grdade 4 hots
dx Genetat

»

fs
atOncion en lo que estamaseiendy y editizanda,
2 4 ids ‘Su

Sp fer
yreares, quando atrakia obrq ye

fe ured 2 tener algunos § 2 kes ojos
dE Ja wabivion y = lSirtlatgia, prastao

« Mitriad , es 10 virtud sah hervica y tan emia
Sndhte, que yo no sé si ht tenidy modelo, x
1» dézspero de que tenga imitdtiores. ~ Pero guét
* gpermitiremos nosotros que el General Borivan
tube eleve tanto sabre sus Concindadanos que los
“ eprima con su gloria » na trataremos a los
** sqénus de cumpetir con él en nobles y patridticos
+ cemimienias it i deviate Au.
A$ puesto, recinto sin esa misma id

© deque& se ha despojado por i
«t Is libertad, siendo este precisaménte el medio
2 aventurarla?—No, nb, repitso con engrgia
y vivacidad el General Borivau, janes, jamas
aPreré & aceptar une Autoridad & gue para
" sitmpre he renunciado de todo corazon por privt«
Kelis y por sentinientos." — Continud expo-
~ lo los peligros que corrin la libertad , conaer-
viedo por much» tiempo un mismo hombre la
wimera Autoridad : sifesté Ta. idad de
A verse Ctutra las-mivas de algun ambiciose ,
:e-edntra jas de él mismo gue wo tenia ninguna se-
gutidad de pensar y de obrav siempre del misma
“-mdo, y termind sz Discurso protextando en el
tono mat fuerte y decisixa, que en ningun caso
<p por ninguna consideracion volveria jamas 2
«,centar unu Autoridad, & que tan cordial y tan
“ erveramente habia renunciado por asegurar a su

* ted

‘Dabs

wheso-del Congreso por el niimero de los Legis-

tadores, y por la naturaleza del Senado, he
procurado Warle una base fixa i este ‘primer

Cuerpo dela saciun, y. revestiriu de uns
consideracion improstartisima. para el exito
de sus funciones soberanas. ‘

© Separando con limites bien sefialacios la Ju-
Fisdiccion F yecutiva , de la Jurisdiccion Legis-
lativa, wome ie propuesto dividir sino enlazar.
con los viaculos de la armonia que nace ce la
Independencia, estas potestades Supremas cuyo
choque-prolungado jaunas ha dejado de aterrar
& uno de los contendiences.
atribuir al Execativo una suma de facultades
superior A la que Antes gozaba, no he desealo
autorizar un Despoca para que tiranise la
Repablica, sino impedir que el despotismo
deliberance no sea la causa inmediata de un
circulo de vicisitudes despoticas en que alteriva-
tivamente la anarquia sea reemplazada por la
oligarquia, y por la monocracia. Al pedir,
la estabilidad de los Jueces, la creacion de
Juradgs, y un nuevo Cicigo, he pedidg.at
Congreso Ta garantinde la Libertad Civil , la
mas preciosa , fa mas justa , la mas necesaria,
20 ana palabra’, la dnica Libertad , pue§ que
sin.ella {3s demas.son nulas. He pedido.la |
correccion de los mas lamentables abusos que !
sufre nuestro Judicatura, por su origen vicio.o
de ese pistago. de Legislacion Espaiola que,
semejante al tiempo recoge de todas las sake:
y de todos los hombres, ast las obras de ‘la
dleméncia como las del talento, asi lag pro- J
ducciones ‘sensatas como las estravagantés',
psi 10s’ monumentos del ingenio coma Ins
det capricto. * Esta ‘Rnticlopedia Judic:aria—
‘Monstruo de diez mil cabezas , que hasta
ahora ha sido el azore de los pueblos Espatoles,
#3 el supiicio mas reEss to que ta colera del
Ciclo ha peres.tido de scargar sobre este desdi-§
chato Inpero.

# Meditasal sore e! mindo efzctivo de rege.
nerar eb cariccer y las constunbres gue th
ticania 7 la guerra nus hau dado, me he sentido
-da.audacia de savensar un Pacer Mozal, sav agio,
«del. fondo de ta obseury antiyreelad, y de aqued
Vas-olvidatus Leyes que roptusiron, algun

Quando deseo ¢

tivério en armas de Libertad. Si, fos que’
Antes eran. Esclavos, ya son Libres: los que
iuites eran enemigos ve una Macrasta, ya.son
Deferfores de-una Patria. Encareceros la
Justicia, la netesidad, y la beneficencia dg
esta medida, es superfluo quando vosotrop
sabeis la historia ce los Helotas , de Espartaco,
y se Hayti: quando vosotros sabeis que no,
se.puede ser Libre y Esclavo 4 la vez, ‘sino,
violando & la vez las Leyes naturales, las
J.eyes politicas, y las Leyes civiles. Yo!
abandono 4 ruestra soberana decision la ret
forma 6 la revocacion de todos mis Estatutos}
y Decretos ; pero-yo iniploro la confirmacion
ee la Libertad absoluta ce los Esclavos , como
imploraria mi vida, y la vida de la Repiktica.

fal:ado municiones: siempre ha estado mal equi-
sada, Ahora los Soldados Defensores de la
Independencia no sol. estan dos de
ia Justicia, sino tambien de la fuerza. Nuestras
sropas pueden medirse.con las mas selectas da
Europa, ya que no hay desigualdad en Jos
medios destr ‘an grand jas las
debemos a la Jiberalidad sin limites de algunos
Kenerosos ‘extrangeros que han vitto gemir la
nutmanidad y sucumbir la causa de {la razon, ¥
no la han visto tranquilos espectadores, sino
que han volado con sus protectores auxilios; y
han prestado ala Repiblica quanto ella nece-
$ Para hacer triunfar sus principios filan«
trépicos. Estos amigos de ia bumanided son
los genios custodios de la América, y 3 ellos
de un eterno: reconocimiento

_ *Representaros la historia Militar de Vene- }-¢omo igualmente de un ¢ :
zuela, seria recordaros la historia del h 4 las sa ig que con ellos hemos
Re; Ublicano entre los Antiguos : seria deriros . gonttaido, Magn ag eal f Sy)
que.Venezuela ha entrado en el gran quavro}** ¢ bree 3 la fé, del — y de =
de los Sacrificios hechos sobre el Altar de la y ise ply papain = eee Vic decoy

Libertad. Nada ha podido llenar los nobles!
pechos de nuestros generosos guerreros , sino
los honores sublimes que’se tributan 4 los dien-
hechores del género humano. No ccmba-
‘Yiendo ;er el poder, ni gor la fortuna, ni
aun or |. gloria, sino tan solo por la Libe-tads)
titulos de Libertadores de la Repiblica, son}
suz dignos galarcones. Yo, pues, fundando
unasocie:jad Sagraca con estos Inclitos Earongs,
he instituido el Oren de los Libertadores de!
Venezuels ;—Legislacores! 3 vosotros per-

de .nuestros bienhechores , quanto la gloria de
nuestra: fidelidad, . Pe prit que
quch un empeiio qite ha salvado la Patria,
y la vida de sus bijos. ‘ "
“La reunion de la Nueva.Granada y Vene-
zuela en un grande Estado, ha sido el voto upi=
forme de los pueblos y Gobierno de estas Repi.
blicas, La suerte de erificado este
ombi:

guerra hav,
Seachtommn inepeade’ ameetant
iO estamos
han.confiado'sus intereses , ‘sus
i r r la reynion

hermanos ya os
derechos sus.

tenece las fcultates de o y
decoraciones, vuestro es el deber de exercer
este acto augusto de la gratitud nacional.

