No. 49.
Mr. Scruggs
to Mr. Fish.
Bogotá, February 5, 1876. (Received March 9.)
Sir: The National Congress of Colombia assembled and effected its organization on the 1st instant. Señor Abraham Garcia and General Serjio Camargo were elected respectively president and vice-president of the senate, while Señors Miguel L. Gutierrez and José Gynacio Carvajal were chosen president and vice-president of the house of representatives.
This arrangement is accepted here as an indication that the election for next President of the Union, soon to be decided by congress, will fall upon Señor Parra, the present governor of Santander.
Immediately after the organization of both houses the minister for foreign affairs, Señor Rueda, presented the President’s annual message.
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The message is quite lengthy, and is a state paper of more than average ability. It reviews at great length the late political disorders in the republic, and makes a somewhat elaborate defense of the policy of the Executive connected therewith. Its opening sentences may be translated as follows:
“The last time that I had the honor to congratulate you upon your constitutional reunion I had the satisfaction of announcing that peace had prevailed throughout the entire republic, and with it the continuance [Page 83] of material and moral progress; that the relations between the national and state governments had been maintained peaceably, and upon a constitutional footing, and that the federal administration had been facilitated by the general tranquillity, by the ample income to the treasury, and by the reforms which had been so prudently inaugurated. But, in addressing you this time I have not the same cause of congratulation. The year just past has left in our history new traces of blood and mourning. The catastrophe which in a few moments ruined one of the most prosperous sections of our country, bringing sudden death to thousands of our people, and annihilating great property interests that represented years of industry and labor; an unjustifiable rebellion, the suppression of which demanded very great sacrifices; the molestations and anxieties caused by the paroxysms of passion engendered by partisan strife; the consequent decay of commerce and productive industry; the scarcity of money occasioned by constant remittances abroad in order to preserve our national credit; and, above all, the loss of confidence produced by our civil disorders, are among the unhappy incidents in our history of the past year.”
The President then enters into an elaborate review of the origin, progress, and close of the rebellion in the coast States of the Union; premising that, heretofore, all political disturbances had originated in some issue of principle or national policy, but that the one under consideration was without any issue whatever, either of principle or policy, and therefore all the more unjustifiable and criminal on the part of its instigators. He devotes much space to a defense of his policy with respect to the rebellion; his sending of national troops within the limits of the disaffected States for the purpose of restoring order; his announcement to the representatives of foreign powers, resident in the capital, that the government was unable, for the time being, to afford protection to foreign interests on the Atlantic coast; his requesting their influence for the protection of such interests in the national ports and customhouses, &c.
Among the chief reasons given by him for sending General Camargo with a national force to Panama, in April, 1875, is an agreement by his predecessor, in 1873, with the representative of the United States, to keep a sufficient force in Panama for the protection of the Isthmus transit against the violence of local factions. In view of the executive decree of December 15, 1873, issued in accordance with the agreement referred to, the national administration, he says, could not have done otherwise, under existing circumstances, without bringing reproach upon the government.
This compliance with a plain duty was the beginning of those complaints made against the national administration. It was pretended by the conspirators that the movement was made purely in the interests of one of the presidential candidates, as against the other; and, upon this pretext, and in open violation of law, General Camargo was, by order of the governor of Panama, arrested and thrown into prison. Still unwilling to precipitate the country into civil war, the President says he forbore to employ force for the reparation of this outrage; but, in the hope of an amicable adjustment, appointed the “peace commission” of June following, composed of discreet men of both factions. The practical failure of that commission, and the subsequent outbreaks in the States of Bolivar and Magdalena, rendered force necessary to the existence of the government itself; and accordingly it was reluctantly resorted to. The strong measures thus adopted soon resulted in raising [Page 84] the blockade of the Magdalena, the complete dispersion of the rebels, and the re-establishment of public order on the coast.
“Our relations with other countries,” says the President, “have continued cordial and peaceful;” a fact which he is pleased to attribute “to the constant good disposition manifested toward our country by the very honorable diplomatic body, resident in the republic,” &c.
Alluding to the long-existing controversy with Venezuela, regarding boundary limits, the President says: “The conferences which have taken place between the plenipotentiaries of the two countries respecting territorial limits, throw all the light possible upon these questions; but, since the differences between what each believes to be right are so considerable, there does not appear any better way of putting an end to the dispute than by arbitration. Thus far, however, this mode of settlement has been insisted upon by Colombia without any tangible results.”
Among the more important measures recommended to congress by the President, is an increase of the army; such revisions of existing laws as may enable the general government more effectually to comply with its treaty stipulations with foreign governments, looking especially to the protection of foreign interests on the coast; more effective legislation in support of the public-school system, the encouragement of internal improvements, and the prompt payment of the interest on the foreign debt of the nation.
This foreign debt, as the department is already aware, is due principally in England, and is set down by the President at something over ten million dollars, or about five hundred thousand less than the estimate of last year. The domestic debt, it is claimed, has been reduced to about six millions; thus making the present aggregate liability of the government somewhere in the neighborhood of sixteen million dollars.
I have, &c.,