In Venezuela, in 1846, a demagogue by the name of Antonio Leocadio Guzman offered the people the abolition of slavery and the repartition of the soil; he led a revolution against society and the Government. In Colombia the liberal Constitution of 1853 was an {245} echo of the French Revolution of 1848, and democratic clubs were formed as in Chili. They ruled the country by means of terror, were predominant in the journals, and propagated socialism and hatred of the oligarchy of property-owners and the omnipotent clergy. The liberals evoked Christ as the first democrat, whence the faction known as _Golgotha_. Anarchy increased in the provinces. Bishops and conservative notabilities were pursued, the Jesuits were expelled, and in 1851 the slaves were freed. A discontent of long standing was revealed by the activities of these eloquent revolutionaries, who imitated, like the Chilian Girondists, the French politicians of the Revolution. "Democracy," Lamartine had said in 1848, "is, in principle, the direct reign of God." His ideal was an equalitarian Republic. His political ideas were drawn from the New Testament; he saw in the French Revolution "a Divine and holy thought." Charity, the protection of the disinherited, equality, and fraternity--in short the whole democratic creed--was merely the application of Christian ideas to the world of politics. Lamartine wrote in defence of all the liberties, and wished the Government to be "an instrument of God." We can understand what enthusiasm this eloquence, impregnated as it was with idealism and the love of humanity, must have produced in America; we find the accents of Lamartine echoed in the words of Montalvo as well as Bilbao. Anarchy presently became a sort of mystic rebellion against tyrants. Throughout all South America Lamartine and the Revolution of 1848 inspired men's speech or writings, and engendered revolutions or fresh tyrannies. The influence of France was sovereign. The influence of Guizot and the doctrinaires must be added to that of Lamartine. English ideas also were prevalent; Bentham was the great authority on {246} political science from the earliest years of the Republic; at his death the Central American Congress, which had followed his teaching, proclaimed a period of mourning. In Colombia General Santander quoted against Bolivar phrases inspired by English radicalism and by Destutt de Tracy. Bentham harshly criticised the _Contrat Social_ of Rousseau, and his pretended "natural rights"; policy he based upon the happiness of the greatest number. Tracy professed a moderate relativism, and utilitarian ideas, like Bentham. Bolivar, unlike these professors of individualism, believed in the benefits of a moral dictatorship.