In the popular imagination he was ranked with Napoleon as a peerless conqueror, and with Washington as the father of his country.
That megalomania should have seized the mind of the Liberator under circumstances like these is not strange.
Ever a zealous advocate of large states, Bolivar was an equally ardent partisan of confederation.

As president of three republics--of Colombia actually, and of its satellites, Peru and Bolivia, through his lieutenants--he could afford now to carry out the plan that he had long since cherished of assembling at the town of Panama, on Colombian soil, an "august congress" representative of the independent countries of America.

Here, on the isthmus created by nature to join the continents, the nations created by men should foregather and proclaim fraternal accord.

Presenting to the autocratic governments of Europe a solid front of resistance to their pretensions as well as a visible symbol of unity in sentiment, such a Congress by meeting periodically would also promote friendship among the republics of the western hemisphere and supply a convenient means of settling their disputes.
At this time the United States was regarded by its sister republics with all the affection which gratitude for services rendered to the cause of emancipation could evoke.

Was it not itself a republic, its people a democracy, its development astounding, and its future radiant with hope?
The pronouncement of President Monroe, in 1823, protesting against interference on the part of European powers with the liberties of independent America, afforded the clearest possible proof that the great northern republic was a natural protector, guide, and friend whose advice and cooperation ought to be invoked.