Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1898-04-23
Spaju in America.

nression. One by one the colonies of
Spain have broken away from their
bondage. and now the end has come
and Spain is to be driven in disgrace
and humiliation from her last vestige
of American territory. Less than a
century ago Spain owned more than
half. and what was then by far the
richer and more populouS half of the
Western Hemisphere. When we fought
our second war with England, the
Spanish flag foated everywhere on this
continent south of Louisiana, save
where the French, Dutch and English
had narrow foothold in the Guianas.
and the Portuguese monarchy, driven
from Lisbon by Napoleon, was ruling
over its province of Brazil. In those
days Mexico, Central America, Column
bia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Peru.
Chilli and thu Rio Plata region We're all
Spanish. AS colonial power SPAN
was still an unconquered rival of Eng
land, and the great treasure galleons
still bore their yearly burden OF
fabulous riches home to Barcelona and
Cadiz.
Spanish rule in those old days was
precisely what il had been in Holland
two centuries before. 1t was an iron
rule OF avarice and cruelty. intensified
by the lingering horrors of the Inquisl-
ton. The American Revolution and the
French Revolution both carried their
echoes even into those remote southern
corners of the world. AS early as 1850
there were Indian instructions III
Peru. These were quickly and sternty
suppressed, but the invasion of Spain
by Napoleons marshals, the Peninsular
war and the ensuing decentralization If
the home and colonial governments
gave the Spanish American patriots
their longed-for opportunity.
In 1910 Simon Bolivar, the Wash
ington of South America" raised the
standard of revolt in Venezuela. His
first effort failed, and Bolivar was
compelled to flee from Spanish ven
geance, while similar uprisings in Chill
and Bolivia came to the same disas-
trous ending Thousands of patriots
who laid down their arms in good faith
We're treacherously murdered. Spain s
iron heel was driven more deeply into
the life of the colonies than ever.
But their spirit was unconquerable
After desperate fignting,a patriot vic
tory was won at Buenos Ayres. which
established there the first Independent
government in South America. In 1917
Bolivar returned to Venezuela, called
another army about him and renewed
the struggle, this time with success.
BY 1921 he expelled the Spaniards from
both Colombia and Venezuela, which
became an independent republic.
Then Bolivar turned his attention to
his heroic countrymen to the south
ward. who had been maintaining a
stubborn but unequal conflict with the
Spanish arms. Ecuador and Bolivia
were soon freed by the magic of Boil
wars name and presence and the valor
of his leutenants. There We're brilliant
leaders, too, of English, Scotch and
Irish blood on the side of liberty in
those stirring years. "Cochrane the
Dauntless' was followed to Chill by a
gallant band Of his compatrots. and
the conflicts which We're waged up and
down the Pacific coast and in the awful
shadow of the Andes We're illuminated
! again and again by some of the most
| chivalrous deeds in the annals of war
fare.
Chill had won her independence in
| 1918. The activities of the patriot army
and navy We're then concentrated or
Peru. In 1921 the stronghold of Callat
yielded to Cochrane' and san Martin
All this time in Bolivia and Ecuador
sturdy blows for freedom We're beins
dealt. and the battle of Ayacucho, II
1924. broke the last vestige of Spanish
power on the American continent.
The Spanish American wars of lib
Grafton had ragged in one country o.
another for fourteen years before tn
patriots achieved their complete in
dependence. The struggle had beer
marked by exactly the same charac
| teristics which in the ten years Wa
and the present war in Cuba hav'
made that fair island charnel house
Then as now the Spaniards had de
liberately sought to destroy what the,
could not conquer, and, although thu
campaigns of Napoleon had mad
Europe familiar with the thought ant
sight of bloodshed, the Spanish atroc
tiles shocked all Christendom.
Today all these Latin American re
publics to the southwark. ruled though
they are by men of Spanish blood, o
another race and of another religion
from most of us of North America, ar
one with us in ferVent hope of free