« Hombres quese han desprenuido de todos
dos gozes, de todos los bienes que Antes yoseian,
como el projuctd de su virtud y talentos:
hombres que hin esperimentayo quanto es}
cruel en una guerra horrorosa y paceciendo las
rrivaciones pias dclorosas, y los tormentos
mes acerbos; hombres tan benemérito: ge fa
Patria, han debijo NMamar la atenciom del
Gobirrno, enconsequencia he mandado recome4
pensarlos con los bienes de la Nacion, $a he
Sontraivfo ara con el Pueblo alguna especie
“wird, pido & sus Represeutantes oigan

tieaypo, la virtud entre tos Griegas y Romonas.,
Vier puede ser tersco por un c§ncido dehring}
mis NO es iMposib'e , y ya me‘ lisonzeo qne no’
S-slofarcis eaceranente un pensamicn:o quie ‘
nicjorad” por la espertencia y las luces, puede
Ategar A ser muy eficaz. s
“ Horcorizado le la divergencia que ha’
reve Joy debe reyoar entre nosotros por el
© gic a sutil que caracteriza al Gobierno Fede.’
Tx iv), he sido areastralo 2 rogaros para qhe.
a lopreis el Cencrulismo y la reunion de todcs
‘Tos Estados de Veagzusla en nna Repiiblicd,
sola é ind.visible, Lsta medida, en mi opinon ;
urgentc, vital, redontora, vs de ml nuturaleza,
qe, sin ella, el fruto de nuestra regencracion
ssera la muerte. :
« Mi deber e:, Legislidores, prescitaros
un quadro prol.xo y fiel de mi Administraciont
Polstica,. Civil, y Miltar, mas seria cansan
demasiado vucstra importante atencion, y pris
¥ATO$ En este monizato de UN tiempo can pre.
ios como urgente. En consegiiencia, Ics
Secretar.os de Estado daran cuenta al Congresy
de sus diferentes Departamentos extbiendo a
snismp tiempo los Documeagos y Archivos que
Servizaa de ilustracion para tomar un exacto,
eonacitniento del estado real y positivo de ty’
Repiblica, H
“ Yo,.n0 05 hablacia de los actos mas notables
de mi mundo, si estos no incumbiesen 2 li
nrayuria de los Venezolanos, Se trata » Sefior Ay
de las resoluciones mas imporiantes de este
Dltino periodo. La awoz é impia esclavitdd
eubria con su negro manto la tierra de Veae.
270, v nuestro Cielo se hallaba recargado),
Ge tempestuosas Nubcs que amenazabgn yn
fC luWjon ge. fueyo. Yo imploré la grotecsiaait
Pal Diosde la humaniad, -y luego la Reden-'
Cioh “distin tas tempestades. La-esclayitud.
Tompio sus gritlos’, y Venezuela se hg visto,
F0.€ada de nuevos hijos, de hijos agradgcidos
que han convertico los inserumentos de su sau.

mi'stiplica como el premio de mi ébiles ser-
viclds. « Que el Congreso ordene la distribucion
we Tes Bienes Nacionales conforme a la Ley
que? nombre de ta Repibli-a he vecretado 4
beneficio de los Milurarcs Venezolanes.

“Ya que porinfinitos triunfos hemos loffrado
anonadur ‘las hazges Espafiolas, <desesperada
la Corte de Madrul ha pretendido- sorprender
vanamente la conciencia de los: magninimos

y Jatirania en Europa, y debe ser-los protec-
tores dels legitimidady y de«Ia Justitia de Ia
Causa Américana,*‘Encdpaz de alcanzar’con §
Sas asinas nuestra suhision recurre la Espaiia i
su politica insitiasa: ng pudiendo, vencernos
ha querido emplear sis artes i

ha

de esca inmen:
ragpsitet eto

le

sus divinas. plantas la, sa’ud- y Ja vida a kos
hombres doli del antigno universo.’ -Ya
i los

d,

la veo r aus p a
sabios que ignoran quan soperior es Ja sumade
las. luces, a la suma de las riquezas, que le

ae la uf Yala
pee 'rono de la libertad’
de la Justicia, coronada por la

Soberaos que acabia de estirpar’ “ts usurpasion | UNO antiguola magestad del mundo moderno.

“Dignaos, Legisladores , acoger.con indul-
cia, la jon de mi conciencia politica 5

s Ultimos votos de mi corazon, y los ruege

férvorosos que a nombre del pueblo me atrevo

fa dirigiros. Dignaos conceder ¥*Venezyela
un Gobi Y mente popular, emi:
juste, ¢ mora}, que en-

Fernan:lose ha humillado hasta confesar que
ha menester de la proteecion extrangera, para)
retorharnos 3 su ignominioso yugo ; 4 un yugor
que'todo poder es nulo para impongs{o!—i

dtrvencida Venezuela de poseer las fuerzas

humanidad, y- la paz. -Un que haga
triunfar baxo el imperio de Leyes imexdrables
la igualdad y la libertad. mun ‘

“Senior, d

“suficieutes para repeler a sus op rf <li
nonciido ‘porvet organo del Gobiertio;: a
kina voluntad de’ combatir hasta espira. ;
por-defender su 'vida politica, no solo’ dons

la Espaiia , smo contra todos los hombres |
si_ todos los hombres se hubiesen degradado’

tanto, que abrazasen la defensa de un Gobi- ;

erno devorador, cuyos dnicos moviles son una
Espada esterminadora, y las llamas de la In-
quisicion. Un Gobierno que ya no quiere}
dominios , sinu desiertos : Ciudades, sino rui-
nas 5 vasallos, sino.tambas. La Declaracion
de la Repiblica de Venezudm es la Acta mas
lorioss, mas heroica,. mas-digna de un Pueblo;
Eibee + es la que con mayor satisfaccion ten, ‘
el honor Je te sas al Congreso - escent ida}
por 13 expresion nninime del Pueblo Libre}
de Venezuela. :
4 Desde la segunda épdca de la Repibli

terminado las mias,’*

muy

acantonade

idiendole y on ido » mi
ventaja del- pais , € intercept le por la espalda

nuestro Exército carecia dé¢tementos mijitares ‘)
siempre ha estado desepmadé :* siempre fe"han’

2, RODERICK , Impresor del Gobierno.

ADDRESS

DELIVERED BY THE LIBERATOR IN ANGOSTURA,
ON THE 15TH oF FEesruArRY, 1819, at THE OPENING OF THE
SECOND NATIONAL CONGRESS OF VENEZUELA.

GENTLEMEN:

Happy is the citizen who under the protection of the army of his
command has convoked National Sovereignty to exercise its absolute
will! I, therefore, count myself among those most favored by Divine
Providence since I have had the honor to gather the Representatives of
the People of Venezuela in this August Congress, the source of legiti-
mate authority, depository of sovereign will and the arbiter of the
Destiny of the Nation.

In transferring to the Representatives of the People the Supreme
Power with which I have been entrusted, I fulfill the wishes of my own
heart, those of my fellow citizens and those of our future generations
which expect everything from your wisdom, uprightness and prudence.
In discharging this sweet duty, I free myself from the overburdening
of immense authority and the unlimited responsibility weighing upon
my weak shoulders! Only a compelling necessity coupled with the
commanding will of the People could have made me assume the tre-
mendous and dangerous charge of Dictator Supreme Chief of the Re-
public. But I can breathe easier now in handing back to you that
authority, which I have succeeded in maintaining with so much risk,
difficulty and hardships amid the most awful tribulations that could
ever afflict any social political body.

The epoch in the life of the Republic over which I have presided
has not been a mere political storm; it has been neither a bloody war,
nor yet one of popular anarchy. It has been indeed, the development
of all disorganizing elements; it has been the flooding of an infernal
torrent which has overwhelmed the land of Venezuela. A man, aye,
such a man as I am, what check could he offer to the march of such
devastation? In the midst of this sea of woes I have simply been a
mere plaything of the revolutionary storm, which tossed me about like
a frail straw. I could do neither good nor harm. Irresistible forces
have directed the trend of our events. To attribute this to me would
not be fair, it would be assuming an importance which I do not merit. Do
you desire to know who are the authors of past events and the present
order of things? Consult then the Annals of Spain, of America, of

18 BOLIVAR’S ADDRESS

Venezuela; examine the Laws of the Indies, the rule of the old execu-
tives; the influence of religion and of foreign domination; observe the
first acts of the Republican Government, the ferocity of our enemies
and our national temperament. Do not ask me what are the effects of
such mishaps, ever to be lamented. I can scarcely be accounted for
but as a mere instrument of the great forces which have been at work
in Venezuela. However, my life, my conduct, all my acts, both public
and private, are subject to censure by the people. Representatives!
You are to judge them. I submit the history of my tenure of office to
your impartial decision; I shall not add one thing more to excuse it; I
have already said all that could be my apology. If I deserve your ap-
proval, I have attained the sublime title of a good citizen, to me prefer-
able to that of Liberator, given me by Venezuela, that of Pacificator,
which Cundinamarca accorded me, and all the titles that the whole
world could bestow upon me.

