or disapprove the new compact, and the constitution which gives expression to it, if, in its judgment, the principles established in the treaty of Cartagena of September 10, supplemented by the present one, are violated to the detriment of the autonomy of the States, or if the neutrality granted the Isthmus by the treaty with the United States of North America, in cases of international war, is not recognized in case of domestic struggles, civil wars, or revolts which may arise in the rest of the United Statea.

"Consequently, and in order to more clearly understand the treaty of September 10 between the States of Bolivar and Cauca, it is peremptorily stipulated:

"1. That there shall be in the State of Panama no other public employees with jurisdiction or command except those authorized by the laws of the State, who shall at the same time act as agents of the Government of the United States of New Granada in all matters which are or should come under their jurisdiction.

"2. That the administration of justice shall be independent in the State, and the acts of its judicial officers shall be final and shall never be subject to revision by other officers in so far as said administration and said acts do not relate to affairs appertaining to the National Government.

3. The Government of the United States shall have no power to militarily occupy any point of the territory of the State without the express consent of the governor thereof, provided the State itself maintains the necessary force for the protection of the transit of either ocean; and

4. That all the revenues, property, and rights of the Granadine Confederation in the State of Panama shall hereafter belong to the latter under the conditions stated in the eleventh clause of the treaty of September 10, 1860, between Bolivar and Cauca, except in so far as they may be affected by the obligations, debts, and liabilities incurred by the Government of the old Granadine Confederation and now assumed by the United States, on condition that all that the State should have to disburse or fail to perceive for such reason be deducted from the quota which it has to contribute to the general expenses of the Union, less the value of the public lands which may have to be disposed of by virtue of former promises. No deduction shall be made on account of this value.

"ART. 3. The territory of Panama, its inhabitants and government, shall be recognized as perfectly neutral in the civil wars or rebellions that may break out in the remaining portion of the territory of the United States, under the conditions specified in article 35 of the treaty with the United States of North America and in accordance with the neutrality of foreign nations as defined and established by international law. "ART. 4. It is furthermore agreed that the neutrality mentioned in the preceding article shall, from now on, be scrupulously observed. Therefore the State shall take no part whatever, either in favor of or against the Government of the Union, while the latter is attacked by the adherents of the defunct Confederation and of the Government which represented it. Nor shall the State of Panama be bound to contribute by means of forced loans or special taxes in order to pay expenses made or to be made in the struggle now going on in the other States.

“ART. 5. The Government of the United States of New Granada shall recognize the expenditures made, or ordered to be made, up to the present date in the State of Panama for government purposes, provided that they are duly verified and authorized by the laws which were in force in the Confederation. The Union shall likewise recognize the expenditures which are absolutely essential to discharge and send home the men composing the garrison which, in the name or on account of the late Granadine Confederation, still exists in the city of Panama.

"ART. 6. Persons contined in jail or detained in any other manner, with or without a trial, for causes arising out of the civil war waged in other States, shall be given immediate and complete liberty.

"ART. 7. The vessels, arms, and other elements of war that may have been acquired with the funds of the late Confederation shall be placed at the disposal of the Government of the United States as property of the nation.

"ART. 8. The present agreement shall be submitted for examination and approval to the legislative assembly of the State of Pamama at present in session, without which approbation said agreement shall not be put in force.

In testimony whereof we sign two copies of the present agreement at Colon on the 8th day of September, 1861, which copies shall be attested by the Secretary of State.

"8. de la Guardia,

"The Secretary of State,

"M. MURILLO.

"B. ARZE MATA."

96-673 0 - 77-25

The legislative assembly of the State approved the treaty by a law of October 15 of the saine year, which concluded with the following special provision for the purpose of protecting the interests of the Isthmus:

* The governor of the State is authorized, upon the reestablishment of the Republic, to incorporate said State into the Republic: Provided, That the same concessions made by the agreement of September 6 ultimo are granted to said State." IV. Peace having been reestablished in the country in 1863, the great national convention to be held and which was held in the city of Rio Negro, State of Antioquia, for the purpose of making a new constitution for the Republic, was called. Messrs. Justo Arosemena, Buenaventura Correoso, Gabriel Neira, Guillermo Lynch, José Encarnación Brandao y Guillermo Figueroa attended said constitutional convention as delegates of the Isthmus, and these gentlemen were carried away, willingly or unwillingly, by the wave of enthusiasm which sprung up among the delegates when discussing the draft of constitution, in which the federal organization established in the United States of North America was adopted for the Republic.

