Evening Star Newspaper, December 14, 1930, Page 105

THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C., DECEMBER 14, 1930. 15 | RARE LETTER FROM SIMON BOLIVAR 10 ILLAFAYETTE BROUGHT 10 LIGHT ON CENTENARY OF THE GREAT LIBERATOR’S DEATH Proclaimed by Europe and the Americas as One of Greatest Men in History, the World Will Honor Memory of His Passing Next Wednesday. By . Coleman Nevils, S. J., D. D., President of Georgetown University. N the midst of our preparations for the bi-centenary of George Washington’s birth there comes on December 17, 1930, the centenary of the death of another hero who modeled his life-work on the Father of Our Country, a man who almost with adoration studied the annals of Washing- ton, who was fired with enthusiastic zeal while reading of July 4, 1776, who saw all the worth of Valley Forge and felt the pangs of Arnold’s treason, whose keen heart was thrilled by the victorics at Princeton and Saratoga, whose ambition was stirred by the surrender of Corn- wallis' at Yorktown. Bolivar's life as a states- man and as a citizen show he had meditated long upon Washington's Farewell Address and had drawn therefrom many wholesome lessons in creating and developing a republic. On December 17, 1830, at 1 o'clock in the afternoon, in his 48th year, “the great man of the South,” the liberator par exc:llence, Simon Bolivar, died. He had been brought to a country place, San Pedro Alejandrino, three miles from Santa Marta, Colombia. A few days before when he felt his life ebbing away he drafted his last will and testament. “Colombians, you have seen my efforts to establish freedom where tyranny once reigned. I have worked un- selfishly, sacrificing my fortune and my peace. I resigned my command when I was convinced that you did not trust my loyalty. My foes have availed themselves of your credulousness, and they have trampled upon what to me is most sacred and dear—my love of your inde- pendence. I have been a victim of my persee cutors, who have driven me unto deith. I for- give them. “As I am about to leave you my love prompts me to give you my last wishes. I aspire to no other glory than the union of Colombia; let all strive for this greatest of blessings; let our " citizens obey the present government and so escape anarchy. Let the ministers of the sanctuary send prayers to Heaven; let the soldiers protect with their arms the sanction of social order. . “Colombians, my last wish is for the happiness of our country. If by my death the spirit of . partisanship can be destroyed and the union strengthened, with all peace shall I descend to my grave.” UROPE and both the Americas have pro- claimed him one of the greatest men in history. It is interesting to note how the sev- - eral nations feel they can only find a fit com- . parison in telling how Bolivar resembles their own national hero. Daniel Webster in the name of the Bunker Hill Association wrote in a per- sonal letter to Bolivar: “When we read of the enormous sacrifice of personal fortune, the calmness in difficult situations, the exercise without misuse of a power greater than imperial power, the repeated refusal of dictatorship, the simplicity of your republican habits and the submission to the constitution and law which has so gloriously distinguished the career of your excellency, we believe that we see the image of our venerated Washington. At the same time that we admire and respect his virtues, we feel moved by the greatest sympathy to pay equal homage to the hero and Liberator of the South.” Zven during his life Bolivar received the higaest tokens of esteem and admiration from such a varied set as the Eng!ish pcet, Byron; the Irish orator, Daniel O'Connell; the Prench novelist, Victor Hugo: the German philosopher, Humboldt; the Polish patriot, Kosciusko, the Swedish king, Bernadotte; the Napoleonic ruler of Spain, Joseph Bonaparte. He also enjoyed the esteem of Lafayette and the Washington family. In the Mus:o Boliviano, Caracas, there is kept & miniature portrait of George Wash- ington which Bolivar had regarded as his most precious treasure—it is said that he often wore it on his breast. This, with a lock of Wash- ington’s hair and some relics of Mount Vernon, was sent him from the Washington family. 1I¢ was sent during the year 1825-1826 when Gen, Lafayette was making pis triumphant tour of the United States. The gifts from Mount Ver- non may have been sent at the suggestion of Lafayette, for they were accompanied by & letter part of which reads as follows: “My religious and filial devotion to Gen. ‘Washington could not be better recognized by his family than by honoring me with the com- mission they have intrusted to me. . . . Of all men living, and even of all men in history, Bolivar is the very one to whom my paternal friend would have preferred to send this present. What else can I say to the great citizen whom South America has honored with the name of Liberator, confirmed in him by two worlds, a man endowed with an influence equal to his self-denial, who carries in his heart the sole Jove of freedom and of the republic?” WE are particularly interested in Bolivar's reply to this letter; the original of which is preserved in the Georgetown University archives and is reproduced above. We submit our literal translation: My Dear General: I have had the honor of seeing for the first time the illustrious writing of that hand which accomplished 30 much for the land of Columbus. This honer was done me through the courtesy of Col. Mercher, who has presented to me your esieemed Javor of October 13th of the past ypear. By the public press I have learned with inexpressible