Mr. Buchanan to Mr. Hay.

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,

Wm. I. Buchanan.
[Page 317]
[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.

[Page 318]

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.]

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 [Page 319] 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.)