Gabriel García Moreno, two term President of Ecuador who was murdered in 1876.
García Moreno had been one of the principal actors in this religious and political drama. Struck with the ascendancy which he exercised over all with whom he came in contact, the Government confided to him a difficult and delicate mission. It was absolutely necessary to give the troops their long arrears of pay, and as the Treasury was entirely empty, an extraordinary tax had to be levied. The country, however, crushed by the extravagances of the late Administration and already overwhelmed with burdens, positively refused to pay; and the Government charged García Moreno with the disagreeable task of enforcing the levying of this tax. He undertook the onerous duty, and by his persuasions, his coolness, his tenacity, and his indomitable energy, triumphed over all opposition and disarmed all the opponents to the measure. He showed his disinterestedness in this matter in the most remarkable way, refusing all payment for his services and counting all personal sacrifices as nothing provided his country could be rescued from the apparently inextricable difficulties into which the despotism of her late rulers had plunged her.
Rev. Fr. Augustine Berthe, C.Ss.R., Garcia Moreno, President of Ecuador, (1821-1875), trans. Lady Herbert (London: Burns and Oates, 1889), 24-5.
Short Stories on Honor, Chivalry, and the World of Nobility—no. 393
