No. 189.
Mr. Scruggs to Mr. Fish.
Bogota, February 6, 1875. (Received April 3.)
Sir: The Colombian Congress assembled at the hour of 12 m. in the national capitol, and both houses were duly organized on the 1st instant. Señor Rafael Nuñez, a senator from the State of Bolivar, and Señor Emigdo Palan, a representative from the State of Cauca, were elected respectively president of the senate and speaker of the house of representatives.
The President, in his annual message—authentic copies of which I transmit—congratulates the country upon the condition of uninterrupted peace, order, and prosperity which has prevailed during the past year. He alludes delicately and briefly to a species of opposition still maintained by certain factions to the system of public instruction inaugurated in accordance with the constitution and laws of the republic three [Page 421] years since, but predicts that this opposition will grow less and less year by year, as the system progresses, and as its beneficent influences are more generally felt. He says:
“In the department of instruction the progress of the republic appears satisfactory. The number of primary schools has now reached 2,000, and between the nation and the states, the sum annually expended for school purposes is $80,000; figures which reveal the impulse recently impressed upon this department. Still the system is very far from being what it should. Already a considerable number of teachers are being educated in conformity with modern methods; and in the course of the present year there will be founded in each state of the union a national normal school for the education of teachers.”
He alludes as follows to the defective postal facilities of the country:
“Our postal and telegraphic service is still very far from satisfying the demand of the public. For want of a marine, and a basis upon which to adjust postal conventions, the co-operation of foreign companies of navigation is still necessary to our communication with the exterior. We should, therefore, modify the present conditions demanded of those companies by the fiscal code, so that they may maintain their agencies in our ports.”
In further explanation of the “conditions” here referred to, I beg leave to refer you to my dispatch No. 48 of July 27, 1874.
Owing to the want of anything like express companies or common carriers, other than the public mails, the transportation of coin, bullion, and other valuable packages has heretofore formed a department of the postal service. The President recommends that this be continued until some more proper means of transportation may be provided by individual enterprise. He also recommends the building or purchase by the government of two or more steamers of light draught, adapted to the various stages of water in the Magdalena River, to be used for the transportation of the mails from Honda to the coast, and to be utilized by other departments of the government as exigencies may arise.
The income from the postal service for the year last past he states to be $63,604, or $1,000 less than that for the year previous, a difference which he attributes to a suspension for six months of the transportation of valuable packages by the department.
He announces that the financial condition of the republic is visibly improving; that, after paying all expenses of the administration of the government for the year last past, there will remain in the treasury a balance of $1,362,500, of which $600,000 has been directed to be applied toward the payment of the loan of 1863, and that the final arrangement of 1872, by means of compromises with the national creditors, domestic and foreign, has been, and should continue to be, scrupulously fulfilled.
Of the relations of the republic with other powers the President says:
“The condition of our foreign relations is satisfactory. There exists no question calculated to produce international ill-feeling. The reclamations for the capture of the Montijo and that known under the name of ‘Cotesworth & Powell,’ have been submitted to arbitration, and the parties await the respective decisions with entire confidence that they will be commensurate with the honorable and upright spirit which animates the arbitrators. The spirit of justice which animates Colombia toward the countries with which we cultivate diplomatic and commercial relations duly corresponds to that of those countries, as is verified by the respectful and deferential bearing of their honorable representatives here.”
[Page 422]Of the late unfortunate controversy between Colombia and Venezuela the President says:
“Our relations with Venezuela are renewed under circumstances honorable alike to both republics, and on our part there has been accredited to Caracas a legation of the first class for the final settlement of the question of boundaries and transits. The disturbance of the peace in that country has necessarily deferred the conclusion of conferences and treaties; but there is a sufficiency of worthy interests and motives in both countries to induce the belief in an early and happy result, which, I hope, may be submitted for your consideration during your present session.”
The annual reports of the heads of the respective departments of the government have not yet been printed. I must, therefore, defer an epitome of the public debt, of the foreign relations of the republic, statistics of commerce, productions, &c., &c., until the several documents are received.
I have, &c.,