Page images
PDF
EPUB

CHAPTER XVI

SEPARATE GOVERNMENTS-WALKER'S EXPEDITION

AFTER 1840 Carrera became virtually a dictator in Guatemala, and continued his rule until his death in 1865. His influence extended over a large part of Central America. His arrogance inclined him to throw off all restraints of the constitution. He even turned against his old allies, the aristocrats, alleging that they were unfriendly to the masses on whose shoulders he had risen to power. They tried to pacify him by the humblest submission and inveterate flattery. At times he would attempt to play the benevolent despot by planning for the improvement of the financial, agricultural, and industrial interests of the country, but he was very ignorant in such matters, and was far better fitted for guerrilla warfare. His enemies were numerous, but they could make no stand against him, and whenever he caught them, he had them promptly executed. The body of one of them he caused to be cut up and the parts exhibited at the gates of the city as a warning to traitors. The hostile faction called him an antropofago (man-eater), and when he learned the meaning of this strange word, he flew into a great rage. There was an assembly; but it was composed of priests and aristocrats, who were allowed no powers except to do his bidding. If he wanted money, he would occasionally wink at the pillaging of the city shops by his soldiers.

When he was first elected president of the republic of Guatemala, he refused it, preferring the untrammelled position of lieutenant-general of the army. But in 1844 he

accepted the presidency and began a tyrannical rule, under which all those that spoke against him were seized and thrown into dungeons or executed. The more enlightened citizens kept quiet, biding the change that time was sure to bring. One of them, in an address to the young men who despaired of the republic, ventured to say: "A savage government cannot be perpetual in the full light of the nineteenth century in free America. Light comes to us from the north and from the south, but the centre is in darkness, and this dark night cannot be eternal."

For awhile the government became weak from its own excesses, and Carrera retired from the executive chair to await a more favorable opportunity of punishing his enemies. But he was soon invited to return, and was made commander-in-chief of the army. In 1854, after a successful war against Salvador and Honduras, he was declared president for life, and the house of representatives practically conferred royal powers upon him by declaring that not he but his ministers should be held responsible for all acts of the government.

For eleven years, in spite of some revolts against his rule, he exercised unlimited power over Guatemala and great influence over the neighboring states. Like many an absolute monarch before him, he persuaded himself that he had been chosen by Providence to guide the destinies of his country. Though he was immoral and remorseless, he does seem to have been the man needed to bring order out of the chaos of the time. States generally get the governments they deserve. When he died in 1865, he was buried with the highest honors of church and state.

In the meantime the other states asserted their sovereignty by framing new constitutions suitable for the changed conditions and by declaring themselves free and independent republics. Some of them at first clung to the idea of forming a new union. It looked as if, though unable to live together, they could not live apart. In 1842 delegates from Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua met at Chinandega to

frame a new constitution, and passed an act creating a league to be called the Confederacion Centro Americana. But the aristocrats of Guatemala, jealous of any union for fear it would lessen their own importance and militate against their ambitious schemes, rejected the league for their state. Carrera would have none of it. Honduras, though its delegates had helped to form the league, soon fell away from it, while Salvador failed to respect its provisions. Before it had become wholly a dead letter, Honduras and Nicaragua were at war with each other for no particular reason except that a Honduran general had disobeyed the orders of his superior, and had attacked some Nicaraguan troops passing through his district. The smallest provocation was sufficient to bring on war. If a bishop quarrelled with the president and was banished, he would take refuge in a neighboring state, and send a small army to oust his enemy from the executive chair. The states were under military rulers, who, with small bands of soldiers, made war on one another like the barons of the Middle Ages, or who spent their time in repressing rebellions within their own states.

In 1849, not discouraged by the former failure, Honduras, Salvador, and Nicaragua once more attempted a confederation, and issued an invitation to Guatemala and Costa Rica to join it; but when the constitution was framed, Salvador and Nicaragua both refused to abide by it on the ground that it created a dictatorship.

Later we shall find that other attempts were made to realize this dream of unity, which is said to be entertained by the majority of the people of Central America, but which has failed of realization on account of the jealousy of rulers and states. In criticising the conduct of these rival states, however, we should remember that our own constitution "was extorted from the grinding necessity of a reluctant people"; that only the habits of self-government to which our people had long been inured kept it in force during the first seventy years of its existence, and that then the union was preserved only by a devastating civil war.

One of the most striking results of the internal confusion and bitter partisan warfare of this period was the expedition to Nicaragua, in 1855, by William Walker, a restless adventurer from the United States.

The father of this singular man was a Scotch banker, who emigrated to this country in 1820. His son William was born in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1824. His education was received partly in his native town and partly in the various cities to which his roving habits carried him. For a while he studied law; but growing weary of that profession he tried medicine, and is said to have been a practising physician in Philadelphia for a time. Then he travelled in Europe for a year, and on his return to this country he took up journalism, and in 1850 was connected with the Crescent newspaper in New Orleans. The gold fever, however, had already caught him, and we are not surprised to find him setting out for California. Instead of seeking gold there, he made some reputation for himself as a trenchant writer on the San Francisco Herald, which he soon deserted to take up the practice of law in Marysville. But this was no more permanent than his previous occupations, for in 1852 we find him travelling through the district of Sonora in Mexico.

Here he formed the ambitious plan of invading and colonizing some of the less thickly settled portions of Spanish America. Just previous to this time the Lopez revolution in Cuba had aroused much interest in the United States, and though it had ended disastrously, Walker seems to have been encouraged to believe that a similar enterprise would receive the support of many adventurous persons in this country. Accordingly, in 1853, we find him once more in San Francisco, organizing an expedition for the invasion of the district of Sonora. Though this was promptly stopped by the United States government, he managed in October of the same year to gather a small force of forty-five men-restless adventurers like himself-with whom he sailed to the town of La Paz in Lower California.

On landing here he issued a proclamation, declaring Lower California a republic, independent of Mexico, and signing himself president. The inhabitants of the town made a sharp resistance to this invasion, but Walker's small force won a decisive victory. Then issuing another proclamation, adding Sonora to his republic, he marched to the conquest of that district. Though he had now received some reinforcements from California, he was soon in desperate straits for provisions and military supplies, and his men began to desert. He himself is described as having only one boot and a piece of another.

After making some demonstrations against the Mexican forces sent to check his progress, Walker concluded that it was wise to retire to San Diego, California, where he surrendered to the authorities of the United States. He was promptly tried for violation of the neutrality laws; but for some reason was acquitted. Until something more interesting should turn up, Walker resumed the editorship of a newspaper. His opportunity was not long in coming.

In 1854 a company was organized in California to promote commercial intercourse between the United States and Honduras and to develop the gold placers of the latter state. The enemies of the company declared that the main object was to upset the government of Honduras and to extend the institution of slavery. The agents of this company visited Central America and finally reached the city of Leon in Nicaragua. Here Castellon, the provisional chief of the state, had his headquarters. To him the agents presented letters of introduction, and as Castellon was at the head of the Liberals or Democrats, the Americans were hospitably received. Finding that the Liberals were engaged in the usual civil war with the Serviles or Legitimists, one of the agents suggested to Castellon that he should send for "the renowned Walker" to bring an American force to his aid. Castellon, having just failed to capture the important city of Granada, listened favorably to this proposal, and promised that a grant of fifty-two thousand acres of unoccupied

« PreviousContinue »