the Supreme Judge, who knows the rectitude and justice of our proceedings, we pledge, for the support of this declaration, our lives, our fortunes, and our honour, which after the solemn oath we bave taken is the most sacred upon earth.” Restrepo, t. ix. p. 152–158; t. iv. p. 76.

Our limits would not warrant us in following Mr. Restrepo, volume by volume; nor is it necessary; it is sufficient to say, that his arrangement of his subject is clear and intelligible, and regularly unfolds the beginning and progress of the revolution, in its civil as well as military details. With this remark, we shall continue to offer such. detached extracts, as appear especially worthy of note, without attempting any strict observance of their connexion. Passing over the history of the deposition of the viceroy of Santa Fé, Don Antonio Amar, the establishment of a revolutionary junta in the capital, and afterwards in the provinces, and the adoption of provisional constitutions by various provinces of New-Granada, we come to the year 1812, when the latter were nominally confederated, excepting Cundinamarca, which, actuated by its president, Don Antonio Nariño, exerted its powerful influence in favour of centralism. In this period, we observe notices of a citizen of the United States as somewhat prominent in the city of Popayan. He is introduced on the following occasion:

"A happy casualty contributed to preserve the government of Popayan, and all the inhabitants affected to the republican system, from being destroyed by the royalists of Patia. Alexander Macaulay, a young adventurer from the United States, happened to arrive at that city. He observed the movements of the Patianos, their neglect of discipline, and that most of them were only armed with lances. He proposed, then, to Cabal and the other chiefs, that they should surprise the enemy's camp at five o'clock in the morning of the day ensuing, (May 23d 1812). Adopting the plan, and assembling about four hundred men during the night, they gave to Macaulay the direction of the battle. The enemy, who did not dream of being attacked, were completely surprised in their camp on the Exido; and in a few minutes this band of assassins was dispersed in flight. At seven in the morning, the patriots returned to the city, and marched against the division which occupied the bridge of Cauca, which met with the same fate."

To this plaint.

passage there is a note, which seems to convey a com

"He (Macaulay) was a native of York, in Virginia, and, desirous of gaining glory in the new republics of South America, had come to Venezuela the year before. Thence he passed into New-Granada; he was in Pamplona, Tunja, and Cundinamarca, from whence the president Nariño ordered his departure, thinking he was a spy. He proceeded, then, for the south, intending to go to Quito, and offer his services in a military capacity to the junta of that city. He is one of the very few North Americans, who have combated in the noble cause of their brethren of the south, to which, in general, they have contributed only with a sterile sympathy."-Restrepo, t. iii., pp. 145,146.

After this brilliant beginning, Macaulay's career was honourable, but short. In July he received the command of a column of six hundred men, in consequence of the courage and military science he had displayed, and was despatched against Pasto, the

strong-hold of the royalists in the presidency of Quito. He succeeded in forcing the formidable pass of Juanambu, although it was vigorously defended by the Pastusos, and conducted his little army to the neighbourhood of the city, which he contemplated taking by assault. Hereupon the inhabitants had recourse to a ruse for their preservation. They set at liberty Caycedo, late president of the Junta of Popayan, whom they had on a previous occasion made captive; concluded, through his mediation, an armistice for the exchange of prisoners, and procured a suspension of the attack, under pretence of wishing to treat directly with the junta. Meanwhile, Macaulay discovered that treachery was intended, and found it necessary to retire to some safe post, to avoid being attacked at disadvantage. But his guides betrayed their trust, and led him into an ambush, where he was encountered by the royalists. An obstinate engagement ensued, in which the Pastusos were at first repulsed; but obtaining reinforcements, they at length obliged the patriots to fortify themselves in a dwelling-house. Caycedo then proposed a capitulation, against Macaulay's advice; but during the negotiations, the Pastuso captain, Delgado, violated the law of arms by suddenly attacking Macaulay's troops, who were thus thrown into disorder, and completely routed, most of the officers being killed or taken prisoners. Macaulay escaped, but in a few days was made. captive by the Indians of Buesaco. The unfortunate issue of this expedition induced the junta to abandon Popayan, and leave it to be occupied by the wild Patianos. Afterwards, when Don Toribio Montes, president of Quito under the regency of Cadin, had subjugated the whole province in the course of the same year, and obtained a temporary ascendency over the patriots there, he ordered Caycedo and Macaulay to be shot as rebels, with every fifth man among the officers, and every tenth among the soldiers, made prisoners in Pasto; and this barbarous sentence was executed upon them by the Patianos, early in the year 1813.*

