who are acquainted with the histories of other nations, the conditions of this loan have appeared highly favourable. The Executive has observed, that its agents have confined themselves to the instructions they received on leaving the capital: their operations have been conducted under the eye and direction of the Colombian minister in London, and the conduct of this public functionary has obtained the applause of all who have observed him narrowly. It has been a source of great satisfaction to the Executive, that the new loan was not negotiated until the question of the old one had been satisfactorily disposed of; and the consequence was, that the former was contracted under most favourable circumstances, which, by having been taken advantage of at the moment, saved us from the burthensome conditions to which we must, other wise, have submitted. You will examine the documents which will be presented to you with accuracy and discretion, and you will receive all the necessary information thereon from the secretary of the treasury, since in this examination are comprised the interests of constituents, the honour of the government, and the good faith of the republic. I can congratulate myself, by anticipation, with the assurance that the congress and the nation will be well pleased with this transaction. our It is essential to the public prosperity and national credit, that you employ a portion of your labours in funding the national debt. Every year that passes accumulates fresh embarrassments in this particular for the succeeding ones. The debt embraces various periods, objects, and creditors, without a proper classification of each. You know well that it is absolutely necessary that a classification of these periods be made, as well as provision for the punctual payment of the interest, and the gradual extinction of the principal. Although a law on this subject was passed last session, you will agree with me in thinking that it is imperfect and informal. The standing army continues to give proofs of its obedience to the laws. Although no enemies are to be found within the republic with whom to contend, it has remained on the war footing required by the state of European politics. The Executive has carried into effect so much of the law which provided for the levying 50,000 men as was necessary in order to reinforce the auxiliary army of Peru, to cover the coast departments, and to organize several corps of reserve in the interior. Orders have been given for forming the national militia throughout the country, on the principle laid down by the Congress of Cucuta ; insomuch that several corps of eitizens, who recognize the defence of the country as their first duty, are now added to our battalions. You will examine the provisional decrees which the Executive has issued for the due observance of the law on this subject, and will establish a permanent system for the national militia in all the branches and objects of its organization. These measures, and the abundant elements of war which we possess, have placed the republic in a condition to present itself armed at all points, in defence of its liberty and independence. Our naval force is undergoing that improvement and increase which, in our immediate circumstances, it requires. The Colombian flag has made itself respected throughout the seas; and where it has encountered that of Spain, it has left a monument of the superiority which it derives from the valour of its sailors. The Executive has adopted measures for fixing the strength of our navy, as well on our rivers and coasts as on the high seas, and for laying aside such vessels as occasion immense expenses, without being of the slightest service. Little, however, can be done in this department, unless education be encouraged among our naval officers, and until the laws to which I have elsewhere referred be enforced. Naval instruction is taught in Carthagena and Guayaquil, as far as the small funds which the Executive can supply for this purpose will permit; but it can make but little progress until warmly protected by Congress. Having already represented the state of the army to Congress in my former messages, pointing out such laws as appeared to me necessary and just, I shall content myself with naming the subject, in the hope that during the present session you will take this interesting object into your consideration. the laws; free exercise of the liberty of the press; the dissemination and advancement of public education; well-founded hopes of improvement in the state of our treasury; an army covered with laurels, and zealously devoted to the cause of independence and liberty; together with sufficient resources for supporting, under every event, our dignity, our government, and our laws. It belongs to you, gentlemen, to remove such obstacles as impede the rapid march of the republic to its height of prosperity, and to reform those errors which the public voice and your own judgments condemn. If we take a retrospective view, and contemplate what Colombia was when she published her code, we shall recognize with surprise the grand career we have since run, and the enormous difficulties we have surmounted. This reflection should animate us to persevere with zeal, honour, and patriotism in the exercise of our respective faculties. The Executive has reason to expect these virtues from the representatives who compose the legislative assemblies, and you may rely confidently on receiving from me such assistance as my experience in the administration may enable me to afford; and above all, the strictest punctuality in the execution of your wise resolves. Such is the state of our republic in the various branches of its administration: possessing friendship and good intelligence with American and foreign governments; regularity in its conventions and treaties; order and tranquillity at home; respect and submission to Bogota, Jan. 2, 1825—15. FRANCISCO DE PAULA SANTANDER. SPECIAL ARTICLES in the TREATY between COLOMBIA and the UNITED STATES. The treaty which has been ratified between the Republic of Colombia and the United States con tains the following articles, establishing the principle that free ships make free goods ;-- Art. 12.-It shall be lawful for the citizens of the United States of America and the republic of Colombia to sail with their ships, with all manner of liberty and security, (no distinction being made who are the proprietors of the merchandises laden thereon,) from any port to the places of those who now are or hereafter shall be at enmity with either of the contracting parties. It shall likewise be lawful for the citizens aforesaid to sail with the ships and merchandises before-mentioned, and to trade with the same liberty and security from the places, ports, and havens, of those who are enemies of both or either party, without any opposition or disturbance whatsoever, not only directly from the places of the enemy, before-mentioned, to neutral places, but also from one place belonging to an enemy to another place belonging to an enemy, whether they be under the jurisdiction of one power, or under several. And it is hereby stipulated, that free ships shall also give freedom to goods, and that every thing shall be deemed free and exempt, which shall be found on board the ships belonging to the citizens of either of the contracting parties, although the whole lading, or any part thereof, should appertain to the enemies of either, contraband goods being always excepted. It is also agreed, in like manner, that the same liberty be extended to persons who are on board a free ship, with this effect-that although they be enemies to both or either party, they are not to be taken out of that free ship, unless they are officers or soldiers, and in the actual service of the enemies. Provided, however, and it is hereby agreed, that the stipulations in this article contained, declaring that the flag shall cover the property, shall be understood as applying to those powers only who recognize this principle; but if either of the two contracting parties shall be at war with a third, and the other neutral, the flag of the neutral shall cover the property of enemies whose governments acknowledge this principle, and not of others. Art. 13.