Without bearing in mind that the happiness and progress produced in that great country by its institutions are the result of a combination of circumstances quite different from ours, the members of the convention believed that they had discovered the wonderful expression of political perfection, and thought that nothing more was necessary to secure for the different entities of the Republic the calm and prosperity so much desired by them. The engagements entered into by the Republic in favor of Panama in the Guardia-Murrillo agreement were naturally rejected by the convention as undesirable disturbers of the harmony of the union.

The constitution of Rio Negro grew up as a luxuriant tree in the soil of the United States of Colombia, extending its branches over the nine confederated entities. But soon afterwards the Isthmian people discovered that this tree was growing in a stormy atmosphere, that it was nourishing itself with poisonous substances, and throwing an unwholesome shade. They noticed at the same time that one of its roots was extending vigorously and deeply in the territory of the Isthmus, absorbing its rich sap and spreading contagion of a frightful disease which seems to be congenial as well as chronic in the Colombian soil.

According to the constitution the election of the President of the Republic was to be made by the vote of the States, each State having one vote, which was that of the majority of its own electors under its law. The Congress, consisting of senators and representatives elected by the States, was to declare elected as President the citizen who had obtained the absolute majority of the votes of the States.

Such principle established in the supreme law and the authority granted therein to the executive power of the union to organize and maintain public force which was to be at his service in the States, were causes which largely contributed to the great disaster which befell the whole Republic, and especially Panama, but the principal factor, the factor chiefly responsible for all the evils, consisted in the ambition of command, the political fanaticism characterized by a ferocious intolerance, and the revolutionary spirit accustomed to all kinds of violence which, save in marked exceptions, seem to be inherent to the public men of Colombia, whether civil or military. Inasmuch as the sectional governments exercised an inevitable influence over the result of the popular elections, whenever the time came to replace the presidents of the States, or to appoint a successor to the supreme commander of the nation, or to select, by the vote of the people, the senators and representatives who would contribute by their votes in the Congress to finally declare the election of said commander, the national public force quartered in each State devoted itself with frenzy to the immoral and unlawful task of restraining or violating the suffrage in order that there might be in the States, derisively called sovereign, only humble servants of the controlling political circle at the capital and in order that the final vote of each section might be given in the direction most convenient to the interest of such Bogotánian political machine.

If we add to the above the fact that the presidential election has been unwisely and arbitrarily regulated by short periods of two years, it will be easily explained why the evil with which the Colombian nation was afflicted became still more serious and deep. None other was the origin and cause of the general wars which broke out with fury, the collisions, scandals, headquarter revolts, insurrections, the iniqui tous overthrowing of the regional presidents, all that series of tragical and mournful events which developed in the Isthmus of Panama during a quarter of a century and all of which can be traced directly or indirectly to the governors of Colombia, who caused the misfortune and unhappiness of the people of this land.

All the natives of Panama are aware of the accuracy of this statement, and it is only because we fear that outside of our territory our veracity may be doubted that

we present the following official and authentic testimonials, taken at random from among a great many other proofs.

Let the first be the famous reply, overflowing with indignation, which Dr. Pablo Arosemena, a distinguished statesman of Panama, who was audaciously overthrown from the presidency of the State because he would not approve and support the electoral schemes of a president of the nation addressed to Gen. Sergio Camargo, who carried out said 'outrage when the latter made known to the former his (Camargo's) scandalous intimation. Doctor Arosemena's reply is as follows:

UNITED STATES OF COLOMBIA, Sovereign StaTE OF PANAMA,

To the Chief Commander of the Army of the Union.

Panama, October 12, 1875.

SIR: I have just received, with your memorandum of this date which bears no number, the resolution which you have dictated to-day, wherein you brand me as an enemy of the general government, threaten me with arrest, and demand from me the disarming of the force which protects and maintains my government, and the surrender of all the elements of war.

In spite of all the outrages committed by the Government of the Union and by its agents, I have been surprised by the resolution which you communicated to me, which would cause a public protest even in Turkey, and which has been issued after I had been repeatedly informed by you that you would recognize my government as legitimate, that you would communicate with it, and that the rebels who might attack would receive no help from you.

This attitude proves to me that you strictly followed the policy of the Government under which service you are, which humiliates when it pretends to promote, interferes barefacedly and impudently when it pretends to yield, breaks into pieces the constitutions when it boasts of defending them, and breaks the bonds of union when it boasts and brags of strengthening them.

I refuse to become a prisoner in my own house, as well as to maintain the arrest that you pretend to impose on me by the authority of the Colombian guard at your command. Having no force to resist you, I have to limit myself to protest against the enormous outrage of which you make yourself responsible, and which is nothing but a new blow struck against the institutions, and which shows the absence of the spirit of justice and affords a new stain to the political title which has already reaped so abundant a harvest of this rare laurel.

