the glory to accumulate in proportion to your means, give to you the unquestionable right to the establishment of a Government, worthy of such immense sacrifices. Colombia, when just rising into existence, enjoyed the highest reputation, which was due to her Institutions, and to her steady and majestick progress. The first Powers of the World were eager to recognize her political existence. Our Relations and National Credit were advancing with rapid strides. Philosophers, and all the friends of humanity in both Hemispheres, admired and extolled the solidity of our Republick. To be a Colombian was a high honour. Unfortunate events have eclipsed this name, and obscured the glories of Colombia. Sad and untoward circumstances have in icted wounds on Publick Credit, and have disturbed order; and anarchy has appeared, ready to tear the Country to pieces, to root up from its found. ation the work of your labours, to render useless your sacrifices, to tarnish your laurels, and to sully the chosen soil of virtue and liberty. But you have invoked this Assembly, you have freely elected your Representatives, and you cherish the hope that your wounds will now be permanently closed, that order will be re-established, that concord will be cemented, and that reason will triumph;-your wishes shall be satisfied. Colombians! The time is come to terminate our dissentions, and to silence the harsh echo of discord. Let private views and interests, which are at variance with the publick good, perish for ever;-let there be a mutual and general reconciliation;-and let us vie with each other in promoting the national welfare. In the temple of the Country altars should not be raised, but sepulchres be opened to bury discord. The respectable name of Colombian ought to be an indissoluble bond of fraternal love: let us stifle our resentments; let us forget our past, and only endeavour to put an end to our present, evils, and strive to enable Colombia, nobly and majestically, to triumph over the present crisis. People of Colombia! Your Deputies form part of yourselves, their interests are yours, and they necessarily participate in your felicity and in your misfortunes. Circumstances of difficulty may cause the failure of their projects, but they will resolutely follow the path prescribed to them by their duty. Impartial justice shall be their guide; without this there is neither order, equality, repose, or happiness. Colombians! Confide in those whom you have appointed to decide upon your destinies. Tranquilly await their determinations; do not allow yourselves to be deceived, either by intrigue or by imposture: be persuaded that the Grand Convention will take no step opposed to your welfare, or destructive of your happiness. The honour of your Representatives is deeply involved in the happy issue of their deliberations. Colombians! To secure your liberty, property, equality, all your rights, shall be the exclusive occupation of your Deputies. To re establish order, peace, and concord is their intention. May Heaven protect them! Ocaña, 17th April, 1828. JOSE MARIA DEL CASTILLO, President. RAFAEL DOMINGUEZ, Secretary. PROCLAMATION of the President of Colombia, on the commencement of Hostilities against Peru.-3d July, 1828. (Translation.) TO THE PEOPLE OF THE SOUTH. CITIZENS AND Soldiers, THE perfidy of the Government of Peru has passed every limit, and has outraged all the rights of its neighbours, Bolivia and Colombia. After a thousand injuries, suffered with heroick patience, we have been forced at length to repel injustice by force. The Peruvian Troops have entered the heart of Bolivia, without any previous Declaration of War, and without any ground of hostility. Such shameful conduct teaches us what we have to expect from a Government which neither respects the Laws of Nations, nor those of gratitude, ner even the consideration due to a people, its friends, and brothers. It would be too much to recount the catalogue of the crimes of the Government of Peru; for your feelings could not listen to it without a dreadful cry for revenge; but I do not wish to excite your indignation, nor to make your grievous wounds more painful. I only invite you to prepare yourselves against those wretches who have already violated the territory of our daughter (Bolivia), and who even intend to profane that of the country of heroes. Arm yourselves Colombians of the South. Fly to the Frontiers of Peru, and there await the hour of vengeance. My presence amongst you shall be the signal of combat. Bogota, 3d July, 1828. BOLIVAR. COLOMBIAN Manifesto of War against Peru.-July 1828. (Translation.) Manifesto of the Government of Colombia, setting forth its grounds of War against the Government of Peru. THE Government of Colombia, being compelled to employ against Peru the arms which gave independence and liberty to that Country, owes to publick opinion, to the other States of America, and to the whole World, an exposition of the motives which induce it to carry War into that Territory, into which it formerly carried peace and felicity. No Nation has ever exhibited the forbearance and moderation which Colombia has exhibited towards Peru. Provocations, insults, outrages, all have been endured for the sake of peace, and to avoid a rupture between two States, whose existence is but in its infancy, and whose interests ought to be closely connected, for their mutual defence, happiness, and prosperity; but the Government of Peru, insensible to every just consideration, has persisted in its offensive conduct, which it is no longer possible to endure, without renouncing the honour of the Nation, and without rendering Colombia unworthy to be enumerated amongst the Independent Nations of the Earth. The World has witnessed the eminent services, and the heroic sacrifices made by Colombia, in order to liberate Peru from the tyranny of her old Oppressors, and the disloyalty of her own Children, and from civil war, disorder, and anarchy. When all was lost to Peru, when no hope of salvation was left to her, owing to the overwhelming Force of the Enemy, and the general demoralization of that Country, she then called upon Colombia to assist her: Colombia succoured her with prodigality; and God, who had aided the Colombians in the destruction of their Oppressors, and in the emancipation of their own Country, also assisted them in the salvation of Peru, and in rescuing it from slavery and annihilation. Immortal victories crowned the efforts of Colombia and gave Independence to Peru. The Congress of Peru assembled, declared the gratitude of the Nation, and not judging it, as yet, free from the influence of faction, and the evils of anarchy, again sought the aid of Colombia, and solicited from it an auxiliary Division. This Republick consented that the Colombian Troops should remain in