ambition. The Government acknowledges itself indebted for this blessing, first to the mercy of the Supreme Being, who has watched over the fate of Colombia, and next to the efficacious co-operation of all the Citizens, of all the Authorities, and especially of the venerable Clergy, both secular and regular. On so prosperous a basis publick education has begun to spread successfully, information has been diffused by means of the Press, the Citizens have enjoyed the liberty to denounce the abuses of power, and the People have been inspired with a sincere love for their Institutions. The propagation and progress of literary and scientific Establishments, which I anticipate from the new Statutes of the Congress, and the influence of the Local Authorities, will doubtless be the best support which our Code, and the administration of the Government, the security of the Republick, and its future happiness, will henceforward possess. It is a most gratifying duty for me to recommend to you, most ardently, the condition of the Colombian People, whose sacrifices have rendered the entire protection of wise and beneficent Laws indispensable to them. A most exterminating Warfare has reduced its Population, its Agriculture, and its Commerce, and it is the duty of Congress to do its utmost for the revival of those sources of publick and private prosperity. I call the attention of Congress to Agriculture, Commerce, and the Mines: our geographical position will afford it the ready means of placing the heroic People of Colombia in a situation to revive and enrich itself.

With respect to the National Revenue, I regret to disturb the pleasure which Congress must have experienced at hearing the communications I have just made to it. The Publick Treasury is impoverished; the Revenue System requires alteration; and the necessities which it is urgent to provide for are such as not to admit of delay or procrastination. The Government has undergone afflicting struggles in the course of its administration, and Congress cannot but be surprized at the manner in which it has been able to come off victorious in the contest between urgent publick necessities, and the calamities with which the fortunes of the Citizens have been visited. The Congress of Cúcuta passed very beneficial Laws, by which the old Colonial Revenues were diminished, but the arrangement that was adopted to cover the deficit has not at all corresponded with the Estimates. The Army, and the Officers of the Civil Administration, and of the Revenue, desire the return of that part of their Pay which the Government had been obliged to withhold; the Fortifications, the Marine, the Artillery, the Magazines, the Officers, and the National Establishments, all require the consideration of Congress, and so urgently, that, in my opinion, they ought to occupy its first Sittings; for without pecuniary resources the Government cannot fulfil its duties, nor the Nation enjoy its Independence and Liberty. It is to the Chamber of Representatives that I more especially direct my

observations on this matter: two branches of Revenue appear to me capable of assisting us in providing abundantly the needful supplies; those of Tobacco and the Customs. The first requires Funds to improve it, and to make advances; and the second, well regulated Laws. If to these be added the improvements which I think can be made in the other existing branches, it may be expected that the People, being less burdened, will themselves facilitate the means of improving the National Treasury. The Government is desirous that the exactions from the Clergy, known under the titles of Mesada-ecclesiastica Annualidades, and Media-annata, may be entirely abolished.

One of the objects to which I must direct the particular attention of the Congress is our Foreign Debt. You, Gentlemen, are aware that the liberality of Foreigners, during calamitous periods, reanimated the spirit of the Colombians, and supplied them with the means of maintaining gloriously the War of Independence; whatever may have been the views and speculations of the Persons who assisted us, the Republick is their Debtor, and we are bound honourably to repay them. The complicated situation in which this business has been placed, by the proceedings of our Agents in Europe, and still more so by the difficult circumstances with which the Republick was surrounded until last Year, has presented to the Government serious obstacles, in adopting a conciliatory and decorous line of conduct. The Congress will be informed of all the details, and will be convinced of the prudence with which a matter of so much delicacy has been conducted. I must, however, declare, that we should prize our national honour above all other considerations, and not look for that regularity and economy which, under other circumstances, we should zealously and rigorously require. We are Debtors, and we must pay at any sacrifice. The Executive Power expects that Congress will pass a Law, by which it will be enabled to provide for the payment of the Interest, and the gradual liquidation of the Principal.

The arms of Colombia have been covered with glory wherever they have proclaimed the Laws and liberty; and, even in their reverses, they have preserved entire the character which they had acquired. At the time when the Congress of Cúcuta closed its Sittings, the important Fortresses of Carthagena and Cumaná were in the hands of the Spaniards; the Isthmus, and the Provinces of the Captain-Generalship of Quito, groaned under the unjust dominion of the Government of Madrid; the Province of Coro had been in a state of Insurrection, fomented by Spanish Agents; the district of Ocaña was under the dominion of a Faction; the Province of Guayaquil, disturbed in the interior, was exposed to the fury of anarchy, and a Maritime Force fearlessly domineered over our Atlantic Coast. Now, all has disappeared, and this immense Territory, once in the possession of Spain, is now under the protection of the Laws and Government of Colombia.

Licentiousness, which generally follows in the train of War, has not stained the reputation of the Defenders of the Republick-the Laws have spoken-their voice has been more tremendous than the clash of arms, and the Conquerors in a thousand battles have never hesitated to obey them with submission. An unexpected movement of the Enemy, which his superior Maritime Force enabled him to make, has roused the publick spirit, and recalled to the Liberating Army its most sacred duty-that of renewing its sacrifices for the Independence of the Country. On the occupation of Maracaibo, by the General of the Expeditionary Army, the Executive Power conceived itself to be in the situation contemplated by Art. 128 of the Constitution, and used the extraordinary powers belonging to it in such manner as will be distinctly explained to Congress. If I have not as yet experienced the satisfaction of learning the complete destruction of the Enemy, I have at least that of knowing that his intentions have been frustrated in the invasion of Merida and Truxillo, and that the Departments of Venezuela and Boyaca are in a state of security, the reinforcements of the Army of the Magdalena having been efficaciously employed, and the Fortresses of Puerto-Cabello and Maracaibo continuing in a state of rigorous Blockade. Had it not been for the unfortunate occurrence of the Insurrection of a few Towns in Santa Martha, the Government would have to announce to Congress the freedom of the Department of Zulia.

