In the emergency
an assembly of respectable persons met in Bogota and established a _Junta_,
asking Bolivar to resume power and to hasten to the capital to handle the
situation. Bolivar had nothing to do but to obey; it was a matter of his
own conscience, even more than of the demands of the people.
He had full power in governmental matters, but he decided to exercise it
with due consultation and only during the crisis through which Colombia was
passing. Bogota received him with unusual enthusiasm. He declared publicly
that he would always be the champion of public liberty.
"When the people want to deprive me of the power and separate me from the
command, I shall gladly submit to their will and will surrender to them my
sword, my blood and my life. That is the sacred oath I utter before all the
principal magistrates, and what is more, before all the people."
In truth, he used his powers with great prudence, and devoted his time
especially to the reorganization of the army and the extinction of
privateering, ordering that no more licenses should be issued and that
those in force should be recalled.
Memorials to him were drafted in every part of Nueva Granada, and even the
smallest villages showed their unanimous wish that Bolivar should take the
situation in hand and save the country. Guayaquil and Venezuela did the
same. It seemed that everything was settled and that peace was to last
forever. Bolivar did not use the name of Dictator nor that of Supreme
Chief, but the one given to him by law, _Libertador Presidente_.
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