can be established on no foundation of human reason, which will not at the same time demonstrate the right to religious freedom. The tendency of the spirit of the age is so strong towards religious liberty, that we cannot doubt it will soon banish from the constitutions of the southern republics of this hemisphere, all those intolerant religious establishments, with which they have hitherto been trammelled. Religious and military coercion will be alike discarded from all the institutions framed for the protection of human rights, in civil society of independent nations; and the freedom of opinion and of faith, will be guarantied by the same sanction as the rights to personal liberty and security. To promote this event by all the moral influence which we can exercise, whether of example, of friendly counsel, or of persuasion, is among the duties which devolve upon us in the formation of our future relations with our southern neighbors; and in the intercourse which is hereafter to subsist between us, as their citizens who may visit, or transiently reside with us, will enjoy the benefit of religious freedom in its utmost latitude; we are bound to claim for our countrymen, who may occasionally dwell for a time with them, the reciprocal exercise of the same natural rights.

In the present imperfect state of our information with regard to the existing commerce between the two countries, and the uncertainty what its future and permanent relations may be, it would be useless to enter into any further detail of articles, which it may be proper to propose for the intended treaty of commerce. The republic of Co

lombia, if permanently organized, to embrace the whole territory which it now claims, and blessed with a government, effectually protective of the rights of its people, is undoubtedly destined to become, hereafter, one of the mightiest nations of the earth. Its central position upon the surface of the globe; directly communicating at once with the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, north and south, with the Caribbean sea and the gulf of Mexico, brings it into relations of proximity with every other part of the world, while the number and variety of its ports, on every sea by which it is surrounded; the magnitude and extent of its navigable rivers, three of which, the Amazon, the Orinoco and the Magdalena, are among the largest in the world, intersecting with numberless tributary streams, and, in every direction, the continent of South America, and furnishing the means of water-communications, from every point of its circumference, to every spot upon its surface; the fertility of its soil, the general healthiness and beauty of its climate; the profusion with which it breeds and bears the precious and the useful metals, present a combination of elements, unparalleled in the location of the human race; and relieve at least from all charge of enthusiasm, the sentiment expressed by the late Mr. Torres, that this republic appeared to have been destined, by the Author of nature," as the centre and the empire of the human family."

But it is to man, placed in a paradise like this, that nature with her loudest voice, exclaims: "God to thee has done his part-do thine," and the part of man so gifted and so endowed, is to enjoy,

and to communicate the bounties of Providence, so largely lavished upon him, and not to fancy himself destined to the empire of the human family. If the natural advantages, bestowed upon the Colombian territory, were to be improved by its inhabitants, only for purposes of empire, that, which nature has bestowed as a blessing upon them, would, in its consequences, prove a curse inflicted upon the rest of mankind. The territory of Colombia contains, at this moment, little more than three millions and a half of souls. Were it only as populous as its late parent country, Spain, it would bear one hundred millions, and, if as populous as France, nearly three times that number. At the most rapid rate of increase, which human population has ever attained, even a doubling every quarter of a century, the republic of Colombia, for two hundred years to come, may devote all her exertions to the improvement of her internal means of subsistence, for the multiplying myriads of her people, without seeking support from the extension of her empire beyond her own borders. Let her look to commerce and navigation, and not to empire, as her means of communication with the rest of the human family. These are the principles upon which our confederated republic is founded, and they are those upon which we hope our sisters of the southern continent will ultimately perceive it to be for their own welfare, no less than for that of the world, that they should found themselves.

The materials of commercial intercourse, between the United States and the Colombian republic, are at present not many. Our ex

ports to it hitherto, have been confined to flour, rice, salted provisions, lumber, a few manufactured articles, warlike stores and arms, and some East India productions, for which we have received cocoa, coffee, indigo hides, copper and specie. Much of this trade has originated and has continued, only by the war in which that country has been engaged, and will cease with it. As producing and mavigating nations, the United States and Colombia will be rather competitors and rivals than customers to each other. But, as navigators and manufacturers, we are already so far advanced in a career, upon which they are yet to enter, that we may, for many years after the conclusion of the war, maintain with them a commercial intercourse, highly beneficial to both parties, as carriers to and for them of numerous articles of manufacture and of foreign produce. It is the nature of commerce, when unobstructed by the interference of authority, to find its own channels, and to make its own way. Let us only not undertake to regulate that which will best regulate itself.

