Mr. Buchanan to Mr.
Hay.
Legation of the United States on Special
Mission,
Panama,
December 27, 1903.
No. 6.]
Sir: In view of the opinion held by some of our
people to the effect that the revolution here had nothing at the base
other than the canal question and that no serious dissension has existed
in Colombia between the Bogotá ruling element and the different
departments (or States), the inclosed clippings will interest you, I am
sure.
The first is a translation of a remarkable letter recently written the
Colombian minister of war by one of Colombia’s best known and most
valiant generals—Gen. Leopoldo Triana—now in command of a division (by
rank) and actually president of the council of the capital of the
Department of Cauca.
The weak hold on the nation exercised by the Bogotá government can be
appreciated when one stops to realize that a letter such as the one I
inclose can be written by an officer of the army to his Government and
the writer escape punishment; it also indicates the extent to which
secession from the Bogotá government has grown in the Department of
Cauca.
As a most significant evidence of the fact that Bogotá fully appreciates
the national situation now and is anxious by any means to avert further
breaking away from the central Government, on the part of departments,
the second inclosure herein will most certainly attract your
attention.
It is, as you will note, an order from the Bogotá Government to all
governors to immediately call for an expression from their different
municipalities as to the urgency of some constitutional reforms and as
to how they believe these shall be brought about. It is of course
possible that this course may have been adopted by the Bogotá Government
in order to gain time to work out some plan, but is more probable a
necessary step they were obliged to take to save a critical condition in
several of their departments, notably in Cauca.
I have taken the copy of the order from El Rigoletto, of Barranquilla,
under date of December 16. I have made a translation of the order, which
I also inclose.
I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
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[Inclosure 1.]
[Panama (Republic of Panama) Star and Herald, Friday,
December 25, 1903.]
res non verba.
Your excellency asks me, in a telegram of the 16th, whether it is
true that I am propagating in the Cauca the idea of separation, and
I am called upon to state frankly my views in this respect, and,
with the characteristic frankness which your excellency acknowledges
in me, I make this statement: It is true that I have written
something like a dozen letters drafted on the same model as the one
that was sent from Buenaventura to General Velasco, and sent by him
to your excellency.
I have thought and do think, honestly, that the Cauca is in need of
exercising in the nation the influence to which it has a right, in
order that its legitimate interests be duly respected and cared for
and to put a stop to the practice of abusing, as hitherto, the good
faith and patriotism of its people, with detriment to its well-being
and its hopes of progress. * * *
Watching attentively the march of national affairs, especially after
the reestablishment of order in June last, I am persuaded by
patriotic considerations that there is need of modifying the ultra
central system in order that the Government may not put aside the
interests of the departments, a system which has naturally been a
cause for the separation of Panama and has germinated the same idea
in the rest of the departments.
The voice of the Cauca, the great champion in time of war and the
most despised at the time of reward, has had no weight at Bogotá,
where we are treated as a horde of savages or a flock of sheep.
Innumerable are the recent scandalous acts which reveal the
corruption of the national metropolis, where a traffic is carried on
in which the conscience and everything else is involved, and which
makes it abominable for people who anxiously desire peace and
tranquillity to work with the hope of reaping the benefit of honest
labor. The general attention there is given up to absorbing, like a
huge sponge, the political combinations in which, however, no idea
tending to the well-being of the public is ever considered, but only
such as redound to preserve and acquire influence to be subsequently
productive of pecuniary gain to those who dispose of the faith of
the country for their own personal benefit.
So long as there is no public administration; so long as the men at
the head of the Government do not persuade themselves that they are
the agents of a free people, we shall continue sliding down the
slippery slope of dissolution, thus shattering the bond of union
honestly implanted by the delegates of 1886.
I am in favor of federation as the only means of preserving the
national union, as it is only in this way that the different
sections can be protected against the political, financial, and
electoral trusts of the capital, and the only way of attending to
their wants and stimulating the youth of the provinces not yet
contaminated by the leprosy of the capital or by the corrupting
mercantile spirit.
Public instruction, in a professional sense, has absolutely
disappeared in the Cauca; the present generation, according to the
opinion of a well-known writer of Antioquia will not encumber
history.
In the new order of things the Government could reserve to itself the
political direction of the country; the keeping of foreign affairs
on a footing of open and honest friendship with all countries,
especially with our neighbors; unification of the metallic coinage,
the unity of the civil and penal legislation, and the settlement of
the foreign debt, so as to uphold our public credit. Other matters
would rest with the different sections, be these denominated States
or Departments, including the redemption of the paper currency,
which is a political and social evil, greater even than the scheme
of separation which is bothering our minds.
