not having agreed to submit to the Union by the 6th of August next, the day on which the national convention is to assemble at Cartajena. It is not indeed possible that this State should be allowed to remain separate from the Union, against the will of the Antioquian people, who do not join in the views of those now ruling them, nor is it to be endured that they should carry on against the other States and the Government of the Union a useless war, for no defined political object. The States that have not yet chosen their deputies for the Convention are now engaged in electing them. For the rest, although it may well be thought that after such a war as that through which we have passed the re-establishment of order and harmony in the different branches of public administration, as well in the States as in the Union, must be a long and anxious task, yet fortunately quite the contrary has taken place. Immediately after the battles in which the Federalists were successful society began to enjoy well-regulated civil and judicial administration, and consequently confidence, commerce, labour, social life, and striving for peace, were renewed with vigour. Our people is as much the friend of order and justice as of liberty and independence. To obey willingly it only desires from its governors honesty, activity, loyalty to institutions, patriotism, and respect for the ever moderate wishes of the country. The nation hates civil war, not alone from reason, but from instinct; it has not spontaneously sought the sad experience it has had of this terrible calamity; our strifes have not come from below; the incendiary torch fell from the seat of the chief Government. At least this is what has happened during the years just past. But this longing for durable peace, this dearly-bought experience, and this horror of civil war, joined to a moderate and firm love of liberty and a decided spirit of progress, will produce without doubt a constitution liberal, just, foreseeing, and clear, and for the future will excite the attention of the people to the election of their high officials. The President of the Union is in the country; his head-quarters are in no fixed place; until now he has been first in Piedras and then in Ambalema. A general secretary accompanies the President, for the despatch of administrative matters of a serious nature, or connected with the war, so that there may be no branch of government neglected, nor any subject of public interest which shall not be attended to as in ordinary times. This city, made
nearly a year ago into a Federal district, has a governor and a sufficient number of alcaldes and other subalterns to maintain order and police. Besides the army which is moving upon Antioquia and Cauca, there has been raised and organized another of reserve, as strong as the former, and divided into three parts, which garrison the States of Santander, Boyacá, and Cundinamarca. The national engagements in matters of credit have engaged the attention of the Government in the most especial manner. No outlay, not even to satisfy the necessities of existence, does it prefer to fulfilling its obligations with foreign creditors. Also are religiously cancelled the obligations in favour of foreigners given by the disloyal Government of the extinct Granadine Confederation, for the sums taken to make war upon the States which have supported Federal institutions. Property belonging to foreigners is more efficiently protected than it appears ever to have been before. In fact, all that has relation to the faithful observance of public treaties, to the persons, properties, and rights of citizens, or subjects of other nations, is a subject of special solicitude to the Colombian Government, it being well persuaded that the civilization as well as the good of the country demand a faithful fulfilment of its foreign engagements, in order to raise the national credit, and to aggrandize, by the increase of knowledge, of wealth, and population, the modest country in which our lot has been cast. To conclude, a solid and general peace is approaching with quick steps, and I believe that I shall be able to announce it to you definitely, together with the notice of the commencement of the operation of the national Convention, within two months. Some material improvements have been undertaken; but the favourable moment of entire peace has not yet arrived to carry out all that the Government intends and desires to accomplish. In the "Rejistro Oficial" you will find all that has been done in these branches, and in favour of European immigration and the colonization of our waste lands.
Manuel Ancisar.
Bogota, June 5, 1862.
FOOTNOTES:
[158] The orthography of the above vocabulary is founded upon the ordinary rules for English pronunciation. The syllable on which the chief stress is laid is marked when necessary by an accent.
[159] Robert O'Hara Burke, and the Australian Exploring Expedition of 1860. By Andrew Jackson. London: Smith, Elder, and Co.