/- 
 

 
 
 INAUGURAL ADDRESS 
 
 y 
 
 SENOR MANUEL MURILLO. 
 
 ON ENTERING UPON HIS OFFICIAL DUTIES AS 
 
 PRESIDENT OF THE U. S. OF COLOMBIA, 
 
 On the lOth of .April, 1864. 
 
 Translated from the " Registro Oficial" of April 13. 
 
 i 
 
 WITH A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE, 
 
 By S. DeWITT BLGODGOOD, 
 Colombian Consul, N. Y. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 
 BAKER & GODWIN, PRINTERS, 
 
 PRINTING-HOUSE SQUARE, OPP. CITY HALL. 
 
 1864. 
 
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 Senor Murillo was born in the year 1818, and is a native of the State of Toliina. Not 
 favored by fortune or descent, his youth was a struggle of honorable ambition against ad- 
 verse circumstances ; but with a resolution and consciousness of inherent power which mark 
 the efforts of all truly great men, he persevered in his efforts to obtain an education suitable 
 to his aspirations, and by his own industry maintained himself during years of application 
 and study, passed through various institutions of learning, and finally left college with 
 highly merited honors. He then entered upon the study of the law, and soon became dis- 
 tinguished not only as an eloquent advocate, but a sound jurist, possessing a thorough ac- 
 quaintance with the principles and decisions of the courts, and a memory which never failed 
 him in his appeal to authorities and the appropriate citation of the law. At the same time, he 
 was distinguished by his broad and comprehensive view- of public affairs, and his advoca- 
 cy of popular rights. Not only as a speaker, but as a writer he became celebrated, and lite- 
 rally a tribune of the people ; and was always their fearless, u; compromising and acknowledged 
 friend. It was not long before he was chosen their representative in several local legisla- 
 tures, and from these he passed early to a seat in the National Congress, not merely as the 
 choice of a single State, but of many, for at that time, in Colombia, residence was not the 
 necessary qualification of a representative. M. Murillo was therefore chosen a member by 
 nearly all the States at once ; each being anxious to avail itself of his powerful champion- 
 ship. He then withdrew for a time, to conduct a mercantile house in Panama, but his na- 
 tural tastes and the wishes of his countrymen drew him back into public life. He next 
 took up his residence at Santa Martha, where he established and conducted for several 
 years — 1845, '6, and '7 — a celebrated journal, called the Mercantile Gazette, which he edited 
 with great ability and success. 
 
 Again brought into the National Congress, he became conspicuous for his fearless 
 statesmanship ; and to bis personal influence and exertion is attributed the success of the 
 great measure of abolishing slavery in Colombia, a step in advance of the times, for which 
 he has been justly honored. Under the administration of Gen. Lopez he was successively 
 Minister of Foreign Affairs and of Finance, and while occupying the latter post, introduced 
 order and system into the department of the treasury and the administration of its affairs, 
 for which his previous mercantile experience had fully prepared him. 
 
 At the election for President in 1856 he was brought forward as a candidate for the 
 office, but there being a division among the liberals in favor of Gen. Mosquera, Senor Ospina 
 was elected, and the consequences of that unfortunate event were, for the time, the over- 
 throw of the constitution, the triua.ph of the clergy, and the destruction of popular rights. 
 At this period M. Murillo was unanimously elected President of the State of Santander, 
 which position he gave up to assume the direction of a liberal journal at Bogota. 
 
 During the career of the party of Ospina, M. Murillo, however, became an object of 
 governmental persecution, and was compelled to withdraw to a place of security to save 
 his life. 
 
 On the restoration of the constitution through the patriotic exertions of Gen. Mosquera 
 and the liberals of Colombia, M. Murillo resumed his accustomed political position, and was 
 honored with the mission to France, to represent hie regenerated country at the court of the 
 Tuilleries. From theace he was transferred to the United States, where he awaited a year 
 and more the recognition of Colombia by the American government, delayed, it was thought, 
 by intrigues on the part of Gen. Herran and misconceptions at Washington, which he suc- 
 cessfully overcame. While in this country he was again nominated to the presidency by 
 the liberal party, and elected by a plurality of votes. Previous to his departure he visited 
 Washington, and was cordially received by the President, the members of his administra- 
 tion, and the foreign ministers, making a marked impression, and becoming a favorite with 
 all those with whom he had intercourse. 
 
 In the month of March last he returned to his own country in the U. S. steamer Glaucus, 
 and on the 10th of April assumed the reins of government. His inaugural address is pro- 
 nounced a work of great ability, and his pledges will be fulfilled to the letter. 
 
 Colombia has just emerged from a very difficult situation; beset by internal enemies 
 and by foreign foes, the splendid vietory.'of Cuespad has enabled her once more to settle 
 down into peace and tranquillity. M. .Murillo, a civilian, statesman, orator, and patriot, 
 with large experience at home and' abroad, will do everything in his power to give his 
 countrymen the position among the South American Republics to which they are justly 
 entitled, and which they cannot well lose, unless they become traitors to liberty, and enemies 
 of their own best interests. 
 
