[Footnote 1: Bolívar has been accused of verbosity. Of all the accusations, this is one of the most stupid. Bolívar's style is the style of his epoch. The Spanish and French writers of that period wrote exactly in the same form, and if his words do not appear as modern and sober as we might wish them at this time, we must remember that times alter customs, and styles also, and that if a document of Bolívar's were judged with no knowledge of the work realized by the great man of the South, it might appear bombastic; when his life is known, his words seem altogether natural. He was proud, and his words show it, but his pride was a collective pride rather than an individual one. He praised the work of the liberators, while he was the Liberator _par excellence_, with this title conferred upon him officially. When he mentioned his own person and his own glory, he did not exceed the language of men of his time, and employed words even inferior to his own merits. He was as emphatic as his race is, but he was never pedantic, and as for the vanity of which Lorain Petre accuses him and his race, it never existed. Lorain Petre's pamphlet is a work of passion masquerading as one of wisdom and of impartiality.] "Happy is the citizen," he said in his address, "who, under the shield of the armies he commands, has convoked national sovereignty to exercise its absolute will.... Only a forceful need, coupled with the imperious will of the people, could force me into the terrible and hazardous position of Dictator and Supreme Chief of the Republic. I breathe freely now when I return to you this authority, which, with much danger, difficulty and sorrow, I have succeeded in keeping in the midst of the most horrible misfortunes which can befall a people." Among the most remarkable parts of this document, the following will bear close and careful study: "The continuation of authority in one individual has frequently been the undoing of democratic governments. Repeated elections are essential in popular systems, because nothing is so dangerous as to permit a citizen to remain long in power. The people get used to obeying and he gets used to commanding it, from which spring usurpation and tyranny." ... "We have been subjected by deception rather than by force. We have been degraded by vice rather than by superstition. Slavery is a child of darkness; an ignorant people becomes a blind instrument of its own destruction. It takes license for freedom, treachery for patriotism, vengeance for justice." ... "Liberty is a rich food, but of difficult digestion. Our weak fellow citizens must greatly strengthen their spirit before they are able to digest the wholesome and nutritious bread of liberty." ... "The most perfect system of government is the one which produces the greatest possible happiness, the greatest degree of social safety, and the greatest political stability."