Papers Relating to Foreign Affairs, Accompanying the Annual Message of the President to the Second Session of the Thirty-ninth Congress
Mr. Burton to Mr. Seward
Sir: Referring to my No. 275, I now have the honor to enclose the annexed papers relating to the supposed preparations on the isthmus for a revolt against the national authority, to which I then briefly alluded.
Independence has long been contemplated and favored by a considerable part of the isthmian people, and there was no greater reason for the late alarm in the national government than has existed at any time for several years past. It is almost certain that the cry was raised a month ago by certain ex-officials here from Panama, who have been driven from that State for their crimes, and who owe their lives to the asylum heretofore given them against a justly enraged populace by our consuls and naval officers, to deceive President Mosquera into sending troops to the isthmus under the direction of the instigators of the rumor, who would not be slow in finding a pretext to make war on the Present State government, the only one fit to be called a government which the State has had for years. I am much disposed to believe that the correspondence was begun with me without the knowledge of the president, in order that these exiles, the under-secretary for foreign affairs being one, might ascertain in advance what position the United States officers at the isthmus would assume in case a body of adventurers collected on the Pacific coast in the State of Cauca should invade Panama in aid of the movement to overthrow its government. The case treated of in my Nos. 190 and 197 had presented itself again. In my No. 199 it will be seen that I had the misfortune to fall into a mistake, according to the opinion of his honor the Attorney General, as given me in despatch from the department No. 134, as to the obligations of the United States under the 35th article of the treaty of 1846. The view I then took, and which has since been in effect sustained by the department in the concluding paragraph of despatch to me, No. 139, dated April 30th, 1866, (I have another of this number, dated August 5th, 1866,) is the one always entertained by this government, including President Mosquera, the real negotiator of the treaty on the part of this country, until 1862, when, as dictator, he adopted an interpretation better suited to the circumstances then surrounding him. The interpretation which had up to that time prevailed here imposed grave duties on us, and since being notified of the opinion of the Attorney General I have conceived it to be my duty, should a fit opportunity present itself, to seek a declaration from President Mosquera’s administration in accordance with the grounds taken by him in 1862 and the views of the Attorney General, above referred to, which, if successful, would avoid any doubt that might arise in future as to the duties intended to be imposed by the treaty. I considered the note initiating this correspondence concerning the alleged danger of an uprising on the isthmus an opportune occasion for the purpose, and ventured to call for the interpretation of the treaty in this respect by the present administration. The result has been that the Colombian government declares that it does not feel itself authorized by the treaty to require the aid of the United States for the suppression of an insurrection, rebellion, or other disturbance on the isthmus on the part of Colombian citizens, not even an invasion by another Colombian State, unless such movement be intended to detach the State of Panama from the Colombian Union and to annex it to a foreign power. This would seem to leave the isthmus free to declare itself independent of the United States of Colombia, without the fear of the forced intervention of the United States of America, provided such declaration be not accompanied by the end of annexation to a foreign power. If such purpose be not declared at the time and the isthmus should secure its independence, which is admissible under the construction just adopted by this government, it would appear too late to then invoke [Page 575] the help of the United States to subjugate it again to Colombian rule in case it should afterwards attempt to unite itself to another nation. Should this view of the Colombian government become known to the people of Panama, it is entirely safe to predict a revolutionary movement for independence at no very distant day, which, unless it shall be so indiscreetly conducted as to call for the interference of the United States, will very likely be made good.
I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant,
Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State, Washington, D. C.
[Translation.]
INDEPENDENCE OF THE ISTHMUS.
The news of the legislative approval of the contract celebrated in London by the present President of the republic, with Mr. Cotterill, for the superintendence and management of our interoceanic way, by means of a stipulated pecuniary indemnity as the price of redemption and sale of the national remainder in that rich and most valuable enterprise, the Panama railroad, has produced a great sensation among its officers and employés.
