No. 178.
Mr. Scruggs to Mr. Fish.
Bogota, November 27, 1873. (Received December 30.)
Sir: Dr. Santiago Perez, late minister from this country to the United States, having received the majority of votes in six of the nine States of the confederation, has been declared, by the several State legislatures, the constitutionally elected President of Colombia for the term beginning the 1st of April, 1874, and ending April 1, 1876.
All previous apprehensions of a revolution seem dissipated, and the probabilities are that Mr. Perez’s inauguration will be peaceable. In that event, it is not improbable that Dr. Murillo, the present incumbent, will be named minister either to the United States or England.
In the States of Bolivar and Magdalena the insurrectionary troubles seem to be over, at least for the present, all the leading insurgents having either compromised with, or surrendered to, the legitimate authorities. The newly-elected governor of the last-named state was inaugurated on the 1st ultimo, October, and a bill is now pending in the legislature making all persons who may hereafter engage in revolution pecuniarily responsible for all expenses caused the government by their acts, and likewise amenable to such individuals as may suffer therefrom. Efforts are also being made to repeal the import duty on flour, which, including state and national tax, is now $8 per barrel. [Page 353] Nearly all the flour heretofore imported has been from the United States.
In the states of Antioque and Cauca there is a steadily-increasing trade with the United States. The articles mostly imported are lamps, petroleum, sewing-machines, hardware, cotton cloth, carpets, agricultural implements, carpenters’ and miners’ tools, machinery, &c. From Medellin to the Rio Magdalena, a distance of one hundred and twenty miles, a first-class carriage-road is in progress of construction, twenty-five miles of which is already completed.
As Antioque is a mining state, and does not produce provisions sufficient for local consumption, it will probably become, when this new road shall have been completed, a considerable market for the surplus products of the United States. The same is true of Tolima. In both the states named there are several American companies engaged in extensive and successful mining operations, which have opened a nucleus for increased American trade.
The projected railway from Buenaventura, on the Pacific coast, to Cali, in the Cauca Valley, is, as you are doubtless aware, the enterprise of an American company, formed at Peoria, 111. Work was commenced on the 16th June last, but, owing to some misunderstanding relative to the transfer to the company, in virtue of a contract with the Colombian government, of the property of the “Buenaventura Mule-Road Company,” and to the efforts on the part of the railroad company to procure some modification in the original contract, it has not been resumed. These disputes having been settled, and the modifications in the contract obtained, the company now announce their purpose to resumed work very soon, and hopes are entertained by the government and capitalists here that the road will be built.
As there has been no official statement of the national debt of Colombia for the current year, and probably will not be for some weeks yet, I shall have to defer any attempt to inform the Department in relation thereto until some official or authentic data can be obtained. Under the Murillo administration the bonded debt of the confederation has been very materially reduced.
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I have, &c.,