I also protest in the name of my country, which is to-day humiliated, and which in happier days was also to resist the liberator of five republics, the man who now lives in history and who honored in Cuaspud the national colors, and against this lost power which has replaced the whole chapter of individual guaranties with the right of war.

The chief commander of the garrison will deliver to your forces all the elements of war at his disposal.

PABLO AROSEMENA.

That audacious act also give rise to the following protest of the legislative assembly of the State:

"The legislative assembly of the sovereign State of Panama:

"Whereas by the imprisonment imposed on the constitutional president of the State by Gen. Sergio Camargo, general in chief of the Colombian guards, supported by the national forces, said distinguished citizen can not fulfill his functions; "Whereas the same general has substituted a de facto government for the constitutional government, ignoring the alternates;

"Whereas in the absence of the constitutional president the assembly has no one with whom it may communicate constitutionally for the sanction of the laws;

"Whereas the Colombian guard has given earnest aid to the rebels against the legitimate government of the State, in violation of the national law of April 16, 1867, on public order;

Wheras the attack of the sovereignty of the State and the change of government was effected by the Colombian guard,

"Be it resolved, To protest, as it does protest, before the nation and as becomes the honor of the State, against the outrage committed by the chief of the Colombian guard by the imprisonment of the constitutional president, changing the government of the latter for a de facto government and destroying the sovereignty of the State, which from this moment is left at the mercy of the chief of said Colombian guard and of the revolutionists whom it has welcomed under its protection, to denounce the outrage to the federal powers and to the governments of the other States of the Union,

and to suspend its ordinary sessions until the constitutional regimen shall prevail again in the country. "Panama, October 12, 1875.

"J. M. Alzamora, J. M. Casís, Claudio J. Carvajal, Joaquín Arosemena, Waldino Arosemena, Manuel Paulino Ocaña, J. Bracho, Manuel Marcelino, Herrera, Mateo Iturralde, Domingo Díaz, Francisco Olaciregui, B. Vallarino, Alejandro Arce, Carlos Y. Arosemena, C. Arosemena, José F. Braudao, Antonio María Escalona, José Máques."

In 1882 the president of the State, Señor Dámaso Cervera, in his message to the assembly, briefly described in the following eloquent terms the situation created on the Isthmus:

66 * * *As will be readily understood, the result of a frank and friendly policy were necessarily favorable to the order and the stability of the government of the State, which generally was the victim of the improper influence of public officers of the nation who were sometimes purposely and premeditatedly appointed, without due regard to the permanent interests of the country, and, what is still worse, with the deliberate purpose of annoying or attacking the government of the State.

"Many and very frequent have been the scandals by which a Federal policy, different from that recently put in practice, have taken away from this privileged soil even the hope of obtaining a tranquil, peaceful life under the protection of the law. And the worst of it all is that to Panama has almost always been charged before the civilized world the serious sin of the responsibility of these acts, and this in spite of the fact that but for the generally noble nature and character of its sons, the habits of work and activity would have been lost and the most trivial of public good would have been unknown, carrying us surely to barbarism.

"The administration of the State in 1878 has already knowledge of the great irregularities which were the direct cause of the most serious disorders in Panama. * * In the following year, in another message, with an optimistic spirit, he said:

"I think that the time in which the Colombian guard used to overthrow constitutional government has passed, but so long as the law on public order is subject to captious interpretations by the officer charged with the enforcement thereof, the national governments, which are exclusively supported on such force, are liable to succumb when least expected, should it be convenient to the political interests of the chief of the union."

Upon the investigation of the general causes of the unfortunate condition of Colombia, Señor Victorino Lastarria, an impartial Chilean writer, in a book published in 1867, expressed his opinion, which was reproduced as a true one in El Porvenir of Cartagena in 1886, and of which opinion we will quote here only the following paragraph:

*

* * To this should be added the absolute lack of notions and habits of justice and morality in people educated under a regimen in which everything was justified by law or force, and we will have an explanation of the frenzy and cruelty with which parties have been persecuted, and how easily have they thought lawful every means of hostility, every exclusion, every attack on the rights of others, even by men who, because of their personal integrity, would not in their private relations allow such acts. This lack of political integrity and that lack of respect for the opinions and interests of adversaries, constitute two reminiscences of the Spanish civilization which have neutralized the democratic conditions of the Colombian people and which have given to its revolutions an atrocious character and a singular demoralization which deprives the institutions and the reforms of all their value."

And in 1862 Dr. Rafael Nuñez, who was about to be elected for the fourth time to the presidency of the Republic, in order to influence the people toward the reform in the institutions which he advocated, summed up the political history of Colombia in the following significant conclusion:

"In the course of nearly forty years of our political life, since 1832, the maintenance. of public order has been, I regret to say, the exception, and civil war the general rule.'