Peru; and they became the support of order and the pledge of tranquillity. The Government of Peru then commenced its offensive conduct: ungrateful for the benefits it was receiving, and forgetting every honourable and noble feeling, it repaid Colombia by seducing the Auxiliary Troops, by disseminating amongst them the spirit of rebellion, by instigating them to depose their Generals, and by causing them to declare themselves the Arbiters of the destinies of their Country. It is impossible to doubt this: Soldiers, so subordinate as are the Colombians, who are accustomed to obey their Chiefs, to respect their Government, and who are not unmindful of their honour and glory, would not have been induced to fail in their duty, to wither their laurels, and to forfeit their reputation, without a strong temptation-without allurements which could have been offered only by the Agents of Peru, and without a reliance upon the protection which the latter could afford them. Having violated the friendship under which it had confided the good order, discipline, and subordination of the Country to the Colombian Troops, the Government of Peru no longer dissembled its hostile intentions towards Colombia. It formed the project of taking possession, during a period of profound peace, of the Three Southern Departments; and, to render the injury greater, and the outrage more violent, it resolved to avail itself, in this attempt, of the same Colombian Troops, to whom it had confided the sacrilegious task of dismembering their own Country. With protestations of friendship, and of a desire to maintain the best understanding, the Government of Peru instigated the Troops of Colombia to acts of treason;—and this for its own advantage, and in return for the immense services it had received, and which, being so recent, it could not have forgotten! The movement of the Auxiliary Division was concerted solely with the Individual who called himself its Commander-in-Chief,—the prin cipal Accomplice in the Rebellion. No previous intimation was given, either to the Government of Colombia, or to its Agent in Lima: nor were the Orders of the Colombian Government awaited, or those of the General, who was applied for by the Government of Peru itself to take the command: all the necessary supplies were provided with the greatest haste and with the utmost secrecy; and to remove all suspicion of the hostility which was contemplated, and of the object of the movement of these Troops, the Port of Callao was closed until the embarkation was effected, and the Ships of War and Transports, after having disembarked part of the Division, remained opposite the Ports of the Department of Guayaquil, for some days, in expectation of the result. Providence frustrated the machinations of Traitors and unprovoked Enemies, defeated their projects, and rendered abortive their enterprize; but the Government of Peru is responsible for the act, for the crimes committed to give effect to it, and for the evils which, in consequence, for some time, afflicted Colombia. The Agent of this Republick was informed of the approach of those Troops when they were in the act of embarking: he then remonstrated, and strongly and energetically protested against the proceedings; his remonstrances were, however, disregarded, and his protests had no other result than his own persecution, which was carried to the extremity of expelling him from the Country, within the space of 18 hours, with insult and ignominy, under a guard, and detaining him as a prisoner on board a Vessel of War, without cause, or pretext, and without his having offered the least offence. The honour of Colombia was outraged, with atrocity, in the person of its Agent; and, up to the present hour, this Government has received no satisfaction for this shameful violation of the Law of Nations. Order having been re-established in the Southern Departments, the Traitors who had disturbed it, fleeing from the national vengeance, took refuge in Peru; and not only were they welcomed there, but eulogiums were passed on their treason, wickedness, and perverse conduct. The scandal of their reception has been aggravated, by the expulsion from the Peruvian Territory, (as suspicious Individuals, and in violation of existing Treaties,) of those Colombian Officers who had taken no part in the operations, but had disapproved of them. Chastisement fell on honourable and peaceful Colombians, and rewards and consideration on Traitors and Delinquents. The Government of Colombia was silent under the injuries heaped upon it. It despatched an Officer with Letters for Bolivia, who was detained in a Port of Peru, and compelled to proceed to Callao. His Despatches, which were demanded from him, he was under the necessity of throwing into the Sea, and he was taken to Lima, and there detained a considerable time. The Vice-President of this Republick sent one of his Aides-de-camp to present to the President of Bolivia the Sword decreed to him by the Congress of Colombia, and he, also, was detained in Callao; he proceeded, however, to Lima, where the risks of his journey were exaggerated to him, and he was not allowed to proceed; but was obliged to return, leaving there the Sword and the Communications which had been confided to him. Peru was at War with Colombia without having declared it; although Colombia was at Peace, and anxious to cultivate friendship with Peru. Notwithstanding the failure of the project of conquering a part of the Territory, with the assistance of the Colombian Troops, the Government of Peru did not abandon the hope of getting possession of it by other means. With this object, it began to form an Army on the Frontier, and proceeded with such activity, that it appeared to calculate on an early opening of the Campaign. It was well aware that such a step would alarm the Government of Colombia; and, thinking to lull its vigilance, it deputed to it a Minister Plenipotentiary, but without powers or instructions to conclude anything; it was represented that the object of his Mission was to give satisfaction for the grievances of which Colombia might have to complain, and which the Government of Peru, itself, conceived had been committed, although it had received no complaint upon the subject of them. Such was its conviction of the hostile character of its own proceedings! The Government of Colombia was not ignorant of the plot which had been formed against it, nor of the object for which that Minister had been sent; but it received him, notwithstanding, in order to prove how far its wishes for peace and conciliation extended. He wa made acquainted with the grounds of complaint, and with the satisfaction demanded by this Government, when he openly declared himself to be without instructions, to enter into any negotiation for the adjust |