ional president" until he
himself, or some person of his choice, could be elected "constitutional
president"--two other institutions more or less peculiar to Spanish
America.

In an atmosphere of political theorizing mingled with ambition for
personal advancement, both leaders and followers were professed devotees
of constitutions. No people, it was thought, could maintain a real
republic and be a true democracy if they did not possess a written
constitution. The longer this was, the more precise its definition
of powers and liberties, the more authentic the republic and the more
genuine the democracy was thought to be. In some countries the notion
was carried still farther by an insistence upon frequent changes in the
fundamental law or in the actual form of government, not so much to meet
imperative needs as to satisfy a zest for experimentation or to suit the
whims of mercurial temperaments. The congresses, constituent assemblies,
and the like, which drew these instruments, were supposed to be faithful
reproductions of similar bodies abroad and to represent the popular
will. In fact, however, they were substantially colonial cabildos,
enlarged into the semblance of a legislature, intent upon local or
personal concerns, and lacking any national consciousness. In any case
the members were apt to be creatures of a republican despot or else
delegates of politicians or petty factions.

Assuming that the leaders had a fairly clear conception of what they
wanted, even if the mass of their adherents did not, it is possible to
aline the factions or parties somewhat as follows: on the one hand, the
unitary, the military, the clerical, the conservative, and the moderate;
on the other, the federalist, the civilian, the lay, the liberal, and the
radical. Interspersed among them were the advocates of a presidential or
congressional system like that of the United States, the upholders of a
parliamentary regime like that of European nations, and the supporters
of methods of government of a more experimental kind. Broadly speaking,
the line of cleavage was made by opinions, concerning the form of
government and by convictions regarding the relations of Church and
State. These opinions were mainly a product of revolutionary experience;
these convictions, on the other hand, were a bequest from colonial
times.

The Unitaries wished to have a system of government modeled upon that
of France. They wanted the various provinces made into