Note 25 — Chapter X · THE ATHENS OF SOUTH AMERICA

“Colombia had been an efficient war machine in the hands of Bolivar by which the independence of South America was secured, but was an anachronism as a nation. The interests of the different sections were antagonistic, and the military organization given to the country only strengthened the germs of disorder. Venezuela and New Granada were geographically marked out as independent nations. Quito, from historical antecedents, aspired to autonomy. Had Bolivar abstained from his dreams of conquest, and devoted his energies to the consolidation of his own country, he might, perhaps, have organized it into one nation under a federal form of government, but that was not suited to his genius. When his own bayonets turned against him, he went so far as to despair of the republican system altogether and sought the protection of a foreign king for the last fragment of his shattered monocracy.”—History of San Martin, p. 467, by General Don Bartolome Mitre, translated by W. Pilling, London, 1893. ↑