As the Mosquera-Cotterill contract will soon begin to take effect—for it has already the force of legal sanction, the seal of written right—the American company, which looks upon it thus, and which sees passing from its hands the best speculation of its kind in both worlds, resorts to new means in order to retain the mercantile supremacy which it exercises over that bridge between the two seas, the precious link which unites two great hemispheres.
Thus the idea of the independence of the isthmus of Panama, which is now being fostered in that State, has its seat and origin in a combination of interests between the railroad and the local rulers; the first on account of the near approaching loss of its prodigous gains, and the second because, with the march of time and by the square of justice, they see their political power dying—a frightful apparition to men who live and have lived on the offices as the mistletoe on the sap of the plant.
Passing to another power, as will pass, the management of the road for a long period, the business men who hold its fat income in their hands, well knowing the high importance of the road as a point of communication between the most flourishing centres of wealth, seeing the constant and increasing range of its profits, and considering its future without the competition of any other intermarine way, will not consent to abandon the working of that fruitful mine without exhausting the gold of their coffers in keeping up a political movement which shall end in emancipating the isthmus, and by this means secure the ownership of this route.
In order to show that these ideas are not exaggerated we took the precaution to lay up the views put forth fifteen years ago by a private French writer, A. Haussman, in his work entitled “The Isthmus of Panama and California.” He says: “Panama, now in ruins, will see the regeneration and new prosperity which she expects. Let a railroad across the isthmus but triumph over the Nicaragua canal and a simply good common road be constructed between Chagres and Panama, and the future of this city is sure. A point of union between the two Americas, a weak barrier between the two oceans, it is one of those places marked by Providence as a point for the uniting of all nations—a country predestined, which, like the isthmus of Suez, has been created to unite peoples by peace and commerce; a privileged strip of land which serves as a highway for the immense caravans of distinct races of the globe, and which will much diminish the distance between the United States and China.
“The American people is of all others that which best comprehends the immense advantages of the isthmus of Panama, and which also looks with envy on this country, so favorable to its commerce, this route from eastern to western America trying at the same time to conceal its ambitious views and pretending to invoke the neutrality of the territory over which the Nicaragua canal is to pass. It is not necessary to know much of the most avaricious race in the universe, as well as the immense ambition and pride with which the Americans have been inflated by the acquisition of Oregon and their victories in Mexico, in order to imagine how long they will permit to remain in foreign hands a country so indispensable to their power and for their political and commercial development.”
As the observance of the symptoms reveals to the physician the nature of the disease and its greater or less intensity, so also, and by a logical deduction, it is made to appear that the separation of that State from the others of the Colombian Union—a separation advocated by the permanent organ of North American interests, “The Star and Herald,” on hearing of the approbation of the Mosquera-Cotterill contract—is the first of a political and commercial [Page 576] alliance between the railroad company and the official clique that now oppresses the Panama people.
Said company, which sees a positive and inevitable danger in the London convention, and the government of that State, which knows well what it is and the elements which oppose its stability and conspire to bring about its destruction, believes it sees its anchor of salvation in independence, even though after the birth of its nationality, attenuated and covered in rags, it will have to throw itself into the arms of the Yankees.
This question is much more grave than at first may appear, regarding it as an incipient idea, and we have therefore believed it necessary to bestow some reflections on it. In the interior of the republic it is considered as a mathematical absurdity, because a part cannot overcome the whole; but this is because the advantageous topographical situation of that celebrated neck is forgotten, and the support of a powerful company and the decisive influence of the North American government is not taken into account.
It is not now for the first time that that end has been sought, and emancipation inscribed on the political banners in the domestic contests of the isthmus. Sixteen years ago the governor of Panama, Señor José de Obaldia, discovered a clandestine plot, headed by a military chief and the editor of the paper published in English, the Panama Echo, and on legal investigation a conspiracy to pronounce against the authority of New Granada, towards the end of September, 1850, was fully proved.
