[Footnote 1: Among the foreign representatives who showed pleasure at the idea of Bolívar's accepting the power was the representative of the United States.
It is worthy of notice that the reputation of Bolívar as an ambitious man was discredited in the State Department at Washington by the very person thought to be its originator. When Watts was in Bogotá, in his correspondence with Clay (No. 19, Nov. 28, 1826), he asserted that he did not believe in the anti-Repúblicanism of Bolívar, who had consolidated the departments and acted with prudence and discretion. Watts expressed his firm conviction that Bolívar would not act as dictator but in conformity with the constitution, stating also the fact that Bolívar had refused the Bolivian and Peruvian dictatorships. In his communication of March 2, 1827 (No. 26), Watts denies the rumors of the monarchial ambitions of Bolívar, and says that he has nothing but the greatest magnanimity. On March 15, Watts himself asked Bolívar to assume power.
All these stories of disinterestedness seem to be contradicted in the correspondence of Harrison and Van Buren. In his note of May 27, 1829 (No. 13), Harrison speaks of monarchical plots, expressing his belief that Bolívar is behind them, founding his assertions only on the opposition of Bolívar to foreign princes. He is very free in speaking of _plans_, but he gives no precise data about them. In his note of July 28, 1829 (No. 18), Harrison states that the monarchists are determined to put Bolívar on the throne, and adds that he saw a letter of "_a man in high position_ who has enjoyed the entire confidence of Bolívar, but who is now in complete opposition to all his schemes of personal aggrandizement." Bolívar, according to this letter, intended to become the monarch of Colombia, Perú and Bolivia. Then Harrison mentions the printing of a paper on the evils of free government, and states that that paper, of which he had seen a single copy, had the purpose of making propaganda in favor of Bolívar, but had been suppressed for fear that it would injure Bolívar's cause. All this sounds very much like personal hostility, and shows that the practice of some diplomatic representatives of making trouble for the countries where they are accredited instead of representing their own country in a dignified manner is not new.