Legislators! I deposit in your hands the supreme command of
Venezuela. Yours is now the august duty of devoting yourselves to
achieving the happiness of the Republic; you hold in your hands the
scales of our destinies, the measure of our glory; your hands will seal
the decrees insuring our Liberty. At this moment the Supreme Chief
of the Republic is nothing but a plain citizen, and such he wishes to
remain until death. I will serve, however, in the career of a soldier
while there are enemies in Venezuela. The country has a multitude of
most worthy sons capable of guiding her; talents, virtues, experience,
and all that is required to direct free men, are the patrimony of many
of those who are representing the people here; and outside of this
Sovereign Body, there are citizens, who at all times have shown their
courage in facing danger, prudence in avoiding it, and the art, in short,
to govern themselves and of governing others. These illustrious men
undoubtedly merit the vote of Congress, and they will be entrusted with
the Government that I have just resigned so cordially and sincerely and
forever.

The continuation of authority in the same person has frequently
proved the undoing of democratic governments. Repeated elections
are essential to the system of popular government, because there is
nothing so dangerous as to suffer Power to be vested for a long time in
one citizen. The people become accustomed to obeying him, and he
becomes accustomed to commanding, hence the origin of usurpation
and tyranny. A proper zeal is the guarantee of republican liberty, and
our citizens must very justly fear that the same Magistrate who has
governed them for a long time, may continue to rule them forever,

CONGRESS OF ANGOSTURA 19

And, now that by this act of adherence to the Liberty of Venezuela,
I can aspire to the glory of being counted among her most faithful
lovers, permit me, Sirs, to state with the frankness of a true republican,
my respectful opinion regarding the scope of this Project of a Constitu-
tion, which I take the liberty to submit, as a token of the sincerity and
candor of my sentiments. As this is a question involving the welfare of
all, I venture to believe that I have the right to be heard by the Repre-
sentatives of the People. Well I know that in your wisdom you have
no need of counsel; I am also aware that my project may perhaps
appear to you erroneous and impracticable. But, Sirs, receive with
benevolence this work which is a tribute of my sincere submission to
Congress rather than the outcome of a presumptuous levity. On the
other hand, your functions being the creation of a body politic, and, one
might say, the creation of an entire community surrounded by all the
difficulties offered by a situation—a most peculiar and difficult one—
the voice of a citizen may perhaps point ott a hidden or unknown
danger.

By casting a glance over the past, we shall see what is the basic
element of the Republic of Venezuela.

America, on becoming separated from the Spanish monarchy,
found itself like the Roman Empire, when that enormous mass fell to
pieces in the midst of the ancient world. Each dismembered portion
formed then an independent nation in accordance with its situation or
its interests, the difference being that those members established anew
their former associations. We do not even preserve the vestiges of
what once we were; we are not Europeans, we are not Indians, but an
intermediate species between the aborigines and the Spaniards—-Ameri-
cans by birth and Europeans in right, we are placed in the dilemma
of disputing with the natives our titles of possession and maintaining
ourselves in the country where we were born, against the opposition of
the invaders. Thus, ours is a most extraordinary and complicated case.
Moreover, our part has always been a purely passive one; our political
existence has always been null, and we find ourselves in greater diffi-
culties in attaining our liberty than we ever had when we lived on a
plane lower than servitude, because we had been robbed not only of
liberty but also of active and domestic tyranny. Allow me to explain
this paradox.

In an absolute régime, authorized power does not admit any limits.
The will of the despot is the supreme law, arbitrarily executed by the
subordinates who participate in the organized oppression according to
the measure of the authority they enjoy.

20 BOLIVAR’S ADDRESS

They are intrusted with civil, political, military and religious func-
tions; but in the last analysis, the Satraps of Persia are Persians, the
Pashas of the Great Master are Turks, the Sultans of Tartary are Tar-
tars. China does not send for her Mandarins to the land of Genghis-
khan, her conqueror. America, on the contrary, received all from
Spain, which had really deprived her of true enjoyment and exercise of
active tyranny, by not permitting us to share in our own domestic
affairs and interior administration. This deprivation had made it im-
possible for us to become acquainted with the course of public affairs;
neither did we enjoy that personal consideration which the glamour of
power inspires in the eyes of the multitude, so important in the great
revolutions. I will say, in short, we were kept in estrangement, absent
from the universe and all that relates to the science of government.

The people of America having been held under the triple yoke of
ignorance, tyranny and vice, have not been in a position to acquire
either knowledge, power or virtue. Disciples of such pernicious mas-
ters, the lessons we have received and the examples we have studied,
are most destructive. We have been governed more by deception than
by force, and we have been degraded more by vice than by superstition.
Slavery is the offspring of Darkness; an ignorant people is a blind tool,
turned to its own destruction; ambition and intrigue exploit the
credulity and inexperience of men foreign to all political, economical
or civil knowledge; mere illusions are accepted as reality, license is ©
taken for liberty, treachery for patriotism, revenge for justice. Even
as a sturdy blind man who, relying on the feeling of his own strength,
walks along with the assurance of the most wideawake man and, strik-
ing against all kinds of obstacles, can not steady his steps.

A perverted people, should it attain its liberty, is bound to lose this
very soon, because it would be useless to try to impress upon such people
that happiness lies in the practice of righteousness; that the reign of
law is more powerful than the reign of tyrants, who are more inflexible,
and all ought to submit to the wholesome severity of the law; that good
morals, and not force, are the pillars of the law and that the exercise of
justice is the exercise of liberty. Thus, Legislators, your task is the
more laborious because you are to deal with men misled by the illu-
sions of error, and by civil incentives. Liberty, says Rousseau, is a
succulent food, but difficult to digest. Our feeble fellow-citizens will
have to strengthen their mind much before they will be ready to as-
similate such wholesome nourishment. Their limbs made numb by
their fetters, their eyesight weakened in the darkness of their dungeons
and their forces wasted away through their foul servitude, will they

yi CONGRESS OF ANGOSTURA 21

be capable of marching with a firm step towards the august temple of
Liberty? Will they be capable of coming close to it, and admiring the
light it sheds, and of breathing freely its pure air?

Consider well your decision, Legislators. Do not forget that you
are about to lay the foundations of a new people, which may some day
rise to the heights that Nature has marked out for it, provided you
make those foundations proportionate to the lofty place which that
people is to fill. If your selection be not made under the guidance of
the Guardian Angel of Venezuela, who must inspire you with wisdom
to choose the nature and form of government that you are to adopt
for the welfare of the people; if you should fail in this, I warn you, the
end of our venture would be slavery.

The annals of past ages display before you thousands of govern-
ments. Recall to mind the nations which have shone most highly on
the earth and you will be grieved to see that almost the entire world
has been, and still is, a victim of bad government. You will find many
systems of governing men, but all are calculated to oppress them, and if
the habit of seeing the human race, led by shepherds of peoples, did not
dull the horror of such a revolting sight, we would be astonished to see
our social species grazing on the surface of the globe, even as lowly
herds destined to feed their cruel drivers.

Nature, in truth, endows us at birth with the instinctive desire for
liberty; but whether because of negligence, or because of an inclination
inherent in humanity, it remains still under the bonds imposed on it.
And as we see it in such a state of debasement we seem to have reason
to be persuaded that the majority of men hold as a truth the humiliating
principle that it is harder to maintain the balance of liberty than to
endure the weight of tyranny. Would to God that this principle, con-
trary to the morals of Nature, were false! Would to God that this
principle were not sanctioned by the indolence of man as regards his
most sacred rights!

Many ancient and modern nations have cast off oppression; but
those which have been able to enjoy a few precious moments of liberty
are most rare, as they soon relapsed into their old political vices;
because it is the people more often than the government, that bring on
tyranny. The habit of suffering domination makes them insensible to
the charms of honor and national prosperity, and leads them to look
with indolence upon the bliss of living in the midst of liberty, under the
protection of laws framed by their own free will. The history of the
world proclaims this awful truth!

Only democracy, in my opinion, is susceptible of absolute freedom.

