In response, Bolívar wrote that the United States "seem destined by Providence to plague America with torments in the name of freedom", a sentiment that achieved fame in Latin America.[78]
Freehling indicates Harrison's missteps in Columbia were "bad and frequent", that he failed to properly maintain a position of neutrality in Columbian affairs, by publicly opposing Bolivar, and that Columbia sought his removal. Andrew Jackson took office in March 1829, and recalled Harrison in order to make his own appointment to the position.[5] Biographer James Hall claims that Harrison found in Columbia a military despotism and that "his liberal opinions, his stern republican integrity, and the plain simplicity of his dress and manners, contrasted too strongly with the arbitrary opinions and ostentatious behaviour of the public officers, to allow him to be long a favourite with those who had usurped the power of that government. They feared that the people would perceive the difference between a real and a pretended patriot, and commenced a series of persecutions against our minister, which rendered his situation extremely irksome."[79] A very similar sentiment of the situation is related by biographer Samuel Burr.