At this period, although eighteen months had elapsed since New-Granada became free, it had made small progress in its political organization, or in preparing for defence against Spain. There was no general government. Each province proceeded in its own way, as sovereign and independent; even the smallest of them adhering to the phantom of sovereignty, although destitute of means to support their pretensions, seduced by the example of some of the small states in this country, of which they knew little, except their narrow geographical extension. Controversies respecting territorial limits, or whether the general government should be central or federal, agitated the country,

Restrepo, t. iii., pp. 151 and 169.

and introduced distraction into the councils of the patriots. Cundinamarca, as we have observed, supported the central system, of which her president, Nariño, was the most intelligent advocate, whilst the federalists were headed by Dr. Camilo Torres. Already one short civil war had taken place, in consequence of the attempt of Cundinamarca to aggregate to itself some districts claimed by other provinces. A much graver contest was now arising between the same antagonist parties, on the subject of the federal government, which was finally organized by the concurrence of nearly all New-Granada, except Cundinamarca. marks continually occur upon this question, in Mr. Restrepo's pages, which are pointed and strong. It has been very ably and fully discussed, as many of our readers are aware, in the state papers of the Spanish American republics; and is a subject well deserving the attention of curious inquirers in the United States. Abstaining from entering into it ourselves in this place, we copy a pertinent note of Mr. Restrepo's, which contains the substance of the dispute.

Re

"Experience, which illuminates with the torch of truth, the most difficult questions of political philosophy, afterwards made it manifest to New-Granada, that Nariño was right in the main. The want of intelligence, of population, of resources, made of several provinces mere dead limbs for the Union. The revenues of Chocó, Neyva, and Casanare, scarcely sufficed for the pay of the provincial officers; and left nothing for the common defence. With great difficul ty could individuals be found to fill the various offices, when the constitution took effect the first time. To supply the periodical changes, it was necessary to have recourse to the same persons, or to lay hands on farmers, merchants, and miners. How should these understand the ingenious and complicated federative system, and the laws which they sanctioned ? All was confusion and real anarchy."

*

"The author of this history concurred in forming the federal constitution, and was an enthusiastic admirer of that system. Seduced by the rapid aggrandizement of the republics of the United States, and by the complete freedom which the citizens of that country enjoyed, he held their political institutions in the greatest veneration. At that time he thought with the leading men of NewGranada, that our provinces were in the same state with those of North America in 1776, when they formed a confederacy. But the lessons of time, and the events which he has witnessed, joined with his own reflections, have satisfied him of the contrary. There is great difference between the condition of the United States, founded and established under the shelter of republican institutions, and that of provinces which have always depended on a monarchical and despotic government. In the latter, democratical forms were absolutely new, and many of them opposed to our customs, habits, and inveterate prejudices. In the former, generally, little else was necessary, but to vary the appointment of governors, who were commissioned previously by the king of England. The constitutional charters, and the laws of the former provinces of North America, answered for the same when transformed into republics. In New-Granada it was necessary to alter almost every thing which existed. There is nothing wonderful, therefore, in the brief duration of the nascent states; the laws were not adapted to the people."-Restrepo, t. III., p. 57, note.

Our author was, according to his own account, seasonably disabused of the mistaken idea that New-Granada could secure her independence under the federative system; and, in June 1813,

presented to the legislature of Antioquia, of which province he was then a prominent citizen, a law for centralizing the departments of war, and the treasury; a similar law being proposed at the same time in Carthagena. A year or two afterwards, Congress adopted the plan, but when it was too late; for ruin was impending over their country. Upon the rejection of this scheme, he remarks:

