[Inclosure.—Translation.]
Antonio Borrero, constitutional President of the
republic, to the Ecuadorians.
Fellow-citizens: Four months ago I took charge
of the power which you saw fit to confer upon me.
Thirty-nine thousand votes, voluntarily and spontaneously cast, drew me
away from the retirement of my home in order to place into my hands the
reins of government. [Page 102] If I had
obeyed the impulses of my heart simply, I should have declined to accept
the office which you have imposed upon me, for I have never, at any
time, aspired to the supreme magistracy; but, as a citizen and
Ecuadorian, I had to follow the call of the country before listening to
the voice of my private conveniences. It is true, I knew myself without
strength and intelligence to rule with success; but I knew at the same
time that I would find that strength and intelligence in the
distinguished citizens of the republic. I called, therefore, to the
wheel of government illustrious men who honor our country, without
paying attention to their political color, because I did not come to
rule with hatred and vengeance, but with self-denial and patriotism.
This conduct, worthy of praise in every Christian and civilized nation,
has received in ours a severe criticism on the part of the press of a
certain political color, a censure very natural in a country where
toleration of different opinions and a government of the people and for
the people have been entirely unknown.
When taking possession of the office I swore before God and that body
which represents the nation “to protect and see protected the
constitution” which rules us, because you had elected me President by
command of that constitution, and because, without confirming the same
with my oath, I should not have been able to exercise the authority with
which I found myself invested.
The constitution, therefore, is the only title which legalizes my power;
and the moment I should break the same by calling a convention or a
constitutional congress, as has been solicited, against the will of the
entire nation, by at most a few thousands of Ecuadorians, I would
convert my constitutional and legitimate authority into a power purely
discretionary and arbitrary. The bond of union between the governor and
the governed once broken, neither the former has any right to rule, nor
the latter any obligation to obey. The constitution of the republic once
violated by myself, I could not continue to rule, nor would you be under
any obligation to respect my authority, for I would have deprived myself
of the same by assuming the dictature.
When I delivered my inaugural address, I proclaimed to you that the
constitution ought to be reformed, and I told you that the Congress,
before whose president I took the constitutional oath, had already
initiated important reforms. These reforms will be, within one year and
a few months, an integral part of the constitution; and in three years
and a few months from now will the constitution be changed and reformed
to the extent that the political welfare, the principles of
constitutional sciences, and the peculiar necessities of our country may
advise us to change and reform the same. Three years and a few months,
then, is the shortest time which Ecuador needs to reform her
institutions, to-day indeed defective and imperfect, but not to such an
extent as to be incompatible with a republican government, since the
magistrate who is bound to see them respected is animated by patriotism,
disinterestedness, loyalty, and good faith.
So weighty are the motives which force me to deny, in conformity to the
national vote and the advice of the council of state, the convocation of
a convention; thus refusing, upon mature and considerate reflection, the
request which some citizens have directed to me on the subject. If
patriotism and conscience could force me to the indispensable sacrifice
of my repose, in order to correspond with the confidence of the people
in accepting the supreme power, conscience and patriotism tell me that
nothing can nor ought to force me to the unjustifiable sacrifice of the
duties which you have imposed upon me.
Fellow-patriots: The four months of my administration, under the rule of
the constitution as it is, demonstrate practically, by deeds which speak
very loud, much louder, without doubt, than words of visionary
politicians, that the public liberties and individual guarantees are not
incompatible with our mode and manner of governing. The liberty of
suffrage and of the press, the right of petitioning and associating, the
inviolability of human life, of property and domicile, the security of
the individual, in a word, all just and legitimate liberties and rights,
have been scrupulously respected, to the extreme that the government has
been accused of lack of strength and energy when alone it was toleration
of different opinions and the highest regard for individual guarantees,
[that influenced the government.] A government which has a legitimate
and popular origin, and consequently the consciousness of its right,
does not need, like tyrannical and oppressive governments, the state of
siege and drumhead court-martials as the ordinary means of protecting
themselves against the conflicts which from time to time might threaten
them.
In some foreign periodical it has been said by somebody, who without
doubt did not know what he said, that I did not convoke the convention
because an avaricious desire of power would not permit me to do so; and
that power is to me such a burden (I say it with the characteristic
sincerity of my nature) that I would cast off the same even to-day,
heartily glad, and retire to the tranquil home of private life, if you
yourselves had not imposed upon me the sacred duty of preserving the
constitutional order and the peace of the republic, which, as a
distinguished American has well said, “are the honor and the highest
good of the nation.” The ardent desire of duty, therefore, is the only
cause which restrains me from committing perjury in an awful [Page 103] and scandalous manner and from
making myself guilty of an enormous crime against God and society by
exposing, perchance, the fate of our beloved country to the furies of a
turbulent demagogism.
Ecuadorians, one and all, continue, as you have done until now, to
surround and support the government, the only legitimate government
which we have had, as it is the first which you have elected with full
liberty during the forty-six years of our existence as an independent
and sovereign nation. This government, I assure you, will not be that of
a dictature, which humiliates and debases nations, but that of justice
and liberty, which elevate and exalt the same.
Quito, April 5,
1876.
- ANTONIO BORRERO.
- The minister of the interior and foreign
affairs—
MANUEL GOMEZ DE LA TORRE.
- The minister of the treasury—
JOSÉ RAFAEL
ARIZAGA.
- The minister of war and the navy—
JULIO SÁENZ.
