Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State, Washington, D. C.
Mr. Burton to Señor Perez
Legation of the United States of
America, Bogota,
February 17,
1866.
The undersigned, well knowing the fraternal interest taken by the
Colombian government and people in all that pertains to the
well-being of their brethren of the north, feels sure that he is the
bearer of acceptable tidings in communicating to his excellency the
secretary of the interior and foreign relations the accompanying
official declaration issued at Washington on the 18th December,
1865, by the Honorable William H. Seward, Secretary of State, to the
effect that African slavery remains completely and forever abolished
throughout the United States of America.
In this great event, the transcendent magnitude of which is, perhaps,
not to be comprehended in all its bearings and results to humanity
by the present generation of men, is virtually and practically
realized on a gigantic scale the eternal truth proclaimed by the
fathers of American independence, “that all men are created equal;
that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable
rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of
happiness;” and its regenerating advent has filled the people of the
United States with devout gratitude to the Father of all men, who
shapes the destinies of nations, and, in His own good time and way,
orders all things aright.
The undersigned joyfully seizes this auspicious occasion to offer to
his excellency Señor Secretary Perez renewed assurances of his
highest consideration.
His Excellency Señor Santiago Perez,
Secretary of the Interior and Foreign
Relations of the United States of Colombia, &c., & c.,
& c.
[Translation.]
Señor Perex to Mr. Burton
UNITED STATES OF COLOMBIA—DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
AND FOREIGN RELATIONS.
Bogota,
February 27, 1866.
The undersigned secretary has had the pleasure to receive the note by
which the minister resident has been pleased to communicate the
declaration made by his government, that African slavery remains
completely and forever abolished in the United States of North
America.
The fathers of ancient Colombia, in organizing it into a country
worthy of a place among free nations, provided for the gradual and
sure extinction of slavery, which had been imported into its
territory by its early rulers, and which has ever been regarded by
Colombians as the greatest human injustice and the most growing of
social dangers.
Among her international obligations the first, and the one most
cordially assumed by Colombia, was that for the suppression of the
slave trade. And New Granada, part of ancient Colombia, which name
she has recently reassumed, hastened, without enconomizing her
efforts, to complete at once the purification of her institutions
and soil, by abolishing slavery, as the
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United States now have done, according to the
official expression of his honor, “completely and forever.”
With such antecedents, which cannot but be well known to him, the
minister was right in feeling himself the bearer of grateful news to
the Colombian government and people, in transmitting to them, in the
name of the cabinet at Washington, the most important and honorable
act of his country—a country which had long before enjoyed great and
growing glories in a moral, material and political point of view,
and has now secured, by abolishing slavery, a glory the purest in a
Christian sense, the most necessary to a logical democracy, and the
most fruitful in an economical aspect.
The marvellous sacrifices of blood and treasure made to secure the
legal equality of all men within the bounds of the great republic,
must ever be inferior to the moral value of that conquest, although
the fruits of justice and the blessing to free labor should not give
ample and immediate indemnity for those sacrifices.
From a community of interest and identity of civilizing aspirations,
the entire world will celebrate as a day of universal joy and
thanksgiving the day on which the great people represented by his
honor, at the cost of rivers of blood and thousands of millions,
bearing in mind the words of Washington, “that the propitious smile
of Providence will ever rest on the nation that inculcates the
eternal principles of right and justice,” abolished forever the
lamentable institution of slavery.
The minister will be pleased to convey to the people and government
of North America the fraternal congratulations which, with the
greatest enthusiasm, the people and government of Colombia offer
them on this occasion, and to accept the considerations with which
the undersigned is his honor’s attentive, respectful servant,
Hon. Allan A. Burton, Minister Resident of the United States of America.