Since your excellency desired to know my views I have expressed them
openly and frankly, in the same way it is my duty to inform your
excellency that the indignation is general in the Cauca in
consequence of the blunders in Bogotá, and that in spite of
information which the Government may have received to the contrary,
the idea about separation is almost unanimous; to crush that opinion
not a single battalion could be organized, because the outcome would
be futile; further, if the Government wishes to keep intact the
integrity of Colombia, instead of attempting the task by the use of
bayonets it would do well to empower commissions to carry out the
work diplomatically, offering something that shall be complied with
in administrative matters of municipal life which does not exist,
and of civil and political liberty.
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The events in Panama being accomplished facts, there is, in my
opinion, no other recourse left but to convene a national convention
to be composed of the leading representatives of all the political
parties in order to come to an agreement as to a modus vivendi and
contrive to heal the wounds inflicted on the nation. In that
laudable work we shall second the Government without vacillation and
without distinction of opinions.
I beg to request your excellency, in a very special manner, to have
this telegram brought to the knowledge of His Excellency the
Vice-President of the Republic and the cabinet, for it conveys the
general feelings of the people of Cauca.
I am, your excellency’s devoted friend and compatriot,
Leopoldo Triana C.,
General of Division.
General Triana, author of the telegram to his excellency the
minister of war, above quoted, is a native of Cauca, was chief
of division of the Colombian army in that department, and is at
present occupying the high position of president of the
municipal council of Cali, its capital.
[Inclosure 2.]
Barranquilla, December 16, 1903.
The Director of the
Rigoletto:
I have just received the following circular, marked “urgent,” from
the civil and military governor of the department. It is as follows:
Cartagena, December 15, 1903.
To all prefects and
mayors:
I have received the following telegram from His Excellency
the Vice-President of the Republic and his cabinet. This is
as follows: Circular, official, dated Bogotá. To all
governors: Competent citizens of various departments think
that reforms must be introduced in our institutions which
will tend to decentralize the public administration, and
thereby develop the individual life of departments and of
municipalities. It is their judgment that the integrity of
the country can by this means be guaranteed and every motive
for discord and lack of tranquillity be removed.
If such reforms are to follow the regular course provided by
article 209 of the constitution, they can only be brought
about by the vote of two legislatures, as provided
therein.
The Government, always respectful and deferential to national
opinion, is anxious to know the views of all Colombians with
respect to such reforms and as to whether or not the country
desires that they shall be introduced by some other method
than that permitted by the constitution. To that end you are
urgently requested to direct a communication to the
different municipalities in your department, soliciting
their opinion concerning the above points.
The vote of each municipality must be properly certified and
sent as quickly as possible to the proper branch of each
department, and by these immediately transmitted to the
Government. God guard you.
José Manuel
Marroquin.
(Here follows signatures of cabinet.)
The office enthusiastically participates in these ideas inspired for
the country’s good and for the tranquillity to you. The situation
created by the pernicious example of Panama requires careful study
and demands of Colombia’s faithful sons that, they shall forget past
wrongs, errors, and unstableness, that they may enter the new
pathway indicated, wherein lies the good and the upbuilding of our
country.
For these reasons the determination taken by the national Government
without reserve deserves the applause of all, since it points to the
introduction of reforms in our institutions which will bring about
the decentralization of the departments and municipalities and at
the same time carry away all motives of discord and guarantee the
integrity of the Republic.
The present is an hour calling for concord, patriotism, and for frank
and full reconciliation. Colombia is now passing through an
exceptional crisis, which can only safely be solved by the free and
genuinely authentic force of public opinion. The imminent gravity of
the problem of making the nation, now honeycombed with
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the dissensions of
partisanship, into a stable, solid entity, capable of victoriously
taking care of every eventuality of the future, is apparent.
These things counsel us to promptly remedy existing evils, but this
will come too late if the reforms desired were to be introduced
through the medium provided by article 210 of the constitution,
which says: “This constitution may be amended by a legislative act,
after discussion and approbation by Congress and by this being
transmitted to the Executive power and with that approval returned
to the next Congress, wherein it must be debated and approved by
two-thirds of the votes of both Houses.”
This office desires, therefore, that you will immediately proceed to
make the above noble aspirations of the Executive power known to all
citizens, making use of all the postal and telegraphic facilities of
the nation to this end, and that you will cooperate actively with
the municipalities and see that these without delay carry out the
important mission thus confided to them on this solemn occasion by
the national Government, by giving their conclusion with respect to
the necessity and urgency of such reforms and as to whether they
desire to have them introduced by methods different from those
permitted by the constitution.
I request you to immediately send the results to this office by
special messenger.
José Francisco
Insinares.
(Here follow signatures of departmental cabinet.)
(Here follow orders from prefect to all mayors of provinces to
see that this order is carried out.)
