NEW YORK: | PRINTED BY S. W. BENEDICT, 16 SPRUCE STREET. | 1850.Blas Bruni Celli • Venezuela en 5 siglos de imprenta
NEW YORK: | PRINTED BY S. W. BENEDICT, 16 SPRUCE STREET. | 1850.
22 x 13 cms. 80 pp. Letras redondas y cursivas. A línea tirada. Textos en inglés. Notas al pie de página. Reclamos.
[Pág. 1]: Portada ut supra. V. en bl. Págs. [3]-5: Textos. MONAGAS AND PAEZ. Págs. [6]-74: NOTES FOR HISTORY. Pág. [75]-80: APPENDIX.
BN 987.061. A-174. ANH. Folletos 1.159. BL 8179.b. 6814. LC 987.w727m. (Se transcribe el texto de las tres primeras páginas donde se expone el objetivo de este folleto). FOR the last three years the press of the United States has been teeming with articles, emanating from a party in Venezuela which had been long accustomed to monopolize to itself all the first offices of a country, that it had ruled over solely with a view to its own selfish interests: this party, we say, on finding the reins of government falling, from its grasp, made the most strenuous efforts to recover its lost power, and both in Venezuela and in the United States have used every means to vilify those who had overthrown them. The facts are simply these. From the period that Venezuela separated from Colombia, Paez has been the virtual President of the country. He was twice elected to that high office, and the other persons nominally raised to that dignity were entirely subject to his influence, or, as in the case of Dr. Vargas, were obliged to withdraw from it. It was, therefore, Paez who, for seventeen years, actually governed the country. At the election of 1847 he gave his support to the nomination of General Monagas, in the expectation that he would prove as submissive to his domination as other Presidents had been, but he was fearfully mistaken. General Monagas was well disposed towards the party who had elevated him to power, but their pretensions were so exaggerated, the policy they required him to adopt was so unconstitutional, the measures they insisted upon were so sanguinary, that he resolved to free himself from the shackles they attempted to impose upon him and govern for himself. Paez, on finding that Monagas was not the puppet he had expected and that he could no longer pull the wires as he had so long done, was determined to rid himself of so unexpected an obstacle to his views, and raised the standard of rebellion. The result of this has been seen. Paez has been sentenced by the Congress of his country to perpetual exile. The people of New York, misled by the pretended facts and arguments they had so constantly read in a few journals of this city, looked upon him as a martyr to his patriotism, and received him with open arms. The Paez party had styled themselves Constitutionalists, when every act of theirs was an attack upon the constitution they had sworn to defend; but the people of the United States having heard only one side of the question believed these unfounded assertions. Within the last few months a portion of the press of the United States, having obtained more positive information with regard to these matters, has placed it fairly before the public, and has produced some change in public opinion. It is for the purpose of entirely dispelling the mist of error which has so sedulously been raised, that we present a review of the occurrences which compelled Venezuela to banish from her soil one of her leading men. The act was necessary for her own tranquillity and the security of her institutions, which were threatened with destruction by the inordinate ambition and self-will of one who ought to have been the foremost to sustain her freedom and defend the Law. The greater part of the following pages have been extracted from the work of a Venezuelan, who was, for many years, the friend and adherent of General Paez, one who has long been intimately connected with the administration of the Republic, having held some of the highest offices in the State, and who was consequently in a position to obtain more accurate information on the events in question than almost any other person. The work is entitled “Apuntes para la Historia,” or “Notes for History on the Conspiracy of Paez against the Institutions of his Country.” We also present sketches, drawn by the same hand, of the character of Monagas and Paez, that all their antecedents may be fully understood in this country and because they answer satisfactorily many of the charges brought by the latter against the former in his letter to the Tribune of the 23d October. We might have much enlarged upon the subject with regard to Paez by bringing forward matters which were even contained in the sketch we mention, but as they were not purely political we have refrained from doing so. What we now give will enable every unprejudiced person to judge correctly of the public life of these two men.