The Standing Army and the National Militia require careful regulations and organization; without these, the Government will continue to experience such difficulties and opposition as the enormous difference between the Political System of a free State and the Military System of an Absolute Monarchy necessarily produce. The Fortresses, which come into our possession in a ruinous state, require urgent repairs; the Magazines and Parks of Artillery require Stores and other Warlike Supplies, in order to render the Republick respectable. I recommend to the Congress, with that ardour which it is incumbent on me to feel, the fate of the Widows, and of the Soldiers and Officers disabled in the Service of the Country.

The exertions of the Government have procured for the Republick a sufficient Maritime Force to protect our Coasts and Foreign Trade: without it we should be still apprehensive of the Spanish Squadron; to whose superiority, as I have already said, the Enemy is exclusively indebted for the advantages he has obtained. But this valuable acquisition will be of no use, if Congress do not supply the Government with the means to maintain, increase, and repair, whatever the course of military events, or the accidents of the elements, may render necessary. The Secretary of the Navy will lay before the Congress more detailed information on this head, and will present to it the result of the glorious efforts which our Forces have begun to make, together with the Regulations, Ordinances, and other Provisions, which the Executive

has issued in virtue of the Law, to procure and preserve such a Maritime Force as our geographical position requires.

Gentlemen-I have lived only to contribute to the fulfilment of the will of the Nation: to the rigorous observance of the Laws I have sacrificed projects of utility and convenience, persuaded that submission to them is never more necessary than at the commencement of the establishment of a political system, and that no one ought to bow to them with greater respect than he who is placed at the head of the Government. If circumstances have obliged me to exercise the extraordinary powers which the Constitution permits, it has never been my intention to avail myself of them, either against the political freedom of the Nation, or of the individual liberty of the Citizen. Foreign Enemies and internal tranquillity have been the only objects I have had in view in the exercise of such powers; and in testimony of this truth I can appeal to the whole Population of the Republick. I have endeavoured to employ the Authority which the Representatives of the Nation deposited in my hands to its proper purpose; and if I have not succeeded so far as my desire and expectation led me to wish, Congress must attribute it to the want of means, of time, and of tranquillity, and not to my sentiments. From the moment when I took the reins of Government, I was persuaded that I was placing myself under a load superior to my strength-that I renounced my liberty, and constituted myself the slave of Colombia; and I must frankly confess, that if I did not place my hopes in the labours and assistance of Congress, I should not hesitate a moment in recovering my liberty. In conclusion, Gentlemen, I congratulate the Republick on the installation of the first Constitutional Legislature; and entreat of you, with the most ardent feelings of my heart, that we may unite our exertions, our vigilance, and our sentiments, to labour for the happiness of Colombia, and to preserve entire the precious treasure of its Independence and Liberty.

FRANCISCO DE PAULA SANTANDER.

REPORT of the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs to the Congress of Colombia. 17th April, 1823. (Translation.)

FROM the moment that the Republick of Colombia attained the degree of power and glory of which she is now in possession, her Government has never ceased manifesting, to other independent Nations, that, amidst the roar of battles and the shouts of victory, she has known how to respect the rights of Foreigners, in the same manner as she wihed them to respect her own.

For upwards of 12 successive Years, the Persons and Properties of Neutrals, whether passing through, or domiciled amongst us, have been under the exclusive protection of our Laws; and it must, therefore, be highly satisfactory to learn, that during the whole of that period, few complaints have been made against the conduct of the Subordinate Authorities, and none whatever against the Government. This is the more reputable and honourable to our national character, when we take into consideration, that the acts of some Governments, which declared their Neutrality from the commencement of the struggle, have not been altogether free from blame, and have appeared, in some instances, not to have been strictly conformable with those incontrovertible principles, generally acknowledged and received as reciprocal National Rights.

In this state of things, the first endeavours of the Executive, after the promulgation of our Constitutional Code, were directed to the reducing to a regular system those connections which had been commenced or established by private hands. Until then, Foreign Governments seemed determined not to depart from the line of policy they had adopted; notwithstanding the evident necessity of agreeing on some certain and positive rules, by which our Relations might be cemented on the basis of reciprocity and general good faith, and of not remaining exposed to those changes and variations which the common Law of Nations has undergone, in these latter times of commotion and revolution, or at least within these last 25 Years. The principles recognized, at the several epochs which elapsed between the Treaties of Westphalia and Utrecht, and in the various Conventions and Controversies produced by the French Revolution, up to the General Peace of Paris in 1814, have varied so essentially in many material points, that it has frequently been almost necessary to disregard the respectable authority of the first Writers on Public Laws, and to consult the spirit of existing Treaties, generally considered as impartial.

In all the discussions in which the Executive has been engaged, for our National Honour, or to satisfy the Claims of other Powers, in behalf of their Subjects or Citizens, it has decided, as an invariable rule, not to grant to one what it could not grant to all.

The Department of Foreign Affairs, which has at all times formed the most important branch of Public Administration, has thus received the consistency and uniformity, which is indispensable for preserving us from those evils, which premature and inconsiderate Negociations have occasioned to other Countries. The Republick of Colombia has an indisputable right to adhere invariably to the maxim she has adopted; for to herself, and to herself alone, does she owe what she is. If the result has not as yet been fully what could have been wished, the Executive has at least the consolation of not having compromised the Nation,-of having made its principles known,-and the