rendered by the several nations in time of war, and arranged to
have the Areopagus of the Americas transferred to Mexico. None of
the acts of this Congress was ratified by the republics
concerned, except the agreement for union, which was adopted by
Colombia.

Disheartening to Bolivar as this spectacle was, it proved merely
the first of a series of calamities which were to overshadow the
later years of the Liberator. His grandiose political structure
began to crumble, for it was built on the shifting sands of a
fickle popularity. The more he urged a general acceptance of the
principles of his autocratic constitution, the surer were his
followers that he coveted royal honors. In December he imposed
his instrument upon Peru. Then he learned that a meeting in
Venezuela, presided over by Paez, had declared itself in favor of
separation from Colombia. Hardly had he left Peru to check this
movement when an uprising at Lima deposed his representative and
led to the summons of a Congress which, in June, 1827, restored
the former constitution and chose a new President. In Quito,
also, the government of the unstable dictator was overthrown.

Alarmed by symptoms of disaffection which also appeared in the
western part of the republic, Bolivar hurried to Bogota. There in
the hope of removing the growing antagonism, he offered his
"irrevocable" resignation, as he had done on more than one
occasion before. Though the malcontents declined to accept his
withdrawal from office, they insisted upon his calling a
constitutional convention. Meeting at Ocana, in April, 1828, that
body proceeded to abolish the life tenure of the presidency, to
limit the powers of the executive, and to increase those of the