joy that you have been good enough to honor me with a treasure from Mount Vernon. Washington’s picture, some of his venerable remains and one of the memorials of his glory are to be presented to me, through you, in the name of that spirit of the great citizen, the first son of the New World. Words fail me to express how I value in my heart the twofold glory —the gift and the way it has been made. Washington’s jam:iy honors me in a man- ner beyond my fcadest hopes. A gift from Washington, presented by Lafayette, is the crown of all human rewards. He was a sig- nal promoter of soc‘al reform and you are the “hero-citizen,” the champion ot liberty, who with one hand served America and with the other the Old World. What mortal then could be worthy of the honors which you and Mount Vernon are heaping upon me? My conjusion equals the immensity of the gratitude which I offer to you, and with it the respect and veneration that is due the Nestor of Liberty. I am with highest regards, Your most respected admirer, Lima, March 20, 1826. BOLIVAR. This letter of Bolivar has been preserved at Georgetown University together with another original letter dated October 22, 1823. The latter was presented to the president of George- town University February, 1922, by Dr. Manuel Segundo Sanchez, the compiler of the Biblio- grafia Venezolanists and a distinguished student of matters Bolivarian. The former letter Dr. Sanchez has pronounced to be a document of utmost importance to historians of South America. It is not perfectly clear how George- town got possession of this letter; around the time when this letter was received Lafayette visited Georgetown College; it may be that the general himself presented it to the University archives. SIMON BOLIVAR was born of a noble Basque family on July 24, 1783, in the City of Caracas, Venezuela. He early showed marked ability and precociousness and was wont to expose with a wisdom and an assurance far Under this tree sat Miranda and later Bolivar. when they landed in Ocumare de la Costa. Here landed 10 American young men who went to fight for the inde- pendence of Venezuela. They were causzht and hanged by the royalists. A monument in Puerto Cabello and another in Marcay honor the memory of these young Americans. beyond his years his arguments for the inde- pendence of the South American colonies. He was educated mainly in Spajn. In 1801 he went to Paris and there saw Napoleon as first consul drawing order out of the chaos of the French Revolution to found as was thought a great republic; Bolivar was loud in his enthusiastic praise of Bonaparte, but when a few years later he returned to France and found the republic Venezuelan and Georgetown students fraternizing at the foot of the statue of Simon Bolivar. < 4 had become an empire, and his hero had had himseif crowned emperor, he exclaimed: *“Na- poleon has made himself king—all his splendor seems to me a flash of hell fire.” The great idol had fallen from the niche of Bolivar's adoring admiration. Later when in Milan with his tutor, Father Simon Rodriguez, he saw Na- poleon crowned King of Italy; all the regal grandeur and royal ceremonial stirred his soul and when he and his friend had arrived in Rome, he stood upon Mt. Aventine, he took Rodriguez’s hand in his own and solemnly vowed to devote himself to the great cause of independence for South America. We are ve- minded of the account given by the old Roman historian, Livy, when he tells how Hamilcar, the great Carthaginian leader, before departing to the conquest of Spain, took his 12-year-old . son Hanaibal to the altar and bade hig place his hand thereon and swear eternal hatred of Rome. 4 In his sketch, “Simon Bolivar —Patriot, War rior, Statesman,” the late Dr. Guillermo Sher- well, for many years head of tiie Spanish de- par.ment, Georgetown University, describes E} Libertador as follows: “Bolivar was of rather less than medium height. thin and agile. In all his actions he showed quickness and alert- ness. He had large, black. piercing eyes; his eyeorows were curved and thick; his nose straight and long: his cheeks som>what sunken; his mouth, not particularly well formed, but expressive and graceful. From early youth his forshead was deeply lined. His neck was erect; his chest narrow. At one period of his life he wore a mustache and side whiskers, but he resumed shaving about 1825 when gray hair began to appear. His hair was auburn at first, his complexion very white in his vouth, but tanned after his long campaigns. His appear- ance evidenced frankness of character and his body spiritual energy.” Bolivar was a military genius of highest rank, he was a statesman of marvelous constructive ability, he was a patriot unsurpassed in self- sacrifice and disinterestedness, he was a Christian whose forbearance toward his per- sonal enemies and whose charity and love of bis follow citizens in great trials read like ‘a tairy tale or the pages from the life of some meicval saint. His addresses and his proclama- ticus show him to have been an orator and wri‘e” of genuine power. Perhaps his greatest quarity was his decisiveness of character, which was fostered by his intellectual acumen and mental alertness. His energetic activity is un- surpassed. For 18 years from 1812 to 1830 he waged war against enemies from without and from within, for not only did he have to fight the enemy Spraiard, but even sne of hls vwn genorals who fhrough ervy conspired against im. The narration of his many struggles and mare velous triumphs has all the thrilling excitemens and epic grandeur of the greatest pocms of ( Continied on Seventeenth Page v