Many persons have made comparisons between Bolívar and Napoleon, Bolívar and Washington and Bolívar and San Martín. Juan Montalvo (in "Simón Bolívar") writes that Bolívar is not so well known as Napoleon because the glamour of Napoleon's life reduced to silence the lives of his contemporaries. He asserts that in the future, Bolívar will take his place beside the French Emperor. Napoleon owes his glory to Chateaubriand, to Lamartine, to Madame de Stael, to Byron, to Victor Hugo, while Bolívar has had few biographers, and a very few have spoken of him with the power and authority of those who praised or attacked Napoleon. Regarding a comparison between Washington and Bolívar, Montalvo says: "Washington presents himself to memory and imagination as a great citizen rather than as a great warrior; as a philosopher rather than as a general.... Washington and Bolívar have in common their identity of purpose; both aspired to the freedom of a country and the establishment of democracy. The difference between these two illustrious men in the excessive difficulty one had to conquer and the abundance with which the other carried on his work to the end. Bolívar, during several periods of the war, had no resources at all, nor did he know where to get them; his indestructible love for his country, the sense of honor active in his breast, the fertile imagination, the supreme will, the prodigious activities which formed his character, inspired in him wisdom to turn the impossibility into a reality.... North America was rich, civilized and powerful even before its emancipation from Mother England; if the colonists had not had their leader, one hundred Washingtons would have presented themselves to fill the place, and not at a disadvantage. Washington was surrounded by men as remarkable as he was, if not better: Jefferson, Madison, men of great and deep counsel; Franklin, a genius of Heaven and earth. All these and many others, no matter how great they were, or how numerous, were as one in the service of the cause, were rivals in obedience.... Bolívar had to tame his lieutenants, to fight and to conquer his own fellow citizens, to fight one thousand elements conspiring against him and against independence, at the same time that he fought the Spanish legions and conquered them or was conquered by them.... Washington presents himself to the admiration of the world, more venerable and majestic, and Bolívar, higher and brighter. Washington established a republic which later became one of the greatest countries on earth; Bolívar founded also a great country, but, less happy than his elder brother, saw it crumble down; and though he did not see his work destroyed, he saw it disfigured and diminished. The successors of Washington, great citizens, philosophers and statesmen, never dreamed of tearing up the