Note XVIII-54 — Chapter XVIII · POLITICAL EVENTS IN COSTA RICA. 1856-1886.

He had been declared a benemérito, and given a vote of thanks. Costa R., Col. Ley., xxiv. 62. Guardia's administration during the past six years was highly extolled in the Gaceta Oficial of San José. It said that his surrender of power proved the falsity of the charge that he had intended holding it for life. We shall see how much this statement was worth. It claimed for him that he had at all times blended leniency with firmness, which facts fail to establish. He was equally credited with increasing the revenues by his successful measures to repress smuggling; with protecting industry and labor; endeavoring to provide the country with a railroad between the two oceans; improving the morale of the country; spreading public education; promoting political and commercial relations with other countries; forwarding public works; and lastly, vigorously defending Costa Rica's rights against Nicaragua's pretensions. Salv., Gaceta Ofic., May 22, 1876. On the other hand, we are told that Costa Rica's revenues were squandered in keeping 2,000 men on the frontier as a menace to Nicaragua. Pan. Star and Herald, June 1, 1876. Guardia has been justly called a tyrant, because of his arbitrary acts and violations of the constitution. Electoral and parliamentary freedom, under his rule, was a farce; results at elections being what his will dictated, and congress being mostly made up of his immediate friends and a number of puppets. There were some honorable exceptions, like that of Zacarías García, who, for acting as a real representative of the people, was imprisoned without protest on the part of his colleagues. The independence of the three powers, personal rights, freedom of the press, and other constitutional guaranties, were repeatedly trampled upon by Guardia, by his favorite, Pedro Quiroz, and by other satellites. Justices of the supreme court and numerous other prominent citizens were either imprisoned, banished, or mulcted in heavy sums of money, without any form of trial having preceded. José M. Castro, chief justice, and Salvador Jimenez, justice of the supreme court, were by Guardia's autocratic command made to live for a time on the Pacific coast. Even his brother, Victor Guardia, was harshly treated for showing an independent spirit; and his brother-in-law, Leon Fernandez, was several months kept in irons for some mysterious offence that was never brought to trial, and afterward transferred to a horrible dungeon in Limon, where he was cruelly treated until he succeeded in effecting his escape. Other infringements of the laws are also mentioned, and not a few cases of brutality, even the use of the lash on respectable citizens, which Guardia and his myrmidons were challenged to contradict to the face of Costa Ricans. Aguirre, J. M., Recortes ... Corresp. Hist. Polít., 1-21. This is a letter dated and published at Panamá May 1, 1876, and addressed to Francisco Chavez C., editor of El Costaricense, Guardia's press organ, whom he handles without gloves for his defence of Guardia's acts and abuse of Guardia's opponents. The writer had been one of the victims of both, and was evidently well posted on the history of Guardia's rule. Making allowance for exaggeration in some instances, the conclusion to be arrived at is that Guardia acted like an autocrat who would brook no opposition. It does not appear, however, that he was sanguinary.