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with a request that it might be recognized by the government of the United States, and a proposal for the negotiation of treaties of commerce and navigation, founded upon the basis of reciprocal utility and perfect equality, as the most efficacious means of strengthening and increasing the relations of amity between the two republics.

The request and proposal were renewed in a letter from Mr. Torres, of the 30th of November, 1821, and again repeated on the 2d of January, 1822. In the interval, since the first demand, the general congress of the new republic had assembled, and formed a constitution, founded upon the principles of popular representation, and divided into legislative, executive, and judicial authorities. The government, under this constitution, had been organized, and was in full operation; while, during the same period, the principal remnant of the Spanish force had been destroyed by the battle of Carabobo, and its last fragments were confined to the two places of Porto Cabello and Panama.

Under these circumstances, a resolution of the house of representatives of the United States, on the 30th of January, 1822, requested of the president to lay before the house the communications from the agents of the United States, with the governments south of the United States, which had declared their independence; and those from the agents of such governments here, with the secretary of state, tending to show the political condition of their governments, and the state of the war between them and Spain. In transmitting to the house the papers called for by this resolution, the president, by his

message of 8th March, 1822, declared his own persuasion that the time had arrived when, in strict conformity to the law of nations and in the fulfilment of the duties of equal and impartial justice to all parties, the acknowledgment of the independence declared by the Spanish American colonies could no longer be withheld. Both houses of congress having almost unanimously concurred with these views of the president, an appropriation was made by law, (4th May, 1822,) for such missions to the independent nations on the American continent, as the president should deem proper.

On the day after the president's message of the 8th of March, the Spanish minister, Anduaga, addressed to this department a remonstrance against the measure which it recommended, and a solemn protest against the recognition of the governments mentioned, of the insurgent Spanish provinces of America. He was answered on the 6th of April, by a letter recapitulating the circumstances under which the government of the United States had "yielded to an obligation of duty of the highest order, by recognizing, as independent states, nations which, after deliberately asserting their right to that character, had maintained and established it against all the resistance which had been, or could be, brought to oppose it." On the 24th of April, he gave information that the Spanish government had disavowed the treaty of 24th August, 1821, between the captain-general O'Donoju and colonel Iturbide, and had denied the authority of the former to conclude it.

On the 12th of February, 1822.

the Spanish extraordinary cortes adopted the report of a committee proposing the appointment of commissioners to proceed to South America to negotiate with the revolutionary patriots concerning the relations to be established thereafter, in regard to their connection with Spain. They declared, at the same time, all treaties made with them before that time, by Spanish commanders, implying any acknowledgment of their independence, null and void, as not having been authorised by the cortes; and on the next day, they passed three resolutions, the first annulling, expressly, the treaty between O'Donoju and Iturbide.

The second, "That the Spanish government, by a declaration to all others with which it has friendly relations, make known to them, that the Spanish nation will regard, at any epoch, as a violation of the treaties, the recognition, either partial or absolute, of the independence of the Spanish provinces of ultramer, so long as the dissensions which exist between some of them, and the metropolis, are not terminated, with whatever else may serve to convince foreign governments, that Spain has not yet renounced any of the rights belonging to it in those countries."

The third resolution recommended to the government to take all necessary measures, and to apply to the cortes for the needed resources, to preserve and recover the authority of Spain in the ultramarine provinces.

These measures of the cortes were not known to the president of the United States when he sent to congress his message of the 8th of March. But information of them was received while the bill, making

an appropriation for the missions, was before congress; and, on the 25th of April, a resolution of the senate requested of the president any information he might have, proper to be disclosed, from our minister at Madrid, or from the Spanish minister, resident in this country, concerning the views of Spain relative to the recognition of the independence of the South American colonies, and of the dictamen of the Spanish cortes. In answer to this resolution, the letter from Mr. Anduaga, protesting against the recognition, and one from Mr. Forsyth, enclosing a translation of the dictamen, were transmitted to the senate, which, with all these documents before them, gave their concurrent sanction, with that of the house of representatives, to the passage of the bill of appropriation.