-It is likewise agreed, that in the case where the neutral flag of one of the contracting parties shall protect the property of the enemies of the other, by virtue of the above stipulation, it shall always be understood that the neutral property found on board such enemy's vessels shall be held and considered as enemy's property, and as such shall be liable to detention and confiscation, except such property as was put on board such vessel before the declaration of war, or even afterwards, if it were done without the knowledge of it; but the contracting parties agree, that two months having clapsed after the declaration, their citizens shall not plead ignorance thereof. the contrary, if the flag of the neutral does not protect the enemy's property, in that case the goods and merchandises of the neutral, embarked in such enemy's ship, shall be free. On There are some exceptions on the subject of goods contraband of war. Regulations are also made respecting the search of vessels in time of war; but it is agreed that these stipulations shall refer only to those vessels which sail without convoy, and that "when said vessels shall be under convoy, the verbal declaration of the commander of the convoy, on his word of honour, that the vessels under his protection belong to the nation whose flag he carries, and when they are bound to an enemy's port, that they have no contraband goods on board, shall be sufficient." It contains also the following articles which are not usual in treaties: Art. 22. Whenever one of the contracting parties shall be engaged in war with another state, no citizen of the other contracting party shall accept a commission, or letter of marque, for the purpose of assisting or co-operating hostilely, with the said enemy, against the said party so at war, under the pain of being treated as a pirate. Art. 23.If, by any fatality which cannot be expected, and which God forbid, the two contracting parties shall be engaged in a war with each other, they have agreed, and do agree, now for then, that there shall be allowed the term of six months to the merchants residing on the coast, and in the ports of each other, and the term of one year to those who dwell in the interior, to arrange their business, and transport their effects wherever they please, giving to them the safe-conduct necessary for it, which may serve as a sufficient protection until they arrive at the designated port. The citizens of all other occupations who may be established in the territories or dominions of the United States and of the Republic of Colombia, shall be respected and maintained in the full enjoyment of their personal liberty and property, unless their particular conduct shall cause them to forfeit this protection, which, in consideration of humanity, the contracting parties engage to give them. Art. 24. Neither the debts due from individuals of the one nation to the individuals of the other, nor shares, nor monics, which they may have in the public funds, nor in the public or private banks, shall ever, in any extent of war, or of national difference, be sequestered or confiscated. NOTE of the VICE-PRESIDENT of the REPUBLIC of COLOMBIA to the LIBERATOR BOLIVAR. My great good Friend and faithful Ally;-I have read with the greatest satisfaction your most excellent note, dated from the city of Lima, the 7th of December last, in which you inform me of your great desire to see the meeting of the deputies of the Confederated States of America, formerly belonging to Spain, within six months, if it be possible. It is with extreme pleasure I inform you, that being animated with the same sentiments as yourself, I have taken beforehand every measure calculated to hasten the reali zation of a project so essential to our security and future destiny. The necessities of the New States of America, their position with respect to Europe, and the obstinacy of the king of Spain in not recognizing them as sovereign states, require from us, and our dear allies, now more than ever, the adoption of a system of political combination which will stifle, in the cradle, any project intended to bring on new calamities. The dangerous principle of interference, which some cabinets of the old world have embraced and followed up with energy, deserve our most serious consideration, as much from its tendency to encourage the expiring hopes of our obstinate enemies, as from the fatal consequences which might arise in America from the introduction of a maxim so subversive of the sovereign rights of the people. Notwithstanding, however ardent may be our desires to lay, at least, the foundation of this work, the greatest that has been conceived since the fall of the Roman empire, it yet appears to me to be for our mutual interests that the assembly of plenipotentiaries proposed to be convened at Panama, should have the concurrence of all, or the greater part of all the American governments, as well belligerents as neutrals, both being equally interested in resisting the supposed right of interference to which some powers of the south of Europe have already fallen victims. For the purpose of obtaining that concurrence, instructions were sent, on the 15th of July last, to our envoy at Buenos Ayres, to endeavour to persuade that government of the expediency of sending plenipotentiaries to the assembly of Panama, in spite of the ill success of a negotiation entered into between both parties in 1822, for the same desirable object. We had also expected, with the greatest anxiety, the ratification of our treaty of alliance and perpetual confederation with the state of Chile, of which, however we have not yet received any news. present session of the legislature will not, probably, terminate without a similar treaty being concluded with the provinces of Guatimala, from whom we have a minister, but whose recognition has been deferred from considera The tions towards the republic of Mexico. I have reason still to maintain the hope that the assembly of America will meet with the concurrence of the republics of Colombia, Mexico, Guatimala, Peru, and even Chile, and Buenos Ayres, if, as is likely, the politics of the latter country approximate more to our desires since the installation of the congress of the united provinces of the Rio de la Plata. With respect to the United States, I have thought proper to invite them to the august assembly of Panama, in the firm conviction that our allies will see with satisfaction such sincere and illustrious friends take part in the deliberation of their common interests. The instructions, of which I send you a copy, in consequence of this desire transmitted to our envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary at Washington, will clearly show you the principles which have urged me to take that resolution. Similar reasons have induced me to recommend our above-named minister to assure the representative of the emperor of Brazil at the United States of the good disposition of the republic of Colombia towards his master. In the meantime the government of Colombia, with pleasure, intends to send, within four months from the date hereof, its two plenipotentiaries to the Isthmus of Panama, where, joining those of Peru, they may immediately enter into conferences preparatory to the installation of the general assembly, which will perhaps begin its important tasks on the 1st of October of the present year. With the design, then, of facilitating this result, I have ventured to make them the following propositions: |