In the conferences between Dr. Gual and Mr. Todd, the Colombian minister of foreign affairs has spoken of treaties, almost treaties of alliance, concluded by the Colombian plenipotentiary, Mosquera, with the governments of Peru and of Chili, and which he expected would also be shortly concluded with Buenos Ayres. The purport of these treaties was mentioned by Dr. Gual only in general terms, but he said that Mr. Salazar would be authorised to communicate copies of them to this government, and eventually to propose that the

hitherto, the tranquil, but deeply attentive spectators. They may, also, in the various vicissitudes by which it must be followed, be called to assume a more active and leading part in its progress. Floating, undigested purposes of this great American confederation have been for sometime fermenting in the imaginations of many speculative statesmen, nor is the idea to be disdainfully rejected, because its magnitude may appal the understanding of politicians accustomed to the more minute, but more complicated machinery of a contracted political standard.

So far as the proposed Colombian confederacy has for its object a combined system of total and unqualified independence of Europe, to the exclusion of all partial compositions of any one of the emancipated colonies, with Spain, it will have the entire approbation and good wishes of the United States, but will require no special agency of theirs to carry it into effect.

So far as its purposes may be to concert a general system of popular representation for the government of the several independent states which are floating from the wreck of the Spanish power in America, the United States will still cheer it with their approbation, and speed with their good wishes its success.

And so far as its objects may be to accomplish a meeting, at which the United States should preside, to assimilate the politics of the south with those of the north, a more particular and definite view of the end proposed by this design, and of the means by which it is to be effected, will be necessary to enable us to determine up

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on our concurrence with it. An agent from France, named Molien, and Mr. Lorich, the consul-general of Sweden in the United States, arrived at Bogota in January last. Dr. Gual told Mr. Todd, that Molien had no letters or avowed powers, though he had intimated he was there by authority; that he was considered as a spy on behalf of a faction in France. He had insinuated that the United States were influenced by interested motires, in recognizing the new governments in South America, that our influence in Europe had been impaired by a measure which was considered premature; and that he supposed we were now endeavoring to procure exclusive advantages for having been the first to recognize." And Dr. Gual added, that Mr. Molien undertook "to give him some advice as to our views." Mr. Lorich came with authority.

The political systems of Europe are all founded upon partial rights and exclusive privileges. The colonial system had no other basis; and having no generous or liberal views of their own, it is not surprising that they should entertain and disseminate suspicions of the disinterestedness of others. The French government sends an agent to Bogota, without daring to trust him with a credential or an avowed power; and he executes his commission by misrepresenting our motives, upon suspicions, which those to whom he makes the misrepresentations know to be unfounded, and by testifying to those who were benefitted by our recognition, that we had made it by the sacrifice of some part of our influence in Europe. It must be admitted that the address of the agent in the performance of his

trust, was upon a level with the candor and frankness in which it originated.

We are well aware that our recognition of South American independence was not palatable to the taste of any of the European governinents. But we felt that it was a subject upon which it became us to take the lead, and as we knew that the European governments, sooner or later must and would, whether with good or with bad grace, follow our example, we determined that both Europe and America should have the benefit of it. We hope, also, and this is the only return which we ask, and have a right to ask, from the South Americans for our forwardness in their favor, that Europe will be compelled to follow the whole of our example; that is, to recognize without condition and without equivalent. We claim no exclusive privilege for ourselves. We trust to the sense of justice, as well as to the interest of the South Americans, the denial of all exclusive privileges to others. The Colombian government, at various times, have manifested a desire that the United States should take some further and active part in obtaining the recognition of their independence by the European governments, and particularly by Great Britain. This has been done even before it was solicited. All the ministers of the United States in Europe, have, for many years, been instructed to promote the cause, by any means consistent with propriety, and adapted to their end, at the respective places of their residence. The formal proposal of a concerted recognition was made to Great Britain, before the congress of Aix La Chapelle.

At

the request of Mr. Torres, on his dying bed, and signified to us after his decease, Mr. Rush was instructed to give every aid in his power, without offence to the British government, to obtain the admission of Mr. Ravenga; of which instruction we have recent assurances from Mr. Rush that he is constantly mindful. Our own recognition undoubtedly opened all the ports of Europe to the Colombian flag, and your mission to Colombia, as well as those to Buenos Ayres and Chili, cannot fail to stimulate the cabinets of maritime Europe, if not by the liberal motives which influenced us, at least by selfish impulses, to a direct, simple, and unconditional recognition. We shall pursue this policy steadily through all the changes to be foreseen, of European affairs. There is every reason to believe that the preponderating tendency of the war in Spain, will be to promote the universal recognition of all the South American governments; and, at all events, our course will be to promote it by whatever influence we may possess."

"One of the complaints of Mr. Lowry, was relative to the case of the ship Caravan, from Providence, captured by a Colombian cruiser, and carried into La Guayra, where the vessel had been cleared as neutral; and the cargo condemned as enemy's property. Mr. Lowry had invoked the stipulations of various treaties establishing and recognizing the principle that free ships make free goods; the application of which is denied by Dr. Gual, who appealed to the instructions from Mr. Pickering, in 1797, to Messrs. Marshall, Pinckney, and Gerry, our envoys in France.