If, in a political sense, the guardianship of Colombia was so fatal to the Isthmus, it was not less so in an economic and fiscal sense. The institutions only left to the State property and revenues of scant importance to meet its most peremptory wants, while the nation enjoyed the most valuable receipts and revenues. The Isthmus being most advantageously situated for carrying on the trade of the world, it seemed fair to let it enjoy to a sufficient extent those means of prosperity with which she was bountifully endowed by nature. But it was not without great efforts that the Isthmus obtained the right to receive one-tenth of the revenues derived from the interoceanic railway; and as regards the contracts made for excavating the canal in our territory, the Isthmus was excluded from all participation in the immense profits which said contracts have produced to the Colombian nation.

Under the federal régime of 1863 to 1885 the secession spirit of the Isthmus was not openly revealed. It was calmed, but this fact should be considered at least until 1878 as one of the rare phenomena of the mad intoxication that the people found at the bottom of the golden cup which was perfidiously offered them under the name of sovereignty of the States, and after that year as a result of the hope which the contract for the opening of the canal made with Mr. N. B. Wyse led the Isthmians to entertain, and the favorable consequences of which to our independence we shall take into consideration hereinafter.

In the fifteen years preceding the celebration of said contract the Isthmians lived an artificial and fallacious life, in which they lost sight of their true interests and their traditional tendencies.

V. While a large immigration of men of all races and countries was flowing into the Isthmus, attracted by the great work of the canal, which was already in progress, and when the well-paid work came to relieve the condition even of the poorest classes, there was initiated in the nation the propaganda of an army of statesmen, at the head of which appeared Dr. Rafael Núñez, advocating with a stentorian voice a fundamental regeneration in order to prevent a political catastrophe, and holding the federation responsible for all the evils which afflicted the country.

There was a tremendous social convulsion in the Republic, followed by a frightful butchery and a change in the institutions.

We then returned to the régime of centralization which prevailed in 1843. To the political organism of the nation there was again given the contexture of a gigantic octopus, having powerful and innumerable tentacles spread all over the country, of which the monster made use in order to smother the slightest manifestation of autonomous life in the municipalities and to devour their very substance.

There also occurred in this city, in the crisis of 1885 and 1886, serious disturbances which were episodes incident to the bloody national tragedy; but it is obvious that the new order of things found the Isthmians with the black flag of political scepti cism raised over all their homes. Thus it found them undeceived by all the vain promises and pompous theories with which the orators, statesmen, and governors of Colombia had quieted their spirits.

And as the streams of the Pactolus, which the canal company brought to this territory, flowed incessantly, the Isthmians established themselves on the margin of this marvelous river for the purpose of securing personal prosperity with the material means at their disposal. But few of the Isthmians interested themselves or partici pated in public affairs, with which the masses were not at all concerned, leaving such matters to the will of the Colombians, who had made of them a lucrative business. Who, then, could believe any longer in either the efficiency of centralism or federalism, in view of the fact that both systems had already been tried, with disastrous results to Panama because of the political incompetency and bad faith of the gov ernors of Colombia? Were they not the same men, and their political successors and disciples those who were to enforce the laws? Why attempt to influence the destinies of the country when the Isthmus, as a political entity, was only a member the health of which depended on the hopelessly diseased body to which it was linked? There was a novelty in the constitution of 1886, namely, the extraordinary article 201, in conformity with which the department of Panama was "subjected to the direct authority of the central government and governed in accordance with special laws."

It remains to be determined whether the majority of the legislature which estab-. lished such special laws acted with an honest or dishonest intention toward the Isthmus; but the truth is that the said constitutional article did nothing but oppress Panama, establishing in it a dictatorship of the most odious sort. This department was then left in a worse condition than the others. Our assemblies, governors, corporations, and employees of all grades only exercised the most urgent functions which the governors of Bogotá had the mercy or the meanness to grant them. The chapter of individual guaranties, like the rights guaranteed by the constitution to Colombians, did not exist for the Isthmians. Such a life was unbearable to the people, and in 1894, after a great struggle, we succeeded in obtaining the repeal of such an odious provision.

The generosity which inspired the members of the Congress of Colombia on repealing article 201 of the constitution-which article may be called the Panama articlecan be gauged by the text of the law that abolished the same, and which reads as follows:

[Law 41 (November 6), amending article 201 of the constitution, and clause 4 of article 76 of same.] The Congress of Colombia decrees:

་

SOLE ARTICLE. Let article 201 of the constitution, and section 4 of article 76 of said constitution, be repealed. Consequently, the general laws of the Republic shall also be applicable to the Department of Panama.