Peace being finally restored, the large army of Morazan was gradually dissolved, and the leader became a candidate for the presidency. The necessity of an energetic man, such as Morazan was, at the head of affairs, was quite apparent, for new difficulties were threatening from different quarters. Costa Rica, disapproving the course of Salvador, declared her secession from the union, and it was only after much persuasion that she retracted it. The federal government, and that of the state of Guatemala, now in charge of Pedro Molina,[V-101] clashed on several occasions, and specially when, in 1830, the question of constituting Guatemala city as a federal district again came upon the tapis. The state rejected the plan, as on every previous occasion.[V-102] A project of Molina to reform the confederation met with the same fate. He favored the model of the Swiss republic at that time, abolishing the expensive machinery of a federal government, which was almost continually at variance with the different states.[V-103] The failure of this scheme brought with it the downfall of Molina, who was afterward suspended on fictitious charges and tried, and though acquitted, was not reinstated.[V-104] * * * * * [Sidenote: SPANISH EFFORTS.] The plan of King Fernando VII. of Spain for the reconquest of his former American dominions, and the steps he was taking to accomplish it, naturally caused a sensation in Central America, where that monarch would be sure to find elements favorable to his views. The so-called nobles, who had endeavored, after the downfall of Iturbide and the separation from Mexico, to establish in Central America an aristocratic republic, such as that of Genoa or Venice, had been again balked in their aims by the successes of Morazan. In their disappointment they turned their eyes to Fernando, and through special agents, as well as through Archbishop Casaus, made known to the captain-general of Cuba that the circumstances Central America was then in were most propitious for the restoration of the royal sway; for, as they asserted, all honest, right-thinking men and women in the country yearned for it, and the Indians were likewise anxious for the change. Therefore, the only opposition thereto lay in the comparatively small number of aspirants to public offices, who made revolution in order to control the public funds for their own benefit. Such reports were full of encouragement for the Spaniards who were intriguing in behalf of Fernando's interests, which were probably also their own.