tardy in equipping the squadron assembled at Carthagena, for it was neither possible quickly to collect the crews, or provide the pecuniary means necessary for that purpose; but, at length, we shall enjoy the interesting object proposed by the Convention to which I have alluded. To the interruption which these preparations have suffered by the abovementioned causes, as well as by a failure in the fulfilment of a contract made for transport vessels, ought to be added, the resolution adopted by the Libertador President, in his decree of the 24th November, which will likewise be laid before you for your consideration. The education of youth in the nautical schools continues to receive every possible attention; the Directors and Masters have well fulfilled their duty, and not disappointed the confidence of the Government and the public. This, Senores, is the state of the Administration in the calamitous year of 1826. The Secretaries of State will unfold, in their respective memorials, the objects of their ne gotiations in such a way, as to give the Congress all the information which is to be acquired only by experience in the practice of Gov ernment. This would be the place to present you with a parallel of the Republic of Colombia, in the year 1821, when I took charge of the Administration, and in 1826, when my functions terminate: and it would seem the more necessary, as you are about to commence yours in the midst of profound affliction, at observing the state of agitation in which we are involved, and perhaps prejudiced at the accusations brought against me by the discontented. But I leave to sound and impartial public opinion, the strict examination of the good and evil that I may, of my free will, have caused the nation, during the five years and three months that I have occupied the post I am about to resign. It is publicly known that I was called to the Government without any wish of my own, and when my inexperience was known to all. My constant attention to the difficult duties of my office have been seen. It is equally well known, that, instead of taking direction and command, all that I did was to execute the fundamental laws enjoined by the constitutionthat I have not only filled the of fice of executor of the law, but frequently that of legislator by delegation of Congress-that I have been constantly obedient to the written will of the people, have never swerved from the Republican principles, and have used, with prudence, the extraordinary powers confided to me—in one word, Colombia must acknowledge that no citizen has feared the power placed in my hands, for none have I deprived of his liberty or property, and the Republic has enjoyed its full freedom. I cannot express all the bitter feelings of my heart at seeing Colombia divided, and falling from the eminent station which she had taken in the moral and political world. My blood would be too small a sacrifice to see it again in the same flourishing state to which it had reached before April 30. You, who have the power of legislating, and the opinion of your constituents, are called upon to wipe away the tears of your country, to heal its wounds, to re-establish national concord, and to preserve the honour, glory, ments, and left it depopulated, without roads, and in a state of nature--if I had found it recognized by all the nations, or at least by some of them, and left it without foreign relations, and treated as a rebel country-if I had found it allied with the other American States, and left it at war with them and reputation of the Republic. Without that, and the confidence that you will efficaciously co-operate with the Libertador Presisident, in objects so interesting, our grief would have no end, and the name of Colombia, which has been our best title to the estimation and admiration of the civilized world, would become a memo---if all those States had been inderial of our shame and degradation. With respect to myself, I have nothing to regret, but that I did not separate myself from the Administration in the last Session of Congress, as I had intended to do, and that I concurred with the Legislative Body, in burthening the nation with the debt of twenty millions of dollars incurred by the last loan, to which we have been driven by circumstances, so imperious and urgent, that it was impossible to be avoided. But I believe I have done nothing which can dishonour me in the eyes of an impartial world. If I had found the Republic, in 1821, free from the common enemy, and now left it occupied in part, or entirely, by him-if I had found it, after the establishment of the Constitution, and the spread of love and respect for the laws, and left it in anarchy, without more law than the caprice of the magistrates might choose to administer-if 1 had found it full of schools and colleges, and fully enlightened, and left it plunged in ignorance, with every establishment of learning destroyed-if I had found it regenerated, and free from vulgar prejudices, and left it in the most abased state of blindness and torpor-if I had found it fully peopled, traversed by excellent roads, with steam, boats and charitable establish pendent from the year 1821, so as to render it unnecessary to extend a friendly and generous hand to them, and now I left some of them sighing in slavery by the fault of my government-if the public revenue had been perfectly organized, and had always produced sufficient to defray the public expenses, and now I found it ruined by my interference-if, instead of the foreign and domestic debt created by eleven years of war, which I received instead of a Treasury, I had found the Republic without obligations of any sort, and now left it compromised and overwhelmed with the weight of an immense debt, wasting in decay, and by inequitable enterprises-then, and then only, I should have to seek an asylum, wherein to hide my shame, and my heart would fail me in imploring the pardon of my fellow citizens. But, thanks to the Providence which has watched over the destinies of Colombia, the Republic in 1826 differs much from what it was in 1821, and, without attributing to myself the merit of that difference, I may console myself with the reflection that in filling the first post in Colombia, I have not been an obstacle to the accomplishment of so much good. This consolation-the having avoided a civil war in the present disturbed state of the country, and FRANCISCO DE PAULA SANTANDER. MESSAGE OF THE VICE-PRESIDENT Chamber of Representatives, The fifth session of the Congress of the Republic was to have been opened on the second day of January, of this present year, and on that same day I was to have ceased my functions as Vice-President of Colombia: the law had regulated the one and the other. For that reason I had prepared and printed the ordinary Message of the Executive Power previous to the 2d of January. Very peculiar circumstances, which did not come within the sphere of my control, interfered to prevent the assembling of the legislative body with the weight of all good patriots, until now, when, fortunately, the nation is worthily and constitutionally represented in this Congress. Great and important are the objects which you have to investigate; great and well-founded are the hopes of our constituents and those of the Government. In the Message of the 2d Jan. I communicated information respecting the state of the Republic in all its branches. I have now to inform you of the events that have occurred since that time. My continuance