22 BOLIVAR’S ADDRESS

But where is there a democratic government that has united at the
same time power, prosperity and permanence? Have we not seen, on
the contrary, aristocracy, monarchy rearing great and powerful empires
for centuries and centuries? What government is there older than that
of China? What republic has exceeded in duration that of Sparta, that
of Venice? The Roman Empire, did it not conquer the world? Does
not France count fourteen centuries of monarchy? Who is greater than
England? These nations, however, have been, or still are, aristocracies
and monarchies.

Notwithstanding such bitter reflections, I am filled with unbounded
joy because of the great strides made by our republic since entering
upon its noble career. Loving that which is most useful, animated by
what is most just and aspiring to what is most perfect, Venezuela in
separating from the Spanish Nation has recovered her independence,
her freedom, her equality, her national sovereignty. In becoming a
democratic republic, she proscribed monarchy, distinctions, nobility,
franchises and privileges; she declared the rights of man, the liberty
of action, of thought, of speech, of writing. These preeminently liberal
acts will never be sufficiently admired for the sincerity by which they
are inspired. The first Congress of Venezuela has impressed upon the
annals of our legislation with indelible characters the majesty of the
people, so fittingly expressed in the consummation of the social act
best calculated to develop the happiness of a Nation.

I need to gather all my strength in order to feel with all the rever-
ence of which I am capable, the supreme goodness embodied in this
immortal Code of our rights and our laws! But how can I venture to
say it! Shall I dare profane by my censure the sacred tablets of our
laws? There are sentiments that no lover of liberty can hold within
his breast; they overflow stirred by their own violence, and notwith-
standing the efforts of the one harboring such sentiments, an irresistible
force will disclose them. I am convinced that the Government of
Venezuela must be changed, and while many illustrious citizens will
feel as I do, not all possess the necessary boldness to stand publicly for
the adoption of new principles. This consideration compels me to
take the initiative in a matter of the gravest concern, although there
is great audacity in my pretending to give advice to the Counsellors of
the People.

The more I admire the excellence of the Federal Constitution of
Venezuela, the more I am persuaded of the impossibility of its appli-
cation in our State. And, in my opinion, it is a wonder that its model
in North America may endure so successfully, and is not upset in the

CONGRESS OF ANGOSTURA 23

presence of the first trouble or danger. Notwithstanding the fact that
that people is a unique model of political virtues and moral education;
notwithstanding that it has been cradled in liberty, that it has been
reared in freedom and lives on pure liberty, I will say more, although
in many respects that people is unique in the history of humanity, it
is a prodigy, I repeat, that a system so weak and complicated as the
federal system should have served to govern that people in circum-
stances as difficult and delicate as those which have existed. But, what-
ever the case may be, as regards the American Nation, I must say that
nothing is further from my mind than to try to assimilate the conditions
and character of two nations as different as the Anglo-American and
the Spanish-American. Would it not be extremely difficult to apply to
Spain the Code of political, civil and religious liberty of England? It
would be even more difficult to adapt to Venezuela the laws of North
America. Does not the Spirit of Laws state that they must be suited to
the people for whom they are made; that it is a great coincidence when
the laws of one nation suit another; that laws must bear relation to
the physical features of a country, its climate, its soil, its situation,
extension and manner of living of the people; that they must have
reference to the degree of liberty that their constitution may be able
to provide for the religion of the inhabitants, their inclinations, wealth,
number, trade, customs and manners? Such is the Code that we should
consult, not that of Washington!

The Venezuelan Constitution, notwithstanding the fact that the
bases on which it rests have been taken from the most perfect consti-
‘tution of its kind,—should we consider correctness of principles and the
beneficent effect of its administration—differed essentially from the
American Constitution in a cardinal point, and the most important with-
out doubt. The Congress of Venezuela, like the American Congress,
shares in some of the duties of the Executive Power. We, moreover,
subdivide this power, having vested it in a collective body subject to
the objection of making the life of the government a periodical one,
suspending and dissolving it whenever their members separate. Our
triumvirate lacks, one may say, unity, continuity and individual re-
sponsibility, is deprived of action at a given moment, of continued life,
of real uniformity, and immediate responsibility, and a government that
does not possess everything that constitutes its moral force, must be
called incapable.

Although the faculties of the President of the United States are
limited by excessive restrictions, he alone exercises by himself all the
functions of government that the Constitution vests in him, and there

24 BOLIVAR’S ADDRESS

is no doubting that his administration must be more uniform, constant
and truly his own than that of a power divided among several persons,
which can be but a hideous composite. The judiciary power of Vene-
zuela is similar to the American, indefinite in its duration, temporary
and not for life, and enjoying all the independence appertaining to it.

The first Congress in its federal Constitution took into considera-
tion the spirit of the Provinces rather than the solid idea of creating a
republic indivisible and centralized. Our legislators in this instance
yielded to the inconsiderate request of those provincials captivated by
the dazzling appearance of the happiness of the American people, be-
lieving that the blessings they enjoy are solely due to the form of gov-
ernment and not to the character and habits of the citizens. In effect,
the example given by the United States, because of their rare pros-
perity, was too enticing not to be followed. Who could resist the
glorious attraction of the full and absolute enjoyment of sovereignty,
independence, liberty? Who could resist the admiration inspired by an
intelligent government which binds at the same time private and public
rights, and forms by common consent the supreme law of individual
choice? Who could resist the rule of a beneficent government that
with an able, active and powerful hand directs always and everywhere
all its activities towards social perfection, which is the sole end of human
institutions?

But, no matter how flattering might appear and might be the effect
of this splendid federal system, it was not feasible that Venezuelans
could enjoy it of a sudden just after having cast off their fetters. We
were not prepared for so much good; good as well as evil produces
death when it is sudden and excessive. Our moral constitution had not
attained yet the necessary consistency to reap the benefits of a govern-
ment entirely representative and so exalted that it might be adopted to
a republic of saintly men.

Representatives of the People! You have been called to confirm
or suppress whatever you may deem worthy of being preserved, amended
or rejected in our social compact. To your lot falls the correction of
the work of our first legislators; I would fain say that it behooves you
to cover a portion of the beauties found in our political code, because
not every heart is so made as to love all beauties, nor can all eyes stand
the heavenly light of perfection. The book of the Apostles, the doc-
trines of Jesus, the divine writings sent us by Providence to better man-
kind, so sublime, so holy, is a rain of fire in Constantinople, and
Asia entire would be a fiery conflagration should such a book of peace
be suddenly imposed as a code of religion, law and customs. Permit

CONGRESS OF ANGOSTURA 25

me to call the attention of Congress to a matter which may be of vital
importance. We must bear in mind that our population is not the
people of Europe, not of North America, that it is rather a composite
of Africa and America, which is an offspring of Europe. Spain herself
ceases to be European on account of her African blood, her institutions
and her temperament. It is impossible to point out with preciseness
to what human family we belong. The greater portion of the natives
has been annihilated, the European has mixed with the native American
and the African, and this has mixed again with the Indian and the
European. All having been born of the same mother, our parents, of
different origin and blood, are foreigners, and all differ visibly in color
of skin. This dissimilarity is a hindrance of the greatest importance.

The citizens of Venezuela all enjoy by the Constitution,—the in-
terpreter of what Nature intended,—a perfect political equality. Even
though this equality had not been a dogma in Athens, France and in
America, we need to make it such, to correct the difference that appar-
ently seems to exist. My opinion is, Legislators, that the fundamental
principle of our system depends immediately and exclusively on equality
being established and exercised in Venezuela. That men are all born
with equal rights to the benefits of society, has been sanctioned by the
majority of the learned; but it has also been sanctioned that not all men
are equally capable of attaining every distinction; while all should prac-
tise virtue not all do practise it; all should be courageous and all are not
courageous; all should possess talents and all do not possess them. Hence
the real distinction existing among individuals of the most liberally
established society. If the principle of poltical equality is generally
acknowledged, that of physical or moral inequality is also recognized.
Nature has made men unequal as regards genius, temperament, strength
and characteristics. The laws correct that difference by giving man a
place in society so that education, industry, service, virtue may give him
a fictitious equality, properly called political and social equality. It is
an eminently beneficent inspiration that of reuniting all classes in a
State, where diversity multiples in proportion to the propagation of the
species. By this single step, cruel discord has been torn out by the
roots. How much jealousy, rivalry and hatred has been thus avoided!

