Mr. Snyder to Mr. Hay.
Bogotá, January 2, 1904.
Sir: I have the honor to report that while on the surface all appears quiet at present, the excited state of the people and the failure of the Government to decide on any definite policy make it impossible to predict what may happen from one day to the next.
The bitter feeling against Americans, while not so strongly manifested by outbreaks among the people or attacks through the press, has not, however, abated one particle.
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Petitions have been widely circulated and enthusiastically signed by the merchants here, the signers agreeing to import nothing more from the United States nor to export any products to the United States.
These and other similar incidents seem to forecast one policy at least.
The Junta Patriótica, organized here under the leadership of Senator Perez y Soto for the purpose of creating and nourishing a feeling against the United States, has been dissolved by order of the Government. The Government claimed that it only advocated, openly, that which was already heartily approved and supported by the whole ministry—to send every man and boy, ready and willing to go, to fight on the Isthmus.
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I am, etc.,