Twelve years afterwards, when the republic from one end to the other was one sad encampment, the political clique which then headed the government of Panama, (the same as now, with few exceptions,) availing itself of an ambiguous and double policy adapted to the changes of the strife which it was precipitating it into, invoked also the fallacy of independence. Fortunately, the events of 1862 changed the face of things in favor of the Union, and a new order of things laid low what had been agreed on in the tumultuous clubs in some districts, in which it was wished to proclaim “a Hanseatic republic, which should flourish under the shades of the most powerful flags of the earth.”
The idea, then, of these men, who, aside from personal interests, have no care for the honor and dignity of their country, is to make the separation of the State a wall of infamy to protect their selfish ends, and to sustain the perpetual domination which they desire over that vital part of Colombia. But that idea, like every other principle which is available as an aim according to the hand that may hold it, and if in the past it had no result, by reason of the feebleness of the hand which seized it, now that the political and mercantile interests are combined it may shoot up from the germ into full development.
The last encouragement to this plan has been published without disguise in the Star and Herald of Panama, and the correspondent in that city of the Commercial, of Lima, asserted it as a thing certain in the latter part of July last. That journal, which, as we have said, is the organ of “Yankeeism,” defends the project, basing it on the ground that the true interests of the State are unheeded by the government of the Union, and that it is necessary to look to the indisputable rights of that section of Colombia which is supposed to be the victim of unmerited wrongs. Although that country is helpless to make war, its exceptional situation places it in a position to segregate itself as desired by its evil-disposed inhabitants, and to resist the measures of the general government for reducing it to obedience.
There are, then, three chief reasons uniting in this disloyal act so prejudicial to the nation against which it is aimed, as well as to that which it is thought of attempting to create: the necessity of the United States to keep under the control of their citizens the keys of Panama, in order to maintain the transit free from ultramarine influence; the supreme desire of the American company to not lose that work, acquired by so much gold and arduous labor, without securing the future profits of the enterprise; and the fears of the present rulers in that State that there may be a political change, or their inordinate love for the public places to which they cling as the molusk to his shell.
Such a peril, more or less near, must be stifled, and we believe this should be accomplished by the presence of a national garrison, which will give security to the general commerce of the world, and especially to that of the United States of Colombia, which garrison ought to be paid for the security it will afford to the road, and for the inhabitants of that privileged region and those passing over it, according to the agreement with the Panama Railroad Company, and which would extinguish, without delay, the spark which is perceived, before the emancipating conflagration shall darken the heavens of the isthmus with its livid hues.
By an abuse to which the administration of 1864–5, consented in an evil hour, the service which ought to be rendered by the national soldiery is performed in Panama by the forces which, since the 9th of March of last year, receive a salary from that State for its own defence; but such corruption must be brought to an end in the prudence which distinguished the proceedings of the great general now in charge of the executive power, as well as to avoid a repetition of a scandal like that of the memorable 15th of April, and more especially to save the humiliations which are felt at seeing our soil constantly profaned by the tramp of foreign soldiers, without even the courtesy of asking permission of the proper authority. Up to this time we have not been able to find any doctrine of international law which authorizes the like uncivil proceeding; neither has the nation granted it in its public treaties, for which reason they cannot be characterized as offences.
True it is that the relations of the great republic of the north and ours are kept up in the [Page 577] best harmony, in the most desirable cordiality; but it is also true that so soon as the cabinet at Washington discovers that the Panama railroad is to pass to English speculators, American diplomacy will show itself disdainful, tyrannical, and perhaps hostile to Colombia,
Thus, seeing in the vague horizon of the future the complications which are being prepared by the movement towards independence, which is already initiated, and the risk which threatens the nation of losing the jewel which for North Americans represents a value of at least one hundred millions of dollars, we energetically call the attention of the government to this most vital affair. Before the revolution shall commence, the federal soldiers should march to the support of the national sovereignty over a soil of so much present care, of such future benefit to the loyal sons of regenerated Colombia. It is necessary that the government for once display its authority before its own citizens and strangers, if only to prepare for the fulfilment of this contract, which it is attempted to render illusory by such unworthy means.