Having done our duty towards justice, towards humanity, let us
do it now to politics, to society, by smoothing over the difficulties pre-
sented by a system so simple and natural, but so weak that the slightest
obstacle will upset and ruin it. The diversity of origin requires to
be handled with infinite firmness, with infinite delicate tact in order to
deal with an heterogeneous society whose complicated mechanism will

26 BOLIVAR’S ADDRESS

become disjointed, divided, will dissolve at the slightest alteration.
The most perfect system of government is that which produces the
greatest sum of happiness possible, the greatest sum of social security
and political stability. Through the laws enacted by the first Congress
we have the right to expect that happiness be the lot of Venezuela, and
through your laws we must hope that security and stability will per-
petuate such happiness. It is for you to solve the problem. But how,
after having broken all the chains of our former oppression, could we
accomplish the marvelous task of preventing the remnants of our fet-
ters from being turned into liberticide weapons? The relics of Spanish
domination will last a long time before we succeed in annihilating them;
contagion of despotism has vitiated our atmosphere, and neither the
fire of war nor yet the remedy of our wholesome laws has succeeded in
purifying the air we breathe. Our hands are now free, while our hearts
still suffer the ills of servitude. Man in losing his libertyHomer has
said,—loses one-half of his manhood.

A republican government has been, is and must be that of Vene-
zuela, based on the sovereignty of the people, the division of power,
civil liberty, proscription of slavery, abolition of monarchy and privi-
leges. We need equality to recast, so to speak, in a single mass the
classes of men, political beliefs and public customs. Now, casting our
eye over the vast field to be surveyed, let us fix our attention on the
dangers to be avoided. Let History be our guide in this undertaking.
Athens is the first to give us the most brilliant example of an absolute
democracy, and at the same time Athens will offer the most melancholy
example of the extreme weakness of such a system of government. The
wisest among the legislators of Greece did not see his republic last ten
years, and suffered the humiliation of having to acknowledge the inade-
quacy of absolute democracy to govern any form of society, even the
most cultured, moderate and restrained, because it only shines with
flashes of liberty. We must acknowledge, therefore, that Solon has
undeceived the world and shown how difficult it is to govern men with
mere laws.

The republic of Sparta, which appeared to be a chimerical inven-
tion, did produce more real results than the skilful work of Solon.
Glory, virtues, morals, and therefore national happiness, were the result
of Lycurgus’ legislation. Although two kings to one State are two de-
vouring monsters, Sparta had very little to complain of its double throne,
while Athens confidently expected the most splendid future with an
absolute sovereignty, free election of officials, frequently changed, and
laws that were gentle, wise and politic. Pisistratus, a usurper and a

CONGRESS OF ANGOSTURA 27

tyrant, did more good to Athens than her laws, and Pericles, although
a usurper also, was the most useful citizen. The republic of Thebes did
not live longer than Pelopides and Epaminondas, because at times men
and not principles constitute a government. No matter how great the
wisdom contained in codes, systems and statutes, they are a dead letter
having but little influence in society; virtuous men, patriotic men,
learned men make the republic.

The Roman constitution has given the greatest power and fortune
to any one people in the world. It did not provide for an exact division
of powers. The Consuls, the Senate, the people now were legislators,
now executive officials, now judges; all participated in all the functions.
The Executive, consisting of two Consuls, had the same difficulty as that
of Sparta. Notwithstanding this shortcoming, the republic did not
suffer the disastrous results, which all prevision might have thought
unavoidable, of an Executive consisting of two officials having the same
authority with the powers of a monarch. A government, the only in-
clination of which was conquest, did not seem destined to cement the
happiness of the nation. A monstrous government, purely warlike,
raised Rome to the highest state of virtue and glory and made of the
earth a Roman domain as if to show man how far political virtue may
lead, and how unimportant institutions may be.

And passing now from ancient to modern times, we find England
and France attracting attention of all nations, and teaching them elo-
quent lessons of all sorts in the matter of government. The revolution
of these two great peoples, like a brilliant meteor, has flooded the world
with such a profusion of political light that now all thinking men have
learned what are the rights of men, what are their duties, what consti-
tues the excellency of a government and what its vices. All know how
to appreciate the intrinsic value of the speculative theories of modern
philosophers and lawmakers. In fine, that star, in its luminous career,
has even inflamed the heart of the apathetic Spaniards, who have also
entered the political whirlwind, have made ephemeral attempts at
liberty, have acknowledged their incapacity to live under the gentle
rule of law, and have gone back to their immemorial dungeons and
the stake.

This is the proper time, Legislators, to repeat what the eloquent
Volney says in the dedication of his Ruins of Palmyra: “To the rising
peoples of the Spanish Indies, to the generous men who lead them to
liberty. May the errors and misfortunes of the Old World teach wisdom
and happiness to the New World.” Let us not lose, then, the benefit of
the lessons drawn from experience, and may the schools of Greece,

28 BOLIVAR’S ADDRESS

Rome, France, England and America instruct us in the difficult science
of creating and maintaining the nations under proper laws, just, legiti-
mate and above all useful. We must never forget that the superiority
of a government does not consist in its theories, or in its form, or in its
mechanism, but in its being appropriate to the nature and character of
the nation for which it has been instituted.

Rome and Great Britain are the two nations which have excelled
most among ancient and modern peoples. Both were born to rule and
to be free, but both were constituted not with dazzling forms of liberty,
but built on solid foundations. Hence, I recommend you, Representa-
tives, to study the British Constitution, which is the one that seems
destined to do the most possible good to the peoples that adopt it. But
no matter how perfect it may be, I am very far from suggesting a ser-
vile imitation. When I speak of the British Government, I only refer
to whatever it has of the republican system; and truly, could we call a
monarchy a system, that recognizes popular sovereignty, the division
and balance of power, civil liberty and the liberty of conscience, the
freedom of the press and everything which is sublime in politics? Could
there be any more liberty in any republic whatsoever? And, could any
more be said of social order? I recommend such constitution as the
most worthy of being taken as a model by all who yearn for the enjoy-
ment of the rights of men, and all political happiness compatible with
our frail nature.

Our fundamental laws would not be altered in the least should we
adopt a legislative power similar to the British Parliament. We have
divided, as Americans did, national representation into two Chambers,
the Representatives and the Senate. The first is very wisely constituted,
enjoys all the functions appertaining to it, and is not susceptible of a
radical reform, because it is the Constitution which gave it origin, form
and such faculties as the will of the people deemed necessary to be
legally and properly represented. If the Senate, instead of being elective
were hereditary, it would be, in my opinion, the foundation, the binding
tie, the very soul of our republic. This body would arrest the lightning
of government in our political storms, and would break the popular
waves. Attached to the government, because of its natural interest of
self-preservation, it will always oppose the invasions attempted by the
people against the jurisdiction and the authority of its rulers. We must
confess it: the generality of men fail to recognize what their real in-
terests are and constantly endeavor to asail them in the hands of their
trustees; and the individual struggles against the masses, and the masses
against the authorities. It is necessary, therefore, that a neutral body

A PANORAMIC VIEW OF ANGOSTURA, NOW CIUDAD BOLIVAR

Be
ie

THE BUILDING WHERE THE CONGRESS OF ANGOSTURA HELD ITS MEETINGS

CONGRESS OF ANGOSTURA 29

should exist in every government, always siding with the aggrieved
party to disarm the offender. This neutral body, to be such, must not
owe its origin to the election of the government, nor to the election of
the people, so as to enjoy a full measure of freedom, neither fearing nor
expecting anything from either of these two sources of authority. The
hereditary Senate, as a part of the people, shares in its interests, in its
sentiments, in its spirit. For this reason it is not to be presumed that a
hereditary Senate would disregard the popular interests or forget its
legislative duties. The Roman Senators and the Lords of London have
been the staunchest columns on which the structure of political and civil
liberty has been erected.

These Senators would be elected by Congress the first time. The
succession to the Senate should engage the first attention of the govern-
ment, which would educate them in a college specially devoted to in-
structing these tutors, future legislators of the country. They should
learn the arts, sciences and letters, the accomplishments of the mind of
public men; from childhood they should know the career to which
Providence has destined them, and from a tender age they should
temper their soul to the dignity awaiting them.

