political capacity of the people resembled those of Bolivar and
were no longer applicable, and that his reforms had aroused too
much hostility, the Supreme Director resigned his post and
retired to Peru. Thus another hero of emancipation had met the
ingratitude for which republics are notorious.

Political convulsions in the country followed the abdication of
O'Higgins. Not only had the spirit of the strife between
Unitaries and Federalists been communicated to Chile from the
neighboring republic to the eastward, but two other parties or
factions, divided on still different lines, had arisen. These
were the Conservative and the Liberal, or Bigwigs (pelucones) and
Greenhorns (pipiolos), as the adherents of the one derisively
dubbed the partisans of the other. Although in the ups and downs
of the struggle two constitutions were adopted, neither sufficed
to quiet the agitation. Not until 1830, when the Liberals
sustained an utter defeat on the field of battle, did the country
enter upon a period of quiet progress along conservative lines.
>From that time onward it presented a surprising contrast to its
fellow republics, which were beset with afflictions.

Far to the northward, the Empire of Mexico set up by Iturbide in
1822 was doomed to a speedy fall. "Emperor by divine providence,"
that ambitious adventurer inscribed on his coins, but his
countrymen knew that the bayonets of his soldiers were the actual
mainstay of his pretentious title. Neither his earlier career nor
the size of his following was sufficiently impressive to assure
him popular support if the military prop gave way. His lavish
expenditures, furthermore, and his arbitrary replacement of the
Congress by a docile body which would authorize forced loans at