126 



COLOMBIA. 



offered the same thing as a perpetual lease of the 

 6-mile strip and the interests, in the canal re- 

 served in the contract with the company. A 

 lease in perpetuity was illegal under the Colom- 

 bian Constitution, but a lease for the term of 

 one hundred years, renewable after each term at 

 the option of the United States, answers the 

 same purpose. Attorney-General Knox examined 

 the title of the Panama Canal Company and its 

 power under the French law to transfer its prop- 

 erty and rights to the United States Government. 

 The new company when constituted assumed 

 an obligation to pay 60 per cent, of the profits 

 of the canal to the 'stockholders of the old com- 

 pany. Since the entire assets of the old company 

 were turned over to the new company the latter 

 can dispose of this claim of 60 per cent, of the 

 profits. The new company was found to be 

 solvent, with full power to sell with the consent 

 of the French court, which was given. The 

 I nited States Government can take title to the 

 shares of the canal company in the Panama Rail- 

 road. It can take and hold any kind of prop- 

 erty it may have need of in the same manner 

 that an individual can. The Colombian Govern- 

 menj; raised difficulties regarding the policing of 

 the canal strip and the terminal ports. A joint 

 jurisdiction was proposed, the administration of 

 justice to be by mixed tribunals, with American 

 and Colombian police both employed, having the 

 right to pursue persons charged with crimes 

 committed within the limits of the belt into 

 any part of Colombia. A treaty was concluded 

 between Secretary Hay and Seflor Concha on 

 May 18, but further arrangements were neces- 

 sary to provide for these questions of sovereign- 

 ty and jurisdiction. When the United States 

 naval authorities stopped the transport of Colom- 

 bian troops by the Panama Railroad the Colom- 

 bian minister delayed negotiations. The canal 

 is to be completed in six years. 



The Civil War. The armed conflict, begun 

 on Oct. 17, 1899, between the Liberals and the 

 Conservatives, who have been entrenched in 

 power for seventeen years, was mostly confined, 

 in the early part of *1902, to the Department of 

 Panama. The people of the isthmus, who origi- 

 nally joined the Republic of New Granada of their 

 own free will, have always felt more or less de- 

 tached in political sentiment, as they are geo- 

 graphically and racially, and in an increasing 

 degree economically detached from the natives 

 of the interior parts of the republic, who pro- 

 vide their administrators and subject them to 

 taxes and monopolies that they consider un- 

 equal. They sympathized generally with the 

 Liberal cause, and in other parts of the republic 

 the common people, on whom the stress of the 

 war taxation and the conscription mainly fell, 

 sympathized more and more with the Liberals, 

 who began the war, and blamed the Govern- 

 ment for not making peace. Duties on all im- 

 ported merchandise were raised, in some cases 

 doubled. The effect in Panama was more marked 

 than elsewhere. The once lively commerce was 

 paralyzed : prosperous industries went out of ex- 

 istence. The necessaries of life were hard to get. 

 Hundreds of suspected Liberals filled the prisons. 

 At the opening of the year an insurgent force of 

 2.000 men camped within 6 miles of the city of 

 Panama. Risings occurred from time to time in 

 various parts of the republic. The struggle grew 

 fiercer and subsided intermittently, but was the 

 most exhausting and disastrous in the history of 

 the country. Sometimes the revolutionists had 

 35,000 men vinder arms. The Government raised 

 now and then a total force of 75,000 men, im- 



pressing boys of ten and twelve years, who 

 served as foragers for the soldiers. The peso, 

 which was worth 25 cents in gold at the begin- 

 ning of the war, fell with every new emission of 

 inconvertible paper, until, when 250,000,000 pesos 

 were in circulation, it was worth only 2 cents, 

 and subsequently it sank below 1 cent. The 

 Liberals charged the Conservatives with having 

 established a despotic government in which the 

 President can legislate by executive decrees and 

 enforce these by administrative process. The 

 Cabinet officers, the governors of states, the 

 whole administrative personnel, being his nom- 

 inees, are his political creatures and agents. The 

 favors shown to the clergy in exempting them 

 from trial in the ordinary courts and from the 

 payment of taxes and import duties, and the 

 political influence that they wield, are specially 

 repugnant to the Liberals, and the secularist 

 principle that they seek to establish offends the 

 religious sentiment of the Conservatives, who ac- 

 cuse them of wishing to destroy the Church 

 and sweep away the moral foundations of the 

 social fabric. 



A new Cabinet was constituted at Bogota 

 on Jan. 19, as follows: Minister of State and 

 Minister of the Interior, Senor Veles, after- 

 ward replaced by Senor Laforest; Minister of 

 War, Gen. Fernandez; Minister of Finance, Senor 

 Cordoba; Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr. Men- 

 dez. On the following day a naval battle took 

 place in the Bay of Panama, where the Liberals 

 tried to force a landing near Sabina from their 

 vessels, the Padilla, Darien, and Gaitan. The 

 Government forces entrenched themselves to op- 

 pose them, while the guns from the fortifications 

 of Las Bovedas fired at the ships. The Govern- 

 ment vessels Lautaro and Chicuito were brought 

 into the action. The Padilla went after the 

 Lautaro, and a battle ensued at close quarters 

 while the Lautaro was sinking. Dr. Alban, 

 Governor of Panama, was killed and 9 others 

 were hit on the Government side, while the 

 revolutionists had 17 casualties. Gen. Garcia was 

 made military commander in succession to Dr. 

 Alban, and Senor Amaya Civil Governor. The 

 attempt to capture Panama failed. A sharp 

 battle occurred within 20 miles of Bogota, at 

 Facacativa, where the insurgents were driven 

 back, leaving 360 dead, while 90 were killed on 

 the Government side. The capital city was dis- 

 turbed and business suspended. The new Min- 

 ister of War sent to Antioquia and other prov- 

 inces for troops. At La Cruz the Liberals, under 

 Gen. Soto, captured cannon, rifles, and ammuni- 

 tion from a Government detachment after a 

 spirited engagement. Gen. Benjamin Herrera, 

 the revolutionary commander in Panama, pro- 



Rosed to the foreign consuls that the railroad 

 ne, though not the ports of Panama and Colon, 

 should be declared neutral. The consuls ap- 

 proved the suggestion, but the Government would 

 not agree. On Feb. 20 Gen. Herrera attacked 

 Aguadulce. After repeated assaults, in which his 

 force was said to have lost 550 men, he forced 

 the town, and Gen. Castro retreated with the 

 Government troops, breaking through the line of 

 besiegers and reaching Bocas del Toro with 400 

 men left out of 1,000. This place was taken 

 some weeks afterward by insurgents brought by 

 steamers, and later was recaptured by the Gov- 

 ernment. Gen. Uribe Uribe made a fresh ad- 

 vance on BogotA, and was met and thoroughly 

 defeated at Medina, and forced to retire over the 

 Venezuelan border. Gen. Salazar was appointed 

 Governor of Panama, and the forces on the isth- 

 mus were largely reenforced with the object of 