The creation of a hereditary Senate would be in nowise a violation
of political equality; I do not pretend to establish a nobility because, as
a famous republican has said, it would be to destroy at the same time
equality and liberty. It is a calling for which candidates must be pre-
pared; it is an office requiring much knowledge and the proper means
to become learned in it. Everything must not be left to chance and for-
tune in the elections; the people are more easily deceived than Nature
perfected by art, and although it is true that these Senators would not
spring from the womb of Perfection, it is also true that they would
spring from the womb of a learned education. On the other hand, the
liberators of Venezuela are entitled to hold, always, a high rank in the
republic which owes its existence to them! I believe that posterity
would grieve to see the effacement of the illustrious names of their first
benefactors. I say, moreover, that it is a matter of public interest, of
the gratitude of Venezuela, of national honor, to preserve with glory
to the end of posterity a race of men of virtues, prudence and valor,
who mastering all obstacles have founded the republic at the cost of
the most heroic sacrifices. And if the people of Venezuela do not
applaud the elevation of their benefactors, they are unworthy of being
a free people, and never will be free.

A hereditary Senate, I repeat, will be the fundamental support of
the Legislative Power and, therefore, the basis of the entire govern-

30 BOLIVAR’S ADDRESS

ment. It will equally serve to counterbalance both the government and
the people; it will be an intermediate power that would blunt the
shafts those two eternal rivals direct against each other. In all con-
flicts, the calm reasoning of a third party becomes the means of recon-
ciliation; thus, the Senate of Venezuela will be the keystone of this
structure so delicate and so liable to violent shocks; it would be the
rainbow which calms the storms and maintains harmony between the
members and the head of this political body.

Nothing whatever could corrupt a legislative body vested with the
highest honors, self-dependent, having nothing to fear from the people,
and nothing to expect from the government; having no other object
than the repression of all elements of evil, and the fostering of all ele-
ments of good, and having the greatest interest in the existence of a
society, in the good or bad results of which it must participate. It has
been very justly said that the Upper House of England is invaluable to
the nation because it is a bulwark to liberty, and I may add, that the
Senate of Venezuela would be not only a bulwark to liberty but a sup-
port to make the republic everlasting.

The British Executive Power is clothed with all the sovereign
authority devolving upon it, but it is also surrounded by a triple line
- of dikes, barriers and stockades. It is the Chief of the Government, but
its Ministers and subordinates rely more on the laws than on its
authority, because they are personally responsible, and not even the
orders coming from the Royal Authorities could exempt them from
such responsibility. It is the Commander-in-Chief of the Army and
Navy; it makes peace and declares war, but it is Parliament that gen-
erally votes the sums to be paid to the military forces. If the courts
and judges are dependent on it, the laws originate in Parliament which
approves them. In order to neutralize this authority, the person of the
King is inviolable and sacred, and while leaving the head free, the hands
are bound. The Sovereign of England has three formidable rivals:
his Cabinet, responsible to the people and Parliament; the Senate which
defends the interests of the people as representatives of the nobility
of which it consists, and the House of Commons, acting as the organ
and mouthpiece of the British people. Moreover, as the judges are
responsible for the proper application of the laws, they never deviate
from them and the administrators of the Exchequer, being liable to
prosecution not only for their own transgressions, but also for those
of the government itself, guard most carefully against any malversation
of the public moneys. No matter how the nature of the Executive
Power of England is examined nothing can be found to lead to the

ae. etree

ees.

CONGRESS OF ANGOSTURA 31

belief that it is not the most perfect model, whether for a kingdom, an
aristocracy, or a democracy. Let us apply to Venezuela this sort of
Executive Power in the person of a President appointed by the people
or their representatives, and we would have taken a great step toward
national happiness.

Whoever be the citizen discharging these functions he will be sup-
ported by the Constitution; being authorized to do good, he can not
do harm, because whenever he is acting under the law, his Ministers will
cooperate with him. If, on the other hand, he attempts to violate the
law, his own Ministers would leave him isolated in the midst of the
Republic, and may even impeach him before the Senate. The Ministers
being responsible for any transgressions committed, they are the true
governing powers, because they have to pay for their own misdeeds.
Of no little advantage in the system is the obligation resting on the offi-
cials near the Executive Power to take great interest and a most active
part in the deliberations of the government and to look on this depart-
ment as if it were their own. It may happen that the President is not a
man of great talents or great virtues, but notwithstanding the lack of
these essential qualifications the President may perform his duties in a
satisfactory manner, as in such cases the Ministry, doing all, bears the
burden of the State.

However excessive the authority of the Executive Power of England
may appear to be, it might not be excessive in the Republic of Venezuela.
Here, Congress has bound the hands and even the head of the officials.
This deliberative body has assumed a portion of the Executive func-
tions, against the maxim of Montesquieu, that a representative body
must not take any active resolution; it must make the laws and see
whether the laws made are properly executed. Nothing is more con-
trary to harmony between powers than having them mix; nothing is
more dangerous to the people than a weak Executive, and if in a King-
dom it has been deemed necessary to grant the Executive so many
faculties, in a republic these faculties are much more indispensable.

Let us direct our attention to this difference, and we will find that
the balance of power must be distributed in two ways. In republics the
Executive must be the stronger, because everything conspires against
it, while in monarchies the stronger must be the Legislative Power,
because everything conspires in favor of the monarch. The veneration
of peoples for Royalty is a fascination which has powerful influence in
increasing the superstitious respect paid to its authority. The splendor
of the throne, of the crown, of the purple, the formidable support of
nobility, the immense wealth that whole generations accumulate under

32 BOLIVAR’S ADDRESS

the same dynasty, the fraternal protection that kings mutually receive,
are very considerable advantages in favor of royal authority, making it
almost unlimited. These very advantages are, therefore, those which
must confirm the necessity of granting a republican Executive a greater
authority than that possessed by a constitutional prince.

A republican Executive is a man isolated in the midst of a com-
munity, to restrain the impulse of the people towards license, the in-
clination of judges and administrators towards the abuse of the law.
He is responsible to the Legislative body, the Senate and the people;
he is one single man resisting the combined attack of the opinions, the
interests and the passions of the social state, which, as Carnot has said,
does nothing but continually struggle between the desire to dominate
and that of getting away from domination. He is, in short, an athlete
pitted against a multitude of athletes.

The only means to correct this weakness would be a well supported,
well proportioned force against the resistance which the Legislative
Power, the Judiciary and the People necessarily oppose to the Executive
in a republic. If all the means that a just distribution of authority
grants the Executive are not placed within its reach, it will necessarily
become null or will misuse its own powers. I mean that it will be the
death of the government, whose heirs are anarchy, usurpation and
tyranny. It is sought to restrain executive authority with restrictions
and obstacles; nothing is more just, but it must be borne in mind that
the ties, the preservation of which is desired, must be strengthened,
but not tightened.

Let us strengthen, then, the entire system of government, and see
to it that the balance be established so that it will not break, and that
its own sensitiveness be not a cause of decadence. As there is no form
of government weaker than democracy, its structure must be built with
great solidity, and its institutions carefully studied to insure stability.
If it be not so, we must be sure that a trial government, and not a per-
manent system, is being established; we must reckon with an ungovern-
able, tumultuous and anarchical society, not with a social establish-
ment where happiness, peace and justice hold sway.

