He
regulated his own powers, created a council of state, ordered that all
guarantees granted by the constitution of Cucuta be respected, and offered
to convoke the national representation for January 2, 1830, to establish
at last the constitution of the Republic. In papers concerning the
constitution, he expressed disgust for dictatorship.
"Under a dictatorship, who can speak of freedom?" he said. "Let us feel
mutual compassion for the people who obey and for the man who commands
alone."
He was as generous as ever with his enemies. Santander was appointed
minister of Colombia in Washington; and in the appointment of the members
of his council of state, Bolivar did not hesitate to include men who had
not shown the least friendship for him, if their intellectual achievements
or their patriotic work warranted the distinction.
Santander repaid Bolivar's kindness by fostering a plot against his life.
On the 25th of September, Bolivar's palace was attacked by a group of
conspirators whose object was to murder him. They took the guard by
surprise, wounding and killing several of its members, and started towards
Bolivar's room. The Liberator intended to fight, but was persuaded that it
would be foolhardy; so he jumped through the window to the street and hid
for a while. The conspirators, crying, "Death to the tyrant and long life
to General Santander and the constitution of Cucuta," went in pursuit of
him. Colonel William Ferguson, the Liberator's Irish aide-de-camp, seeking
his chief in order to defend him, was killed.
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