"Notwithstanding such a project of reform was now supported by the experience of three years, by the principles of the science of government, and of the soundest policy, it was not favourably received. President Torres, with Doctors Joaquin Camacho, Miguel Pombo, and other members of Congress, were enthusiastic and servile worshippers of the institutions of North America. Hence they were opposed to changing an iota of the act of confederacy, and the least departure from its principles, appeared to them inadmissible, and adverse to the future prosperity of the republic:-as if laws, according to the expression of a profound political writer, (Montesquieu) ought not to be accommodated to the climate, habits, religion, numbers, riches, and prepossessions of the people for whom they are designed; as if the inhabitants of New-Granada, bred under the inquisition and despotism of Spain, were in the same political situation with the North Americans, who had possessed republican institutions for more than a century; as if, in fine, Athens and Rome, Holland and England, had not risen into power and glory, by fundamental laws totally different. President Torres, especially, sustained the act of federation, with an obstinacy approaching to fanaticism. Whatever measure or improvement was proposed, instantly he examined to see whether it was or was not in the spirit of that act; and every departure from it, was repelled as a perilous novelty. Such was the fate incurred by the projects of centralization of Antioquia and Carthagena. Hardly did the president of Congress condescend coldly to answer, that he would transmit them to the provinces for consideration; and they remained buried in oblivion, like a dangerous and abortive project, leaving this great melioration in the general government untried. If, while there was yet time, Congress had promoted the reform, and assembled a convention of all the free provinces, perhaps New-Granada might have defended herself against Spain, without shedding so many tears, or undergoing such deep misfortunes. The members of Congress were seduced by the analogy, injudiciously applied, of the United States of North America, who brought the war of independence to a close, having only a federal Congress and contracts of union. True, but they possessed a Washington, who thus far had not appeared, or rather was not known, in New-Granada."

The repeated mention we have had occasion to make of Antonio Nariño and Camilo Torres, may lead our readers to expect more particular notice of two individuals, who fell early victims to their devotion to the cause of independence, and are therefore less generally known abroad, while meaner men have succeeded to the rank they held as patriots and statesmen. But in their own country, their memory is justly regarded with the highest veneration. Our author delineates the character of Torres, in giving an account of the installation in 1812, of the first Congress under the act of confederacy; and we extract the passage for this, and for another reason also, because it will remind the reader of a celebrated paragraph in one of Burke's speeches, concerning the legal profession in the British colonies before our own revolution.

"Only the deputies Leon and Ordoñez, were not advocates. The others hađ always followed this profession, to which those from Cundinamarca added some practice in the Spanish system of revenue. For the rest, the deputies loved the liberty of their country, had theoretical knowledge of politics, some talents, an ambition to promote the public good, and sufficient popularity. Undoubtedly, the president of Congress, Dr. Camilo Torres, was the individual who united in his favour the general opinion of the provinces. Severe and irreproachable morals; a decided love for the liberty and independence of his country; profound acquirements in Spanish jurisprudence, and in literature, with some in politics, and a manly vigorous eloquence, which left durable impressions on the heart, had gained him a majority of the votes of the provinces, even at the time when the viceroy Amar, busied himself in the election of deputies for the Central Jun. ta. His defects were, little knowledge of the world and of men; a veneration approaching to idolatry for the institutions of the United States of North America, which he imagined our communities could adopt without variation; a tenaci. ty, which others called firmness, in sustaining the same institutions, after experience had shown them to be in a great measure inapplicable; above all, a decided opposition to the political opinions of Nariño, which partook of personal hatred, and which prevented his temporizing in the least with the chief of Cundinamarca, as it seems the circumstances of New-Granada demanded."

Restrepo, t. iii., p. 186.

When Cundinamarca agreed to accede to the Union, the branches of war and the treasury were centralized, according to the plan proposed by Mr. Restrepo as already stated; and in September, 1814, the new system went into operation, by which the executive authority was vested in a triumvirate, composed of Manuel Rodriguez Torices, of Carthagena, Custodio Garcia Rovira, of Socorro, and our author, José Manuel Restrepo, of Antioquia. This change in the government, of course diminished the importance of the president of Congress. But the popularity of Torres, it appears, did not sustain any diminution; for in November, 1815, when it was resolved, in consequence of Morillo's invasion, to strengthen the government of the Union by concentrating the executive authority in a single individual, the eyes of Congress were turned towards Torres, who was elected president, with the grant of extraordinary faculties. The selection was generally applauded in the provinces, much being expected from his vigorous character, his virtues, and his love of liberty and the independence of his country. But the season was one of terror, doubt, and consternation. Morillo, with his great resources and disciplined troops, was carrying all before him; and the patriots had no adequate means of resistance, having wasted their time and their strength in foolish domestic contentions, and established a form of government wholly unfit for the emergencies of the times. The entire force of Spain was vested in the energetic hands of Morillo, who, with the undivided authority, displayed the decisive and uncompromising spirit of despotism. In a country like New-Granada, the feeble and slow-acting machine of the Congress, opposed no obstacle to the movements of the enemy, who needed to be met by a corresponding exertion of revolutionary energy and activity.