Let us not be presumptuous, Legislators, let us be moderate in our
pretentions. It is not likely that we should attain that which humanity
has not succeeded in attaining, what the greatest and wisest nations
never attained. Indefinite liberty, absolute democracy are the rocks
upon which all republican hopes have been wrecked. Cast your eye
over the ancient republics, the modern republics, the rising republics;
almost all have tried to establish themselves as absolute democracies,

CONGRESS OF ANGOSTURA 33

and almost all have failed in their just aspirations. They are praise-
worthy, undoubtedly, who wish for legitimate institutions and social
perfection! But, who has told men that they possess already all the
wisdom, that they practice all the virtues uncompromisingly demanded
’ by the union of power and justice. Only angels, not mere men, can
exist free, peaceful, happy, while exercising all the sovereign power.
The people of Venezuela already enjoy the rights they can legiti-
mately and easily enjoy. Let us moderate, now, the pressure of exces-
sive pretentions, which the form of a government not suited to their
needs might perhaps excite. Let us abandon the federal forms not
suited to us; let us abandon the triumvirate of the Executive Power and
center it in one President; let us grant him sufficient authority to enable
him to struggle against the obstacles anent our recent condition, the
state of war we are in, and the kind of foreign and domestic enemies
against whom we will have to battle for a long time. Let the Legislative
Power relinquish the functions belonging to the Executive and acquire,
notwithstanding, a new consistency, a new influence in the balance of
authority. Let the courts be strengthened by the stability and inde-
pendence of the judges, the creation of juries, and civil and criminal
codes not dictated by antiquity, nor by conquering kings, but by the
voice of Nature, by the cry of Justice and by the genius of Wisdom.
My desire is that all parts of government and administration should
require that degree of vigor that can only preserve the equilibrium, not
among the members of the government itself, but among the different
fractions of which our society consists. It would be of no importance
that the springs of a political system become loose because of weakness,
if this condition should not mean a general dissolution of the social
body and the ruin of its members. The cries of humanity on the battle-
fields or in the mobs, clamor to Heaven against the inconsiderate and
blind legislators who have thought that experiments with chimerical
institutions can be made with impunity. All the peoples in the world
have tried to attain liberty, some by the force of arms, others by framing
laws, passing successively from anarchy to despotism, or from despotism
to anarchy. There are very few who have been contented with mod-
erate pretensions by constituting themselves in a manner more in keeping
with their means, their minds and their circumstances. We do not at-
tempt the impossible, lest by soaring above the region of liberty we
_might descend to the region of tyranny. From absolute liberty we
always descend to absolute power, and the mean between these two
extremes is supreme social liberty. Abstract theories produce the per-
nicious idea of unlimited freedom. Let us work to the end that the

i all

34 BOLIVAR’S ADDRESS

public force be confined within the bounds that reason and interest de-
mand; that national will be restrained to the limit marked out by a
just power; that a civil and criminal legislation, analogous to our
present constitution, have an absolute control over judicial power.
Then that equilibrium will exist and there will be no classes to hinder
the onward march of the State, and there will be no complications tram-
meling up society instead of binding it together.

In order to form a stable government the basis is required of a
national spirit, the object of which is a uniform tendency toward two
capital points: to moderate the popular will, and to limit public author-
ity. The terms which theoretically fix these two points are of difficult
determination, but it can be well imagined that the rule which must
govern is reciprocal restriction, in order to have the least friction pos-
sible between that will and legitimate authority. This science is uncon-
sciously acquired through practice and study. Progress of education
broadens the progress of practice, while uprightness of mind widens the
progress of enlightenment.

Love of country, love of law, love of the authorities, are the noble
passions which must have exclusive sway in a republican soul. The
Venezuelans love their country, but do not love their laws, because these
were noxious and the source of evil; nor could they love their authori-
ties, because they were unjust, and the new authorities are scarcely
known in their new calling. If there is not a holy respect for the
country, the laws and the authorities, society becomes a disorder, an
abyss; an individual conflict between man and man, and hand to hand.

In order to bring our rising republic out of this chaos, all our
moral power will not be sufficient unless we cast the entire mass of the
people in one single body, the composition of the government in one
single body, legislation in one single body, and national spirit in one
single body. Union, Union, Union, must be our motto. Our citizens are
of different blood, let us mix it for the sake of union; our constitution
has divided the powers, let us bind them together for the sake of union;
our laws are sorry relics of all the ancient and modern despotisms; let
us demolish such an awful structure. Let it fall, and discarding even its
ruins let us create a temple to Justice, and under the auspices of its
holy inspiration, let us frame a code of Venezuelan laws. If we wish
to consult monuments and models of legislation, Great Britain, France,
North America have admirable ones.

Popular education should be the paramount care of the paternal
love of Congress. Morals and enlightenment are the poles of a republic;
morals and enlightenment are our prime necessities. Let us take from

a

CONGRESS OF ANGOSTURA 35

Athens her Areopagus, and the guardians of customs and laws; let us
take from Rome her censors and domestic tribunals, and forming a
holy alliance of those useful institutions, let us revive on earth the idea
of a people which is not contented with being free and strong, but wants
also to be virtuous. Let us take from Sparta her austere institutions,
and forming with these three springs a fountain of virtues, let us give
our republic a fourth power, having jurisdiction over childhood and the
heart of men, public spirit, good customs and republican morals. Let
us establish such an Areopagus to watch over the education of children,
over national instruction, that it may purify whatever is corrupt in the
republic; denounce ingratitude, selfishness, coldness of love for the
country, idleness, negligence of the citizens; pass judgment upon the
origin of corruption, and pernicious examples, applying moral penalties
to correct breaches of custom,—just as afflictive punishment is applied
to atone for a crime and not only whatever is repugnant to customs
but that which weakens them as well; not only what may violate
the Constitution, but also whatever should infringe on public respect.
The jurisdiction of such court, a truly holy tribunal, should be effective
with respect to education and instruction, and advisory only in what
refers to penalties and punishment. Its annals or records, however,
where its acts and deliberations are kept, the moral principles and
the conduct of the citizens, shall be the books of virtue and vice;
books that the people will consult for their elections, the executives for
their decisions and the judges for their trials. Such an institution, no
matter how chimerical it may appear, is infinitely more feasible than
others which ancient and modern legislators have established, much less
useful to human kind.

Legislators! The project of a Constitution which I most respect-
fully submit, will show you the spirit in which it was conceived. In
suggesting the division of citizens into active and passive, I have tried to
promote national prosperity through the two greatest levers of industry:
work and knowledge. By stimulating these two great springs of society,
the most difficult thing to make men honest and happy is attained. By
just and prudent restrictions on primary and electoral assemblies, we
place the first bar to popular license, avoiding tumultuous, blind gather-
ings which at all times have made blunders at elections. These blunders
have extended to the executives and the government, because that all
important act is the maker of either the liberty or the slavery of a
people.

By increasing in the balance of powers the weight of Congress by
the increase in the number of legislators, and the nature of the Senate,

36 BOLIVAR’S ADDRESS

I have endeavored to give a fixed basis for the first Body of the Nation
and to clothe it with a dignity most important to the success of its
sovereign functions.

In separating by means of well defined boundaries the jurisdiction
of the executive from legislative jurisdiction, I have not endeavored
to divide but to bind with the bonds of that harmony born of indepen-
dence, such supreme authorities, whose prolonged clash has never failed
to frighten one of the two contending parties. When I wish to vest the
Executive with a number of duties beyond those formerly devolving
upon it, it is not my desire to authorize a despot to tyrannize the Re-
public, but to prevent a deliberating despotism from becoming the im-
mediate cause of a cycle of despotic vicissitudes in which anarchy will
alternatively be replaced by oligarchy and by monocracy. In asking
for the stability of judges, the creation of juries, and the new code, I
ask Congress for the guarantee of civil liberty, the most priceless, the
most just, the most necessary form of liberty, in a word the only kind of
liberty, as without it, the others are void. I have requested the correc-
tion of the most lamentable abuses to which our judiciary is subjected,
due to its defective origin as coming from that sea of Spanish legisla-
tion which, like time, gathers from all ages and men, whether the works
of the insane or the works of the sane, whether the production of the
wise or the productions of some extravagant mind, whether a monu-
ment of genius or a monument of fancy. This judiciary encyclopedia, a
monster of ten thousand heads which has been until now the scourge
of the Spanish peoples, is the most refined punishment the wrath of
Heaven has permitted to descend upon this unfortunate empire.

While pondering over the effective means of regenerating the
character and customs which tyranny and war have formed in us, I
have dared to invent a Moral Power, drawn from the depths of obscure
antiquity and from the now forgotten laws which for a time sustained
public virtue among the Greeks and Romans. This may be an ingenuous
dream, but not an impossibility, and I flatter myself that you will not
altogether disdain a thought that, improved through experience and
instruction, may become most efficacious.

Horrified at the separation that has prevailed and must prevail
among us because of the subtile spirit that characterizes the federal
government, I have been led to beg of you to adopt centralization and
the union of all the States of Venezuela into a Republic, one and indi-
visible. This measure which in my opinion is urgent, vital, saving, is
of such nature that without it death will be the fruit of our regeneration.