This review of the proceedings of the government of the United States, in relation to the independence of Spanish America, has been taken to show the consistency of the principles by which they were uniformly dictated, and and that they have been always eminently friendly to the new republics, and disinterested. While Spain maintained a doubtful contest, with arms, to recover her dominion, it was regarded as a civil war. When that contest became so manifestly desperate, that Spanish vice-roys, governors and captains-generals themselves, concluded treaties with the insurgents, virtually acknowledging their independence, the United States frankly and unreservedly recognized the fact, without making their acknowledgment the price of any favor to themselves, and although at the hazard of incurring the displeasure

of Spain. In this measure, they have taken the lead of the whole civilized world: for, although the Portuguese Brazilian government had, a few months before, recognized the revolutionary government of Buenos Ayres, it was at a moment when a projected declaration of their own independence made the question substantially their own cause, and it was presented as an equivalent for a reciprocal recognition of their own much more questionable right to the eastern shore of La Plata.

On the 17th day of June, 1822, Mr. Manuel Torres was received by the president of the United States as the charge d'affaires from the republic of Colombia, and the immediate consequence of our recognition was the admission of the vessels of the South American nations, under their own colors, into the ports of the principal maritime nations of Europe.

The European alliance of emperors and kings have assumed, as the foundation of human society, the doctrine of unalienable allegiance. Our doctrine is founded upon the principle of unalienable right. The European allies, therefore, have viewed the cause of the South Americans as rebellion against their lawful sovereign. We have considered it as the assertion of natural right. They have invariably shown their disapprobation of the revolution, and their wishes for the restoration of the Spanish power. We have as constantly favored the standard of independence and of America. In contrasting the principles and the motives of the European powers, as manifested in their policy towards South America, with those of the United States, it has not been my

intention to boast of our superior purity, or to lay a claim of merit to any extraordinary favor from South America in return. Disinterestedness must be its own reward; but, in the establishment of our future political and commercial intercourse with the new republics, it will be necessary to recur often to the principles in which it originated; they will serve to mark the boundaries of the rights which we may justly claim in our future relations with them, and to counteract the efforts which, it cannot be doubted, European negotiators will continue to make in the furtherance of their monarchial and monopolizing contemplations.

Upon a territory by one half more extensive than the whole inhabited part of the United States, with a population of less than four millions of souls, the republic of Colombia has undertaken to establish a single, and not a confederated government.

Whether this attempt will be found practicable in execution, may be susceptible of doubt; but in the new organization of society, upon this hemisphere, even unsuccessful experiments lead to results by which the science of government is advanced, and the happiness of man is promoted. The republic of Colombia has a constitution deliberately formed, and adopted upon principles entirely republican, with an elective legislature in two branches, a distribution of the powers of government, with the exception of the federative character, almost identical with our own, and articles declaratory of the natural rights of the citizen to personal security, property, and reputation, and of the inviolable liberty of the press.

With such a constitution, in such a country, the modifications which experience may prove to be necessary for rendering the political institutions most effectually competent to the ends of civil government, will make their own way by peaceable and gradual conquests of public opinion. If a single government should be found inadequate to secure and protect the rights of the people living under it, a federation of republics may, without difficulty, be substituted in its place. Practical effect having once been given to the principle, that lawful government is a compact, and not a grant, the pretences for resorting to force for effecting political revolutions disappear. The subordination of the military to the civil power is the only principle yet remaining to be established in Colombia, to ensure the liberties of the future generations as well as those of the present age; and that subordination, although not directly guarantied by their present constitution, is altogether conformable to its spirit.

In the letter of the 20th February, 1821, from the late Mr. Torres, demanding the recognition of the republic of Colombia, it has been observed, that the additional proposal was made, of negotiating "treaties of navigation and commerce, founded upon the basis of reciprocal utility and perfect equality, as the most efficacious means of strengthening and increasing the relations of amity between the two republics."