B.
Correction.
In the editorial of the El Tiempo, number 455, entitled “Independence of the Isthmus,” it is said, “the Mosquera-Cotterill contract will very soon begin to take effect, because it already has the force of legal sanction.” This is a grave mistake, for it is not true that the contract has legal force.
The Great General Mosquera celebrated in London on the 6th of February last, with Mr. Henry Cotterill, a contract for the sale of the remainder in the Panama railroad; and as it could not be carried out without the approval of congress, the President of the Union gave an account of the matter to that body in his message of the 22d of May last. In that message, General Mosquera, the President, did not request a confirmation of the contract, only as a basis for proposals for better bids in Europe and America, he to be authorized to close the contract finally with Mr. Cotterill, in case better offers should not be made. But the congress took no action in the matter, and it cannot be said, therefore, that Mr. Cotterill has acquired any right to the remainder in the Panama railroad.
We regret that El Tiempo, a journal of so much reputation, should have committed this mistake, which must injure its good name unless speedily corrected.
[Untitled]
The minister resident of the United States has the honor to present his respectful compliments to his excellency Señor José M. Rojas Garrido, secretary of the interior and foreign relations of the Colombian Union, and will thank his excellency for a conference concerning matters treated of in his communication of the third instant, at such time as may be convenient.
Memorandum.
The minister of the United States was anxious to confer for a few minutes with his excellency the secretary of foreign relations, concerning the subject-matter of the accompanying note before delivering it. It not being convenient to honor him with an interview, and it being important that he shall be able to transmit, by the next mail, to his government the answer of that of Colombia, it is deemed best to deliver it in time for the Colombian government to make that answer, if it shall desire to do so.
Mr. Burton to Señor Garrido
The undersigned, minister resident of the United States of America, has the honor to acknowledge the receipt of the communication which his excellency Señor José M. Rojas Garrido, secretary of the interior and foreign relations of the United States of Colombia, was [Page 578] pleased to address him on the 3d instant, announcing that the Colombian government had then just received private but trustworthy information to the effect that an insurrectionary movement against the national authority, instigated by the agents of the Panama Railroad Company, was being prepared in Panama, with the end of wresting that State from its allegiance to the federal government, notwithstanding, as is stated, the well known loyalty of its inhabitants. The fear is expressed that in such event the insurgents might come in conflict with American citizens and interests, and that to guard against any occurrence of the kind, the grand general President had ordered his excellency to request the undersigned to advise his government of said apprehended insurrection, and also to direct the troops and citizens of the United States, as well as the agents of the Panama railroad, to carefully abstain from interference or participation in the same, for the reason, as his excellency is pleased to state, that the government of the undersigned is bound to guarantee positively and efficaciously the perfect neutrality of the isthmus, and consequently the rights of sovereignty and property which the United States of Colombia have and possess over that territory.
Upon the receipt of his excellency’s communication, the undersigned did not delay to send the same to his government and to notify it to the agents of the United States at the isthmus, although the latter are under direct orders from Washington, which, independently of their own sense of duty and propriety, is a complete guarantee against the realization of the fears implied in the request that special directions should be given them to not take part in affairs with which they might have no concern.
With regard to the alleged complicity of the agents of the Panama Railroad Company in the supposed revolutionary enterprise, the undersigned esteems it his duty, in justice to a respectable association of his fellow citizens, to affirm, that while he, in nowise impugns the good faith of the informant of the Colombian government, he happens to have good reasons to know such indeed as to his mind exclude all reasonable doubt that, even if disloyal purposes towards the national government exist on the isthmus, as supposed, the charge against the agents of the Panama Railroad Company is without any real foundation whatever. And the imputation being of a character so grave, and which if suffered to rest without further notice may prejudice alike in the eyes of the world, so much interested in the good management of that great highway of nations, both the railroad company and Colombia, its joint owners, it is hoped that the government of his excellency will esteem it just and convenient to cause strict inquiry to be made into the alleged facts, giving to the result the like publicity which has been given to the charge. And further, as the government of the undersigned is equally solicitous with Colombia that law, order, and loyalty shall prevail on the isthmus, he trusts that his excellency may also find it convenient to communicate to this legation the evidences of their probable interruption.
