[Extract.]
Mr. Sullivan to Mr. Seward.
No. 12.]
Legation of the United States,
Bogota,
August 10, 1867.
Sir: On the 15th of April last I left my residence in Ohio for my post,
and after a journey of ninety-eight days, the time actually and
necessarily occupied in proceeding from my said place of residence to my
destination, I arrived in this city, with the full approbation of both
parties in this country, on the 22d of July last, and entered upon the
discharge of my official duties the next day.
* * * * * * * * *
[Page 1017]
On my arrival here I found the old congress in session, and a regularly
organized government established, with General Santos Acosta, the second
designado and commander-in-chief of the army, at its head.
Inclosure A is a copy of my letter to the secretary of the interior and
foreign relations, announcing my arrival and mission: B is a translation
of his reply. C, D—the “Diario Official,” (a translation of which I also
inclose you,)—contains an account of the splendid civil and military
welcome which I received, my address, and the President’s reply, on the
occasion of my being officially presented to him by the secretary of
foreign relations on the 25th of July. It is generally admitted by all
who were present that this reception was one of the grandest ever
accorded to the representative of any foreign government in this
country.
The present government has been promptly and fully recognized by all the
representatives of foreign governments here; by all the States in the
union but Bolivar. It is destined to become popular, and, I hope,
permanent. It is composed of the best men in the liberal party, and is
warmly supported by the powerful conservatives.
Congress has declared war against the State of Bolivar, and has
authorized the President to call out as many troops as he may deem
proper to suppress the existing rebellion in that State; and for that
purpose the government will in a few days send 3,000 troops to the
coast.
General Mosquera has, as I predicted in my dispatch No 4, of May 24th,
fallen a sad victim to his insatiable thirst for dictatorial power. He
is still in jail. On the 1st instant he addressed a letter (E) to both
houses of congress, resigning the presidency of the republic. This will
not now be accepted, and he will be tried for treason, either by this or
the next congress.
* * * * * * * * *
Just as I was about to close this dispatch I learned, as a fact, that the
officer and guards over the penitentiary in this city, bribed by
Mosquera’s partizans, had run off with all the convicts, with the view
to rise against the government and release Mosquera by force; and that
one or two other outbreaks between here and Honda had taken place; but
all have been promptly and efficiently checked and baffled by the
fidelity of the government troops. Some of these would-be liberators
have been caught, and are now in safe keeping.
I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant,
Hon. William H. Seward,
Secretary of State, Washington, D. C.
A.
Mr. Sullivan to Señor Martin.
Legation of the United States of
America,
Bogota, United States of
Colombia,
July 23, 1867.
Sir: I have the honor to inform you that I
have been duly commissioned as minister resident of the United
Slates of America to the United States of Colombia; to inclose to
you an office copy of my credentials; and to solicit, through your
good offices, an audience with the President at as early and
convenient a moment as possible.
I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant,
His Excellency Don Carlos Martin,
Secretary of the Interior and Foreign
Relations, U. S. C.
[Page 1018]
B.
[Translation.]
Mr. Martin to Mr. Sullivan.
Department of the Interior and
Foreign Relations,
Bogota,
July 24, 1867.
The undersigned, secretary of the interior and foreign relations of
the United States of Colombia, has had the honor to receive the very
attentive communication dated yesterday, which Mr. Peter J. Sullivan
was pleased to address him with a view to inform him that he has
been appointed minister resident of the United States of America,
near the Colombian government, and hand him an official copy of his
credentials, soliciting, also, an audience of the citizen President
of the republic.
The undersigned, after having acquainted the first magistrate of the
nation with the communication to which he has the honor to reply,
has the pleasure to inform Mr. Sullivan that to-morrow, July 25th,
he will be received in public audience by the President of Colombia,
at 3 o’clock in the afternoon, at the government house; for which
purpose the chief clerk of this department of state will duly
present himself at Mr. Sullivan’s place of residence, in order that
on the way to the government house he may accompany him to the
office of the undersigned, in which he will have the satisfaction of
renewing to Mr. Sullivan the assurances of the very distinguished
consideration which he now has the pleasure to present him.
C.
Remarks of General Peter J. Sullivan,
the American minister, on presenting his credentials to the
President of the United States of Colombia.
Mr. President: In presenting to your
excellency my credentials as minister resident of the United States
of America to the United States of Colombia, I beg leave to assure
you that the President and people of the United States of America
are impressed with the deepest, the most heartfelt desire to
cultivate and ever cherish the most friendly relations with the
government and people of the United States of Colombia, and to see
your people united, prosperous, and happy.