It is my duty, Legislators, to present before you a detailed and true

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CONGRESS OF ANGOSTURA 37

report of my political, civil and military administration, but this would
overtax your valuable attention, and deprive you at this moment of a
time as important as pressing. Therefore, the Secretaries of State will
report to Congress on their respective departments, submitting at the
same time the documents and records which will serve to illustrate and
to give an exact idea of the real, positive condition of the Republic.

I would not mention to you the most notable acts of my administra-
tion, did they not concern the majority of the Venezuelans. I refer,
Gentlemen, to the most important resolutions taken in this last period.
Atrocious, godless slavery covered with its sable mantle the land of
Venezuela and our skies were overcast with storm clouds threatening
a deluge of fire. I implored the protection of the God of Humanity, and
Redemption scattered the storm. Slavery broke its chains and Vene-
zuela has found herself surrounded by her new children, grateful chil-
dren who have turned their instruments of captivity into arms of liberty.
Yea, those who were slaves are now free; those who were the enemies
of their foster mother are now the defenders ofa country. To empha-
size the justice, the necessity, the beneficent results of this measure, is
superfluous, when you know the history of the Helots, Spartacus and
Haiti; when you know that one can not be free and enslaved at the
same time, unless in violation of the laws of nature and the civil and
political laws. I leave to your sovereign decision the reform or abroga-
tion of all my statutes and decrees; but I implore of you the confirma-
tion of the absolute freedom of the slaves, as I would beg for my life
and the life of the Republic.

To mention the military history of Venezuela would be to remind
you of the history of republican heroism among the ancients; it would
be to tell you that Venezuela has been inscribed in the great roll of
honor of the sacrifices made on the altar of liberty. Nothing could fill
the noble breasts of our generous warriors, but the exalted honors paid
to the benefactors of humanity.

Not fighting for power, nor yet for fortune, not even for glory
but only for liberty, the title of Liberators of the Republic is their
most fitting guerdon. I have, therefore, founded a sacred associa-
tion of these illustrious men; I have created the Order of the Libera-
tors of Venezuela. Legislators, the authority to confirm honors and
decorations belongs to you; it is your duty to perform this august act
of national gratitude.

Men who have given up all pleasures; all the comforts they en-
joyed as the fruits of their virtues and talents; men who have under-
gone all that is cruel in a horrible war, suffered the most patnful priva-

38 BOLIVAR’S ADDRESS

tions, and the bitterest torments; men so well deserving of the country,
must attract the attention of the government, and in consequence I
have directed that they be allowed a compensation out of the national
wealth. If I have acquired any merit whatever before the eyes of the
people, I ask the representatives of the people to grant my request as
the reward of my feeble services. Let Congress direct the distribution
of the national property in accordance with the law that in the name of
the Republic I have decreed, for the benefit of the military men of
Venezuela.

Now that after infinite victories we have succeeded in annihilating
the Spanish hosts, the Court of Madrid in desperation has vainly en-
deavored to impose upon the mind of the magnanimous sovereigns who
have just destroyed usurpation and tyranny in Europe, and must be
the protectors of the legality and justice of the American cause. Being
incapable of attaining our submission by force of arms, Spain has re-
course to her insidious policy; being unable to conquer us, she has
brought into play her devious artfulness. Ferdinand has humbled him-
self to the extent of confessing that he needs foreign protection to
bring us back to his ignominious yoke, a yoke that there is no power
which could impose on us! Venezuela, fully convinced of possessing
sufficient strength to repel her oppressors, has made known by the voice
of the government her final determination to fight to the death in de-
fense of her political life, not only against Spain, but against all men,
if all men had degraded themselves to the extent of espousing the de-
fense of a devouring government whose only incentives are a death
dealing sword and the flames of the inquisition. A government that
wants not domains, but deserts, not cities but ruins, not vassals but
graves. The Declaration of the Republic of Venezuela is the most
glorious, most heroic, most worthy Act of a free people; it is the one that
with the greatest satisfaction I have the honor to offer Congress, being
already sanctioned by the unanimous will of the free people of
Venezuela.

Since the second epoch of our Republic our army has lacked mili-
tary elements; it has always lacked arms, it has always lacked ammuni-
tions, has always been poorly equipped. Now the soldiers, defenders
of our independence, are not only armed with justice, but also with
force. Our troops can cope with the most select of Europe, since there
is no inequality in the weapons of destruction. Such great advantages
are due to the boundless liberality of some generous foreigners who
have heard the groans of humanity, and have seen the Cause of Right
yield. But they have not been mere spectators, they have rushed with

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CONGRESS OF ANGOSTURA 39

their generous help and have loaned the Republic everything that was
needed for the triumph of its philanthropical principles. These. friends
of humanity are the guardian angels of America and to them we owe
eternal gratitude, and the religious fulfillment of the sacred obligations
we have contracted with them. The national debt, Legislators, is a
sacred trust in the faith, the honor and the gratitude of Venezuela.
Let it be respected like the Holy Ark, holding not only the rights of
our benefactors, but the glory of our faithfulness. May we perish before
we break a pledge which has saved the country and the life of her
children,

The merging of New Granada and Venezuela into one Great State,
has been the unanimous wish of the peoples and the government of
both republics. The fortunes of war have effected this union so earnestly
desired by all Colombians; in fact, we are incorporated. These sister
countries have already entrusted to you their interests, their rights and
their destinies. In contemplating the union of these countries my soul
rises to the heights demanded by the colossal perspective of such a won-
derful picture. Soaring among the coming ages my imagination rests
on the future centuries, and seeing from afar with admiration and
amazement the prosperity, the splendor and the life which have come
to this vast region, I feel myself carried away, and I see her in the very
heart of the universe, stretching along her lengthy shores between two
oceans which Nature has separated, but which our country unites
through long wide channels. I can see her as the bond, as the center,
as the emporium of the human family. I can see her sending to all the
corners of the globe the treasure hidden in her mountains of silver
and gold; I see her sending broadcast, by means of her divine plants,
health and life to the sufferers of the old world; I see her confiding her
precious secrets to the learned who do not know how much her store
of knowledge is superior to the store of wealth bestowed by Nature
upon her; I can see her sitting on the throne of liberty, the scepter of
justice in her hand, crowned by glory, showing the old world the majesty
of the modern world.

Deign, Legislators, to accept with indulgence the profession of my
political faith, the highest wishes of my heart and the fervent prayer
which on behalf of the people I dare address you: Deign to grant to
Venezuela a government preeminently popular, preeminently just, pre-
eminently moral, which will hold in chains oppression, anarchy and
guilt. A government which will allow righteousness, tolerance, peace
to reign; a government which will cause equality and liberty to triumph
under the protection of inexorable laws.

Gentlemen, commence your duties; I have finished mine.

SIMON BOLIVAR.

Presidente Interino de la Republica de Venezuela, Capitan- General de sus
Exércitos y Ios de la Nueva-Granada, &e. &e. &e.

PROCLAMA.

Venezolanos !

Ei Congreso general de Venezuela ha reasumido el Poder Soberano que
dntes me habiais confiado: yo lo he devuelto al Pucblo transmiticndolo 4 sus

legitimos Representantes.

La Soberania Nacional me ha honrado nucvamente, encargandome cl

Poder Executivo baxo el titulo de Presidente Interino de Venezuela.

Venezolanos Yo me siento incapaz de gobernaros: asi Jo he tepre-
sentado por muchas veces 4 vuestros Representantes, y « pesar de mis justas

renuncias he sido forzado 4 mandaros.

Soldados del Exército Libertador !— Mi unica ambicion ha sido siempre

la de participar con vosotros de los pcligros que arrostrais por la Republica.

Ciudadanos!—Una Legion Britanica, protectora de nuestra Libertad,
ha llegado a Venezuela a ayudarnos 4 quebrantar nuesttas cadenas: recibidla
con la veneracion que inspira el heroismo benéfico. Abrid vuestros brazos
4 csos Extrangeros generosos que vienen 4 disputarnos los titulos de Libertadores

de Venezuela.

Quartel-general de Angostura 4 20 de Febrero de 1819,==9°

SIMON BOLIVAR.

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Impreso por Andrés Roderick, Impresor del Gobierno.

FAC SIMILE OF THE PROCLAMATION OF THE LIBERATOR, DATED FEBRUARY 20 1819

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