In compliance with this proposal, among the documents furnished you, for proceeding upon the mission to which you have been appointed, of minister plenipotenfiary to the republic of Colombia,

is a full power which will authorise you to negotiate with any plenipotentiary or plenipotentiaries of that government, duly provided with like powers, such a treaty. The president wishes, however, that every step in such negotiation should be taken with full deliberation. The treaty, if concluded, must, as you are aware, be reserved subject to ratification here, with the advice and consent of the senate, by the constitutional majority of two thirds, as by the constitution of Colombia, (article 120,) their treaties, to be valid, must receive the consent and approbation of their congress.

Our commercial relations with the Colombian territory, are of so recent origin, and have depended so much upon the revolutionary condition of that country under which they have arisen, that our knowledge of their state and character is very imperfect, although we are certain that they are altogether different from those which may be expected to arise from permanent interests, when the independence of the republic shall be universally recognized, and a free trade shall be opened to its inhabitants, with all parts of the world. The only important point now to be settled, as the radical principle of all our future commercial intercourse, is the basis proposed by Mr. Torres, of reciprocal utility and perfect equality. As the necessary consequence of which, you will claim that, without waiting for the conclusion of a treaty, the commerce and navigation of the United States, in the ports of the Colombian republic, should be received on the footing of equality with the most favored nation. It is hoped, indeed, that on your ar

rival at the place of your destination, you will find the principle already settled assurances to that effect having been given by the minister of foreign relations to Mr. Todd.

By an act of the congress of Colombia, of the 25th of September, 1821, an impost duty of 7 per cent. was laid upon all articles imported from any part of America, additional to the duty upon the like articles imported from Europe. This discrimination was mentioned to Mr. Torres, at the time of his reception. He thought it had arisen only from an inadvertency, and promised to write concerning it to his government. Mr. Todd was instructed to remonstrate against it, which he accordingly did. From his correspondence and conferences relating to it, with the Colombian minister of foreign relations, Dr. Gual, it appears that the object of the law was, to burden with heavier duties the indirect trade from Great Britain and France, carried on through the medium of the West India is lands, and thereby to present to those powers an inducement to acknowledge the independence of the republic. However just or reasonable this expedient might be, with reference to the relations between the Colombian people and European nations, it was manifestly injurious to the United States, nor was its injustice in any manner compensated by the provisions of another law of the congress of 27th September, 1821, allowing a drawback of duties upon re-exportations in their own vessels, of provisions imported from the United States. It is alleged by Dr. Gual, that the object of this latter law was to favor the United

States, by facilitating the indirect trade between them and the British colonies in the West Indies, the direct trade being then interdicted by the laws of the United States and of Great Britain. But this trade was carried on more advantageously to the United States, by the way of the Swedish, Danish, and Dutch islands, than it could be by that of the Colombian ports, and the object of favoring their own shipping appears more obviously as the motive of the law, than that of favoring the commerce of the United States. The opening of the direct trade between the United States and the British islands, has, at all events, rendered all the provisions of the Colombian law of 27th September, 1821, inoperative; and assurances have been given by Dr. Gual, that at the meeting of the congress, which was to take place in March last, measures would be taken for procuring the immediate repeal of the discrimination, to the disadvantage of the United States, prescribed by the law of the 25th of September.

The spirit of the Colombian constitution is explicitly that of entire and unqualified independence; and the sentiments expressed by Dr. Gual to Mr. Todd, have been altogether conformable to it. He has declared, that the intention of the government is to treat all foreign nations upon the footing of equal favor and of perfect reciprocity. This is all that the United States will require, and this, so far as their interests are concerned, they have a right to exact.

It had been, in the first instance, proposed by Mr. Torres, that the treaty of commerce and navigation should be negotiated here, and he

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