After carefully considering the contents of his excellency’s communication, the undersigned has not been able to determine with entire satisfaction the preccise idea intended to be conveyed with regard to the duties resting on the United States to guarantee to Colombia the neutrality, sovereignty and property of the isthmus and he believes that on a review of the same, his excellency will agree that the importance and delicacy of the duties therein alluded to, require that they should be fully and clearly defined, so far at least as they are connected with the. circumstances which have given rise to this correspondence. To enable the United States to act understandingly and effectively in the premises, it is believed important that they should know whether Colombia holds it their duty under the existing treaty stipulations between the two countries, to aid, when called on by Colombia so to do, in suppressing such a movement as that contemplated in his excellency’s note, or any other disturbance confined to Colombian citizens, or whether the treaty guarantee is understood as limited in its application to attempts against the neutrality, sovereignty, and property of the isthmus by powers foreign to Colombia.
His excellency will not fail to appreciate at once the present necessity of the two governments being in accord as to the answers to be given to the preceding inquiries. This is especially important to the United States, because the preparations for meeting their duty must necessarily be influenced thereby.
The undersigned improves this opportunity to offer to his excellency the assurances of his highest consideration.
ALLAN A. BURTON.
His Excellency Señor M. Rojas Garrido, Secretary of the Interior and Foreign Relations, &c., & c., & c.
Two hours after the delivery of the foregoing note I received the following. I had the conference. The secretary simply told me what his answer would be. I told him I had only come to thank him for granting the interview, as it was unnecessary to enter into a conference about the method, inasmuch as I bad already sent my note; that I wished to confer with him before writing. He told me that Mariano Arasemena, the father-in law of United States Consul Rice, and Juan Mendoza had written from the isthmus to the government here the charges against the Panama railroad. I replied that the charges were utterly false, and so known to be by the writers of the letters. He said he could not give up their names except to me confidentially.
E.
Señor Garrido to Mr. Burton
José Maria Rojas Garrido, secretary of the interior and foreign relations of the United States of Colombia, has the honor to present his compliments to the Hon. Allan A. Burton, minister resident of the United States of America, and to inform him that it will be very gratifying to receive the Hon. Mr. Burton at 11 o’clock a. m. for the purpose of conferring as he desires about the communication addressed him from this department on the 3d instant, provided no inconvenience may prevent the Hon. Mr. Burton from attending.
F.
Señor Garrido to Mr. Burton
The undersigned, the secretary of the interior and foreign relations of the United States of Colombia, has the honor to acknowledge the receipt of the communication which the Hon. Allan A. Burton, minister resident of the United States of America, was pleased to address to this department under date of the 12th instant, in answer to one which he had received from the same relating to the part which the agents of the railroad company might take in a projected revolutionary movement, with the object of segregating the sovereign State of Panama from the Colombian Union; and in obedience to the instructions which he has received from the President of the Union, the undersigned will proceed to answer the said communication of the 12th instant.
With respect to the alleged interference of the agents of the Panama Eailroad Company in the revolution which, according to rumor, and even data which the government has, is being set on foot there for the purpose of severing the isthmus from the Union, the executive power, taking into consideration the respectability of that company and the prudence and circumspection which must be supposed to govern its members, receives with pleasure the explanations concerning it in the communication of the Hon. Mr. Burton.
As to the interposition due from the government of the United States by the treaty existing between the two nations in the event that an insurrection by armed force should take place on the isthmus for the purpose of segregating it from the Union, the government of Colombia understands that, if such a movement should be effected with the view of making that section of the republic independent and attaching it to any other foreign nation or power, that is to say, in order to transfer by any means whatever the sovereignty which Colombia justly possesses over that territory to any foreign nation or power whatever, the case will then have arisen when the United States of America, in fulfilment of their obligation contracted by the 35th article of the treaty existing between the two republics, should come to the assistance of Colombia to maintain its sovereignty over the isthmus; but not when the disturbances are confined to Colombian citizens.
