me alike free and compulsory.
As the phrase went, Guzman Blanco "taught Venezuela to read." At the end
of his term of office he went into voluntary retirement.

In 1879 Guzman Blanco put himself at the head of a movement which he
called a "revolution of replevin"--which meant, presumably, that he
was opposed to presidential "continuism," and in favor of republican
institutions! Although a constitution promulgated in 1881 fixed the
chief magistrate's term of office at two years, the success which Guzman
Blanco had attained enabled him to control affairs for five years--the
Quinquennium, as it was called. Thereupon he procured his appointment to
a diplomatic post in Europe; but the popular demand for his presence
was too strong for him to remain away. In 1886 he was elected by
acclamation. He held office two years more and then, finding that his
influence had waned, he left Venezuela for good. Whatever his faults
in other respects, Guzman Blanco--be it said to his credit--tried to
destroy the pest of periodical revolutions in his country. Thanks to
his vigorous suppression of these uprisings, some years of at least
comparative security were made possible. More than any other President
the nation had ever had, he was entitled to the distinction of having
been a benefactor, if not altogether a regenerator, of his native land.

CHAPTER VIII. "ON THE MARGIN OF INTERNATIONAL LIFE"

During the period from 1889 to 1907 two incidents revealed the standing
that the republics of Hispanic America had now acquired in the world
at large. In 1889 at Washington, and later in their own capital cities,
they met with the United States in council. In 1899, and again in 1907,
they joined their great northern neighbor and the nations of Europe and
Asia at The Hague for deliberation on mutual concerns, and they were
admitted to an international fellowship and cooperation far beyond
a mere recognition of their independence and a formal interchange of
diplomats and consuls.

Since attempts of the Hispanic countries themselves to realize the aims
of Bolivar in calling the Congress at Panama had failed, the United
States now undertook to call into existence a sort of inter-American
Congress. Instead of being merely a supporter, the great republic of the
north had resolved to become the director of the movement for greater
solidarity in thought and action. By linking up the concerns of the
Hispanic nations with its own destinies it would ass