118 



COLOMBIA, UNITED STATES OF. 



guarantees, preventing more than four persons 

 talking together after ten o'clock, P.M., pro- 

 hibiting any vessel leaving Panama for other 

 parts of the State without special permit, and 

 stopping the transit of the Kio Grande. The 

 administration of Ponce only lasted eight 

 weeks. On the 28th of August, President 

 Ponce and his principal general, Mesa, took a 

 pleasure-trip to Aspinwall. On the morning 

 of the 29th, General Buenaventura Correoso, 

 commander of the battalion Panama, during 

 their absence, had an attack made on the bar- 

 rack. The guard, and afterward the other sol- 

 diers, were disarmed, and the militia installed 

 in their stead. There was little show of re- 

 sistance, except by a Captain Mesa, who was 

 shot dead by a mulatto officer named Aispuru, 

 opposite the barracks. On the return of Ponce 

 and Mesa to Panama, the latter was immedi- 

 ately arrested, and the former, though he is- 

 sued a proclamation, saying the affair was 

 merely a row among his officers, resigned his 

 position as Provisional President the same 

 evening, and issued another document the next 

 day, saying he was forced to do so, owing to the 

 occurrences of the previous day. His resigna- 

 tion was at once accepted, and General Corre- 

 oso installed as Provisional President. The 

 latter at once formed a new administration. 

 The Conservative party, in the interior, refused 

 to submit to the administration of both Ponce 

 and Correoso. After the accession of the latter 

 to power, the people of the Department of Chi- 

 riqui established an independent government 

 of their own, with Sefior Aristides Obaldia as 

 Commander of the Forces. They had 300 men, 

 well armed, and expected to raise 2,000 in case 

 of need, though they had not arms for so large 

 a force. The soldiers sent there by the State 

 government had an encounter with the men of 

 the department, and were badly beaten, five 

 of their men being killed, as well as the gov- 

 ernor's secretary and their commander taken 

 prisoners. They then joined the Obaldia forces. 

 On the receipt of the news of this defeat in 

 Panama, President Correoso issued the follow- 

 ing proclamation : 



ARTICLE 1. The State is declared in a state of war. 



ART. 2. The traffic in arms and ammunition is 

 positively prohibited. 



ABT. 3. Every one, whether a private individual 

 or a merchant, who has fire-arms, side-arms, or other 

 elements of war in his possession, must present or 

 give an account of the same to the respective gov- 

 ernor, alcalde, etc. 



A second proclamation was as follows : 



ARTICLE 1. All Colombians, resident in the State, 

 between the ages of sixteen and sixty, are called to 

 arms. 



ART. 2. At the first sound of the trumpet, every 

 person embraced in this decree must present himself 

 to the first police authority, to be placed on the re- 

 cruiting list. 



The members of the battalion Union shall present 

 themselves armed, etc. 



President Correoso then started for Chiri- 

 qui, with three hundred men, some of them 

 conscripts, leaving Juan Mendoza in the presi- 



dential chair. A portion of those pressed 

 into the service were Costa Kicans and Nica- 

 raguans who had just arrived in the isthmus 

 on a contract to work on the railroad. The 

 expedition was successful, and the Conserva- 

 tives had to submit. In December, Correoso 

 was formally elected President of the State. 



In consequence of the frequent revolutions 

 which have of late taken place, the finances 

 of Panama are in a most deplorable condition. 

 Every cent that could be raised for years past, 

 either by taxes, forced loans, or sales of prop- 

 erty, has been spent to aid certain political 

 cliques and keep up a large standing army, the 

 only use of which is to assist in overthrowing 

 the government. President Correoso, finding 

 himself without money, levied upon the isth- 

 mus a commercial tax of $133,000, of which 

 the city of Panama was to pay $100,000, and 

 Aspinwall $20,000. The tax was, in particular, 

 an unbearable burden to the foreign mer- 

 chants. It appears from the official records, 

 that, out of the one hundred and seventy-five 

 tax-payers who are taxed one hundred thou- 

 sand dollars, sixty-four are foreigners, and pay 

 $86,520; while one hundred and eleven aro 

 native, and pay $13,480, being an average of 

 $1,350 per head on the foreign, and $121 on 

 the native merchants and traders. In the town 

 of Aspinwall the tax averages $20 per head on 

 the entire population, and of the $20,000 levied 

 on that place fully $17,000 were to be paid by 

 foreigners. Taking the entire commercial tax 

 levied on the isthmus, with a population 

 somewhere between 150,000 and 250,000, at 

 $133,000, the foreign portion of that popula- 

 tion would pay $103,520, while the natives 

 would pay $29,480, or less than one-third that 

 sum. The right of increasing the commercial 

 tax from the amount originally fixed by the 

 Government of the republic, the law govern- 

 ing which is still in force, namely, $25 per 

 month as the maximum, to the enormous pro- 

 portions which it has now assumed, has been 

 annually disputed by the Panama merchants, 

 who, however, in consideration of the poverty 

 of the State, submitted to the imposition rather 

 than take the trouble of testing the matter ; and 

 so it went on increasing year after year from 

 ten to twenty per cent., until in 1868 it rose 

 nearly seventy per cent, over 1867. The com- 

 mercial community therefore resolved to test 

 the question legally ; and agreed unanimously 

 to refuse to pay a dollar beyond the legitimate 

 $25 allowed by law. The fact of the Legisla- 

 ture passing a law to enforce this tax they con : 

 sidered no proof of its legality. The same 

 body years ago passed certain laws regarding 

 tonnage dues and capitation tax on passengers. 

 Thousands on thousands of dollars were ex- 

 acted from the companies under these laws, 

 until at length they became so onerous that 

 the companies determined to test the question 

 at Bogota of the right of the Legislature to 

 levy such taxes. The General Government at 

 once decided the tax to be a direct violation 