In conclusion, it affords the undersigned pleasure to renew to the Hon. Mr. Burton the protests of the distinguished consideration and esteem with which he has the honor to subscribe himself, his very attentive, obsequious servant,
Hon. Allan A. Burton, Minister Resident of the United States of America, &c., & c., & c.
[Translation.]
INDEPENDENCE OF THE ISTHMUS.
On the 22d of May last, the President of the Union addressed a message to the house of representatives submitting a contract for the sale of the reserves or remainder in the Panama railroad for its approval or adoption by congress as a basis for the discussion of that delicate subject, public opinion having for some time demanded the sale, but in such a manner as to meet the aspirations of patriotism.
The message pointed out the propriety of fixing a period within which bids should be [Page 580] received in Europe and America, and, in case better terms should not be offered the executive power should be authorized to conclude the contract definitively.
The contract had been entered into by our minister plenipotentiary in London with Mr. William Henry Cotterill, and it was stipulated that it would not be binding until sanctioned by the national congress.
The message was referred first to Señor Pablo Arosemena, and afterwards to Señor Manuel D. Camacho, as committees to report on the same, who made directly opposite reports, except that both agreed that the contract ought not to be ratified. The house postponed indefinitely the consideration of the reports, and proceeded to discuss a project proposed by Señors Polau, Herrera, and Navarete, for the establishment of a company composed of Colombian government and citizens for the redemption of the road, but no decision was reached.
This is the whole truth, a complete history of the facts as to the reserves.
But the editor of El Tiempo, who cannot be ignorant of them, asserts in the first editorial of the last number of that paper that “the Mosquera-Cotterill contract will soon take effect, because it already has the force of legal sanction, the seal of written right.” To be thus derelict to the truth before the country, and in this capital, two months scarcely having elapsed since the adjournment of congress, and when everything pertaining to this important affair has been published in El Diario Oficial, is putting a very light estimate on public opinion, and is an ignoring of the character of a truthful man and honest journalist.
And what has induced the editor of El Tiempo to make this false assertion? In divers articles, and particularly in that which bears the same title with this, he has shown himself the tenacious and implacable enemy of the present government of Panama. For this reason, animated by a subtle spirit, he puts forth the idea that the isthmus thinks of separating from the Colombian Union and of erecting itself into a Hanseatic republic, with the aid of the Panama Railroad Company and under the protection of the government of the United States of North America.
Thus it is, then, that the editor affirms, although he possesses no proof, that a great sensation has been wrought on the managers and employés of the railroad by the news (false news) that the national legislature had approved the London contract. Is the editor ignorant that the directory of the railroad company addressed the national executive making new propositions for securing the reserves, and that these propositions were submitted to the house of representatives? Does he not know that a few days before the adjournment of congress the President of the Union sent a message to the house on this subject? And is it owing to the like ignorance, also, that the editor of El Tiempo says that “the official clique of Panama oppresses the people of that State,” that its fear of secession proceeds directly and exclusively from a commercial and political alliance between the railroad company and the authorities of the State, and that these authorities “are losing their political power with the lapse of time and in obedience to the behests of justice—a frightful apparition for men who live on office as the mistletoe on the sap of other plants.”
This last assertion does not merit an answer, because many or all the citizens who take part in the administration of Señor Colunje have no need of public offices.
As to the approaching fall of the official clique in Panama, which glimmers before the editor s vision, I believe the wish is only father to the thought. But the clique will ever be grateful for the information.
And what ground is there for his saying that the desire of independence is cherished in the State of Panama, and that it has its origin with the Panama Railroad Company and the local authorities of that section of the republic? The editor affects to believe that the end to the immense gains of the company is the moving cause of the whole. And why? Solely on the supposition that the London contract has been approved, when the company knew very well that that contract was unworthy of being ratified as stipulated on its face. It, on the other hand, can afford to offer better terms.