in the exercise of the Government, has depended on two causes-first, because the Libertador, the President, thought it expedient in the agitated state of the Republic, to suspend the law which fixed the cessation of the functions of President and VicePresident, to twelve o'clock of the second day of January, in the last year of the Constitutional period; and my heart counselled me not to oppose, under circumstances of so much difficulty, the arrangements of the Libertador; and secondly, because my continuance was the least illegal act that I could commit during the past crisis, after the doubts that had been admitted by the Libertador, respecting the duration of The documents his authority. respecting this transaction will be subinitted to Congress. My first care on this occasion, has been to watch over the public tranquillity, to support the power of the laws, to assist in the measures adopted by the Libertador for the re-establishment of that order which has been deranged in some of the towns of the North, and to provide for the assembling of the present Congress. The extraordinary powers with which I was invested have been so sparingly exercised that I am well assured the tremendous authority I held has scarcely been felt in Colombia. Our relations with foreign powers have continued to extend. A Consul-General and a ViceConsul have been duly nominated 25 by the King of the Netherlands, who are to reside in this capital, and a Consul for the city of Guayra. The Executive has expedited the corresponding exequatur, and will profit by this conjunction, to establish, on a footing of the most pure friendship, the relations of Colombia with the King of the Netherlands. The person appointed by the order of the Government of France to serve as superior Agent for French Commerce, has lately received the title of Inspector of Commerce in Bogota and its dependencies, being that given him by the Minister for Foreign Affairs but the Executive finding new difficulties in sending him his exequatur, has suspended it until the connexion between the Government of Colombia and his Most Christian Majesty can be defined with clearness, and according to the public rights. The Kings of Denmark, Prussia, and Bavaria, have shown an interest in opening relations with the Republic, and establishing them permanently, for the good of the respective countries. The executive have met this interest in the most favourable manner, without, however, compromising the national dignity, or departing from the rules which have been adopted with respect to the nations with whom we have entered into public treaties. The Libertador Pesident proclaims in a decree, promulgated at Maraicabo,that his duty binds him to employ the armed force, to bring under the obedience of the National Government, the towns which have separated themselves from it, and, in fact, all his measures actively join to bring about so laudable a result. From Boyaca, Maraicabo, and Carthagena, auxiliaries of all kinds went forth. General Urdaneta directed his course to the west of Venezuela, and the Libertador President his, to the town of Puerto-Cabello, which was already separated from the refractory party. The towns hastened to proclaim their obedience to the Libertador President; and the dissentient authorities of Venezuela laid down their arms and submitted with the rest. These successes will be made more particularly known to the Congress, by the documents which will be laid before it, as soon as ready. In them will be seen the loyalty of the districts of Mantecal, Guadualito, and other towns of the province of Apure, at the head of which the faithful and brave Colonel Inchazu placed himself; it will also be seen, that the influence of the Libertador President, with the mildness and indulgence with which he accompanied all his acts, quenched the flames of civil war, re-established the divine sway of the laws, and brought peace to Colombia. The Congress will be well able to appreciate the immense blessings of domestic peace, under the protection of which it can discuss the interests of the nation, and listen to its remonstrances. Instead of the disasters, lamentation, and tears, which the civil wars had caused, nothing is now to be seen but sincere desires to heal the wounds of our country, and to attend to its true happiness. The evil seemed inevitable; in Cumana, the precious blood of Colombians had already flowed; the fratricide cannon thundered in Porto Cabello; a disastrous conflict was preparing in Apure between the very soldiers who had overcome the Spanish army-hatred, revenge, and division, threatened to involve the Republic in ruin and desolation. But with the experience which the people already had of the evils they suffered, at the voice of the Liberta dor, at the presence of his troops, on hearing his promises, order succeeded to confusion, hope to despair, confidence to fear, reason to passion, and peace to Such is the state of the Northern Departments, according to the most recent communications received from the Secretary-General of the Libertador. war. I press upon the Congress the necessity of revising the organic law relating to Schools. The censures to which they have been subject are notorious, and the Executive desires that you may examine the subject in the councils of your wisdom, in order that public education may be spread throughout the vast extent of Colombia, and that there may not be a Colombian who may not enjoy its benefits. The plan of public instruction decreed by the Government, being merely provisional, its reform and amelioration depend on the reforms which may be made in the law, and upon the lights which experience may furnish. It is satisfactory to me to communicate to the Congress, that the produce of the public revenue in the last economic year, from the 1st July, 1825, to 30th June, 1826, has been greater than that of the preceding year; and that the estimate of the expenses for the present year, is so inferior to the past, that it will not nearly equal the revenue. But it is easy to conceive all the malignant influence that the disturbed political state of the country, which we so much lament, must have had on the national resources. Freed from that, and considering the above-mentioned state of the reve nue, it is indubitable that the increase of income, and the reduc tion of our expenses, would have been so considerable that, in the end, we should not only have balanced our expenses and receipts, but should have assured public credit, and consolidated the floating debt, without loading the people with taxes, which in preceding years, have borne too heavy on them. I recommend this matter to your careful consideration, assuring you that there now exists such disorder and confusion in the national finances that it is impossible to provide for the expenses of the Administration and the obligations of the Republic. The Finance Minister will lay before you the last measure adopted by the Executive to pay the interest of the foreign debt, which it was not possible for us to do last year, and which object has been to the Government a cause of great pain and anxiety. Nothing has happened with respect to the army, except the movement of the auxiliary division of Peru, which took place in Lima the 26th of January. The division on that day deprived the officers, whom the Libertador had appointed with the full authority of Government, of the command. The acting authorities of that division have solemnly renewed their former |