This was quite as far in the direction of democratic government as he thought a people who had just emerged from a long night of slavery and ignorance were prepared to go with safety; and time has abundantly shown that his apprehensions were well-founded. For scarcely at any time since the disruption of the old Colombian Union has there been in either of the three countries of which it was formed, and perhaps never in all of them at the same time, a government that was democratic in anything but name. To adopt the language of a distinguished Colombian statesman, Dr. Rafael Nuñez, for many years President of the Republic, "their normal condition has been disorder and civil war; and even during their exceptional periods of complete tranquillity the "President has been generally more of an autocrat or a military dictator, than a civil magistrate responsible to the people."

O

CHAPTER XI

THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED

N the ruins of the old Colombian Union there soon arose the three independent states of

Venezuela, New Granada (new Colombia), and Ecuador. Each of these had its written constitution of government, which, however, as construed by the courts. and politicians of each, was little more than a compact between a number of small provinces, or prefectures, dignified by the name of " sovereign states." All power not "expressly delegated" to the general government was reserved to these so-called "sovereign states." The ultimate allegiance of the citizen was due, not to the federal or national government, but to the particular province or state wherein he resided. He owed no allegiance to the national government except such as he owed incidentally by reason of his citizenship of the particular state. In other words, the confederation was a nation in name only. It had neither citizens nor subjects. It was a government with nothing to govern. It had none of the attributes of real sovereignty. True, the treaty-making power and the administration of foreign affairs had been expressly delegated to it; but it had no power to enforce treaty obligations as against any one of the constituent states, nor any power to enforce its own mandates within the territory of a particular state! In short, a fuller and more complete realization of the dream of Thomas Jefferson and his

political followers can hardly be imagined. Now let us see how it worked in practice.

In Venezuela the process of individuation and segregation went on until the number of "sovereign states had increased from six to twenty-one. The fifteen new states thus created had not been formed from newly acquired territory or from any public domain; but were carved out of the original six, and apparently for no other purpose than to increase the number of public offices. Each of the twenty-one states had its chief magistrate, or "President," as he was grandiloquently styled; each had its legislature and judiciary, and each its own military establishment. Any one of them might repudiate its pecuniary obligations with impunity; for a "sovereign" cannot be sued, even in his own law courts, without his previous consent, and this was rarely given. And each might, with equal impunity, violate a public treaty, and thus bring humiliation and expense upon the general government, which was practically without redress against the offending party. It was but natural then that "revolutions" and counter-revolutions should have become the rule rather than the exception; and that the condition of anarchy should have become so persistent and intolerable as to prepare the public mind for a military dictatorship.

The government was still a republic in name, but an autocracy in everything else. To all intents and purposes the will of the dictator was the fundamental and statutory law of the land. The legislature and the judiciary, though somewhat expensive ornaments, were but his dependents. He dictated the laws to be enacted, and what interpretations should be given to them by the courts; dictated to the Church what bishops it should appoint; to the schools and colleges what text-books they should use; to authors what they