And with regard to the present administration of Panama it is pretended that it also approached its end. It is true, the honest and truly liberal administration of Señor Jil Colunje will end by law on the 30th instant; but he will be succeeded by Señor Vicente Olarte, whose republican principles, patriotism, and probity cannot leave even the editor of El Tiempo in doubt as to them.
Can the editor believe in good faith that Señor Olarte countenances the traitorous idea of independence on the isthmus? Is it to be imagined that Señor Colunje harbors the thought, when on all occasions he has ever, by word and writing, opposed the project, which if it has existed it has been only in the wishes of some North American journalists, and of some bad natives of the isthmus.
The editor of the El Tiempo, in support of this false announcement, appeals to the Panama Echo, and to disclosures made by Señor José de Obaldia, which were afterwards confirmed by a judicial investigation in September, 1850.
But as this happened twelve years ago, it does not follow that the sentiments of that State are now the same, and the editor will remember that El Panameño then declared strongly that the inhabitants of the isthmus scouted the idea of annexation or independence, and that the press of the country applauded the feeling of nationality and noble patriotism of the press of the isthmus.
It was then believed that the property and sovereignty of the republic over that part of its [Page 581] territory was made secure by the commercial interests of the powerful nations; and that England, France, and the United States, having interests on the Atlantic and Pacific, needed the free communication by “that bridge between two seas,” and in order to make effective the freedom and security of the transit, it was indispensable that the isthmus should be neutral and independent of these nations. In the treaty with the United States of North America that neutrality is guaranteed, and there is no reason to believe that that government, which on more than one occasion has shown us its cordial friendship and its desire for our prosperity, will interpose its decisive influence, as El Tiempo says, to secure to the railroad company its great gains, and to prevent the knell of time from sounding the last agonizing hour of the official clique which oppresses the people of Panama.
If the government of the United States should desire the independence and annexation of the isthmus, it could consummate the fact in spite of the wishes of the editor and of all who should attempt to prevent it. It would secure the territory, but our race would be absorbed. This would be the inevitable result.
But fortunately the government of the United States does not desire or need it. Neither does the Panama Railroad Company. The latter enjoys its privilege and desires nothing more. Nine years, and that privilege can be redeemed, and the company can then enter into competition as a bidder, if not with a better right than others, certainly with greater advantages, and among them I think will be found the sympathies due to its honorable conduct in our domestic dissensions.
And besides, the administration of Señor Colunje enjoys the good opinion of the honest citizens of the State, and that of Señor Olarte will likewise be supported by that queen of the world. I think they have nothing to fear, and if the revolutionary spirit shall light up the conflagration which the editor seems to desire; if the genius of evil shall spread its wings over that important State, it is certain—and let not the editor forget it—that Señor Olarte, surrounded by the foreigners who find protection and guarantees in the party that now governs them, will again raise triumphantly the banner unfurled on the.9th of March, 1865.
Let the editor of El Tiempo recollect that the isthmus united itself to Colombia spontaneously, and that it has given constant proofs of its love of the country, of its enlightenment, of the noble and generous disposition of its people; what the isthmus is worth in itself on account of its position in the world, and that the people of Panama desire only that the national government treat them justly and loyally, and in good faith protect their lawful rights. “The pillars of Hercules are now at Panama, and Panama symbolizes the frontier of civilization, the citadel and destiny of the Americas.” An enlightened writer of our day says this, and the editor of the El Tiempo ought to bear it in mind.
Thus, the independence of the isthmus is but the offspring of an imagination unmindful of the facts, or an invention of those interested in seizing on that State, or a chimera of passion and unfounded hostility.
As a representative of the State of Panama, I have thought it my duty to make this publication. I could not let the assertions of the editor of El Tiempo pass unnoticed, because to be silent would give grave plausibility to the imposture and subject me to censure.