In the country which I have the honor to represent the energies of
man have their full scope; reason, unshackled, maintains a
controlling sway; and virtue and bravery, presiding over the breast
of each freeman, leads him, when his country is in circumstances of
difficulty and danger, to the performance of those deeds which
renders him not only honored while living but revered when dead.
And you, Colombians, like your North American friends, have given to
the world the bright example of what true patriotism and love of
country can suffer and sacrifice for national liberty and
constitutional government. Your devotion to the cause of human
freedom, based on the rights of man, is well known and appreciated
in the country which I have the honor to represent.
I beg leave to assure your excellency that I shall make it my study
and aim to carry out the views of my government, and to merit your
approbation and esteem.
And now, sir, with these sentiments, I offer you my hand, and with it
the best wishes of a heart that glows with sincere friendship toward
you personally, and the government of which you are the head.
D.
[Translation.]
Answer of the President of the United
States of Colombia to the discourse of Mr. Peter J. Sullivan,
minister resident of the United States of America.
Mr. Minister: Upon receiving the
credentials which constitute you minister resident of the United
States of America, in the Colombian Union, I have had the
satisfaction to hear you say, in the name of your enlightened
government, and in that of the great nation to which you belong, as
well as of yourself, who is one of its distinguished citizens, that
you have the greatest desire to cultivate and maintain the most
cordial and friendly relations between the two governments and;
nations, and to see this nation in the enjoyment of peace and
prosperity.
[Page 1019]
Allow me, general, to observe to you, with the view to your
communicating the same to your government, that the sentiments of
the Colombian nation, of which the present government believes
itself to be the faithful interpreter, correspond in the sincerest
and most ample manner to your benevolent expressions.
The American government, which has given to the world a great example
of the power of democratical instituions when firmly rooted in
societies such as yours, laborious, honest, and worthy, has
demonstrated that the republican form of government is an
indestructible fact, and thereby afforded hopefulness and strength
to the Spanish American nations of the land of Columbus, and that
the said form of government is the one which is suited to our
land.
To obtain such a form of government our respective endeavors in favor
of liberty and law have been great; and therefore it is that we
admire your nation, and endeavor, by all the means in our power, to
preserve the said benevolent relations.
The arrival in the country of such a representative as you are of the
American government is most grateful to my government, and the
latter on its part will make every effort to correspond to your
desires.
I have heard, general, the opinion you express of the political
character of my fellow citizens, and I accept the flattering words
which you have been so good as to direct to me. I feel myself
honored in corresponding, as I do with the utmost cordiality, to
your friendly sentiments.
Remarks of the Official
Gazette.
[Translation.]
Subsequently the President presented to the minister the public
functionaries who were present, and stated that the secretary of
war, by reason of sickness, had been deprived of the honor of being
present at his reception.
A cordial and friendly conversation was entered into after the
presention, and the minister left the government house, accompanied
by the sub-secretary of the interior and foreign affairs, after
receiving the honors due to his high diplomatic and military
rank.
E.
[Translation.]
Resignation of General
Mosquera.
Citizen Senators and Representatives: T. C.
de Mosquera, grand general of the Union, and constitutional
President of the same, presents to you the formal and definite
resignation of the chief magistracy to which he was called, while
absent from the country, by the spontaneous wishes of the
people.
The political occurrences that have taken place in the republic since
it was inaugurated last year, up to the 23d of May last, are well
known to you, citizens, senators, and representatives; deprived on
that day, by force, of the exercise of my functions as President of
the Union, I consider that by that act, new in the history of the
country, my public life, which for more than half a century has been
consecrated to the loyal, constant, and disinterested services of my
country, has terminated.
Since the accomplishment of the acts of the 23d of May, I would wish
that my name may not serve as a source of civil discord, nor a
motive for war. The violent manner in which I was deprived of my
liberty, and the exercise of my constitutional functions in
consequence, I immediately hastened to resign before the supreme
federal court the office of President of the republic. The
incommunication in which I was kept obliged me to send my
resignation through the present acting head of the nation, General
Santos Acosta, for motives which it is not necessary to mention here
has pleased to give due course to it.
Now that you are in session, I formally reiterate it, as a gift which
I offer to the tranquillity of the republic, and as another element
which I put forward toward the great work of conciliation to the
Colombians.
As for the rest, I am ready to appear before the senate of the
republic to answer for my official conduct, and to defend there, and
afterwards before the whole country, the acts of my administration,
all of them tending to secure the liberty, sovereignty, and
independence of Colombia, and to foment the progress, the
improvement, and civilization of the republic.
T. C. DE MOSQUERA.
Bogota,
August 1, 1867.
