Democratic Sentinel, Volume 9, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 April 1885 — USURPER BARRIOS. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

USURPER BARRIOS.

The Would-be Guatemala Dictator's Career.

General Justo Rufino Barrios, the man responsible for the excited condition ot Central American politics, and who is now reported d ead, was born the 17th of July, 1835, at San Lorenzo, in the depar ment of San Mareos, Guatemala. He was educated in she College of Guatemala, in the city of that name, and was graduated in 1862. His special study was law. which he pursued in connection with keen observation of the miserable condition of the people, kept down by bad government and the dominanc ■of the clesgy and upper classes. He began his public career in 1867, at the head of a revolutionary force, which in that year stormed the barracks of San Marcos and put the garrison to flight. Th’s success initiated attacks on the Government under his leadership, giving him great prestige. Fa’ling to capture him. the ruling powers made his father and brother prisoners, and held them as hostages for the surrender of Barrios himself. In 1869 his forces were strengthened by the accession of Gen. Serapis Cruz, but in the same year he was incapacitated by a wound receivedin battle. Subsequently, while he was still absent from the field of operations, disastrous reversea overtook the revolutionary forces, Cruz and his army being taken prisoners and many of them being shot or exiled. Barrios was published’dead, but the Government reckoned without the host in this matter, for upon his recovery he again assumed offensive operations, in which he was aided by Gen. Garcia Granados. May Bth, 1871, the revolutionists issued a proclamation. Subsequently they entered the territory of Guatemala, with Barrios at their head, and published their proclamation. Severe fighting followed with advantages to the revolutionists, and June 3 of the same year Gen. Garcia Granados was proclaimed President. Success still attended the insurrection, and Gen. Cerna, F resident of the republic, fled from the country. The revolutionary armyentered the capital the 30th of June, 1871. Granados was then made Provisional President, and. Barrios accepted the command of the West Departments, from which he expelled all Jesuits. The President followed this drastic policy with the expulsion of the Jesuits from the wholecountry. A reaction follbwed, and Granados, apprehending danger, sent for Barrios, who, having first forwarded troops to his coadjutor, followed them as soon as he could. Upon arriving at the capital he was commissioned to command the forces of the new Government. He disposed of the reactionary cause in two battles, barrios then returned to his work in the West Departments, but the Government not being able to carry out his policy without his personal presence and assistance, he was invited to take charge of it. In May, 1872, he entered the capital, the virtual head of the Republic. His immediate action was to dissolve all Roman Catholic societies and t declare their properties national; to establish the liberty ot the press and • fleet other changes of the same general character. He then, once more, returned to the west, and in the early part of 1873 was again called on to take charge of the Government. A popular assembly was convoked, and Barrios elected President ot the Republic, to sucer.ed Granados. He was inaugurated the 4th of June, 1873. In October, 1876, his tenure was proloi ged, and March 16, 1880, he was re-elected for a term of six years. Two or three months ago his scheme for consqlidatlng the Central Anierl. an States into one Government, with himself at the head, was promulgated, and the subsequent details aretoo fresh to require repetition.