Mr. Burton to Mr. Seward
Sir: Shortly after writing my last annual review of events in Colombia, the State government of Bolivar was overthrown by an insurrectionary movement, an account of which I gave in my No. 142. This change has been followed by all the unhappy consequences then anticipated.
As was to have been expected, it has brought to foreigners an undue share of its attendant wrongs and oppressions, as may be seen in part by reference to my Nos. 166, 187, and 196.
Before the insurrection in Bolivar had been concluded, a military force, headed by Señor Isidoro Fucrets, whom I had occasion to speak of in my No. 138, attacked the city of Rio Hacha in December, 1864, with a view to overthrow the State government of Magdalena. The attack was repelled and the insurgents dispersed.
The movement was again set on foot in July last, under the lead of the same chieftain, who, after a bloody conflict, captured that city with a considerable number of prisoners, the elements of war belonging to the State, seizing the foreign shipping in port at the time. Other sanguinary engagements have since taken place, but without any decisive result. The strife still continues and will probably terminate disastrously to the State government.
[Page 457]On the 9th of March last the State government of Panama was seized by insurrectionists and a new one substituted in its stead.
This proceeding was attended by little bloodshed. Some of the persons thus deprived of power repaired to the State of Oauca, where they enlisted a force of officers and men from among its citizens, secured some of the arms and munitions of the national government, and sailing from the port of Buenaventura, in a vessel carrying Peruvian colors, made a hostile descent on the isthmus in August last, and were expelled by the State authorities of Panama after some severe fighting; I refer to my Nos. 186, 190, and 199 as bearing on these disturbances on the isthmus.
The preceding contests were all confined to opposing factions of the liberal party, the party in power in each of the States of the republic, and administering the national government.
In the latter part of September last, a preconcerted uprising of the conservatives, headed by General Cordova, against the State government, took place at various points in the State of Oauca. Some fierce collisions have occurred and the contest is progressing.
In October just past, the conservatives of this State, Cundinamarca, having organized guerillas at numerous points, on the 16th attacked in strong force the city of Cipaquira, thirty miles from Bogota, and after a bloody engagement with the State troops, coming in collision also with the national troops, the guerillas abandoned the attack. This was followed by a proclamation of the President of the republic declaring the public order of the country disturbed—war. This guerilla soon after entered into a formal treaty with the general government, agreeing to deliver up its arms, and the government pardoning its members, and assuming to pay for the property seized from, and other damages done to individuals by it. A notable feature of this disturbance was that, notwithstanding the law for the protection of foreigners of April 19th, 1865, enclosed with my No. 176, the State government seized indiscriminately the property of foreigners and natives.
The other guerillas raised in this State, as above stated, passed into the adjoining State of Tolima, where a vigorous effort is going on to overthrow its government by the conservatives.
A week ago the insurgents, after hard fighting, captured, held for two days, and then evacuated the city of Honda, the head of steamboat navigation on the Magdalena, and through which all the foreign trade of this capital has to pass. In Honda, as in Cipaquira, the national troops were assailed, and the President again declared the public order disturbed.
So long as the national forces and property are not interfered with, and one State is not invaded from another, these strifes in the States are held constitutional by the government, and its duty is to remain neutral between the combatants.
Large numbers of men, and even small boys, are being caught and put into the army. Active military preparations are going on, and it is to be feared that a general civil war is at hand. There is a general impression, and I happen to know it to be well founded, that the conservatives are determined on an attempt to overthrow the general government before the 1st of April next, when President Murillo’s term expires, and thus prevent the inauguration of General Mosquera, who has just been elected his successor, and whose rule they greatly dread.
Another civil war like that of 1860-‘61-‘62-‘63 could not fail to bring sad, if not fatal, consequences to the country, already in a most deplorable condition and growing worse daily. Its finances are hopeless; industrial pursuits of every kind are neglected; poverty and destitution are general; patriotism and public virtue much weakened, indeed almost extinct; a frightful demoralization pervades all classes; law is a dead letter; and the strongest ties of society are the [Page 458] sympathies arising from degradation and crime on the one hand, and misfortune and oppression on the other.
This picture will, undoubtedly, seem exaggerated; it is, nevertheless, strictly true. It finds a strong support in the significant fact, that within the last year causeless bloody warfare has afflicted no less than six of the nine States of the republic, superinduced by no higher motive than that of pillage, thinly cloaked under the garb of office on the part of the leaders, and on that of their followers.
President Murillo has endeavoured to give the country a somewhat more elevated administration than it has had for some time. The great mass of the people of all professed shades of opinion have not accepted it, but have drifted him along with them; and it is ending one of the least fortunate of all. A few cling to the attenuated hope that the peculiar administrative notions of General Mosquera, (explained in my number 147,) may stay the present rapid downward tide. Should he fail in this, the country’s cup of misery, now full, must soon overflow.
I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant,
Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State, Washington, D. C.