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 J' 
 
ADDRESS TO PRESIDENT MURILLO, BY GEN. MOSQUERA, 
 
 ON THE OCCASION OF THE INAUGURATION OF TEE FORMER TO THE PRESIDENCY, 
 AND OF THE RESIGNATION, BY THE LATTER, OF HIS OFFICIAL AUTHORITY. 
 
 Mr. President: 
 
 On the fourth of February I thought I might say that the day had arrived 
 when I would resign the discretional authority which the people had given me 
 for the purpose of saving the Republic, but new circumstances obliged the 
 Convention to confirm the constitutional power. 
 
 The Republic, being now constituted, has elected its high officers accord- 
 ing to the Constitution ; and you, Sir, have merited to be appointed the 
 chief magistrate to represent the nation abroad, and to heal the wounds of a 
 bloody Revolution. In your hands, Mr. President, I deposit the baton with 
 which I have governed ; and, in retiring from the government house, I take 
 with me the firm resolution to support the Constitution, and to teach the 
 citizens to obey the constitutional President. 
 
 INAUGURAL. 
 
 Citizen President of the Congress : 
 
 In promising, in the presence of the representatives of the States and 
 People of Colombia, faithfully to perform the duties which the institutions 
 impose upon the President of these States and People, I assume an obligation 
 which costs me no moral sacrifice whatever, because my constant political 
 convictions are in entire agreement with those institutions, and with the na- 
 ture of their requirements. From my childhood I have desired liberty for my 
 country, in order that individual activity, by its development, might realize 
 its own moral and material progress. And, as the means of securing that 
 
liberty, I associated myself with those who opposed gubernatorial centraliza- 
 tion, and what were called " local liberties." Centralization and despotism 
 were born on the same day, and with them the misery and ignorance of the 
 multitudes. I also associated myself with those who favored the apparent 
 weakness of governments, that they might be irresistible by the force of 
 opinion, whenever it should become necessary to protect the rights which they 
 feared might be violated or threatened. The nation now has, as you have 
 said, institutions founded on these fundamental theories, and, for the first ex- 
 ecutor of them, a humble citizen, who cannot oppose them, even remotely, in 
 their free development, because he possesses none of those brilliant endow- 
 ments which seduce the people, and lead them by admiration to compromise 
 their liberties. And this community has also, for the security of that liberty, 
 the example, so rare in the world, of the most conspicuous citizens, in whom 
 ambitious liberticide might seem justifiable by the greatness of their powers 
 and the opportuneness and brilliancy of their services, but who have contri- 
 buted to, or accepted with a good grace, the practical establishment of popular 
 sovereignty and the ascendancy of the civil power. My election, therefore, 
 while I was in a foreign country, without having participated in the last con- 
 flicts, is a fact of high significance, which has exalted the country and those 
 who were not elected, more than myself, because it is a proof of the ascend- 
 ancy of constitutional principles in the nation. It is now incumbent on my 
 honor and patriotism to justify that wish, by requiring of myself, that, during 
 the period of my administration, the era of pacific solutions shall commence, of 
 rights for all, tolerance, the cultivation of benevolent sentiments and moral and 
 material progress, to follow the agitated, painful and bloody period of the gesta- 
 tion of the Republic, in a people born and formed under the influence of the laws 
 and customs of that gloomy and Catholic monarch, Philip 2d of Spain. It is in 
 virtue of my antecedents, and because, as you have so kindly said, I have been 
 exempt from the false reasonings and contradictions of the schools, that the 
 Nation has elected me the Executor of its laws, and their representative for 
 the exterior ; and surely, on so solemn an occasion, it could not be that I should 
 fear to pursue the path I have before followed. I hope I shall want neither 
 the civil courage, nor the firmness nor probity necessary, to satisfy the hopes 
 of the Nation. • 
 
 The Congress, in declaring with unanimity that the vote of the States called 
 me to the first magistracy, have given a proof of rectitude, which, while it 
 tends to accredit our institutions, gives me a great moral force, which is a 
 condition indispensable to a happy fulfillment of the mission conferred by the 
 people. Permit me to say, that I am full of gratitude for all these acts, which 
 are performed as duties, but which also reveal much personal kindness and 
 consideration. 
 
 The direction of the foreign relations, which involve external security, is 
 almost the only foundation of the institution of the federal power ; and that func- 
 
tion is entrusted to the President. In the present state of the world, when 
 the means of communication, the relations of commerce, the necessities of in- 
 dustry, and, in short, the material solidarity, have so closely drawn together the 
 society of peoples, that there is no one, how small soever it may be, which is 
 not obliged to respect the general rules of public right, and to proceed in 
 harmony with the others. And this necessity is the greater, when an exten- 
 sive and rich territory is possessed, stretching out on two oceans, with valu- 
 able productions, immense rivers, various climates, unavoidable points of 
 transit, and perhaps of contact, between the civilization of the east and the 
 west. All this imposes on me the obligation to apply myself with diligence 
 to the study of our duties, and to feel the greatest solicitude to perform them 
 all, even those which may appear to us the most onerous, with perfectly good 
 faith and an earnest will. Nations, like individuals, need to establish their 
 reputation on solid bases ; and there is nothing more solid than probity, and 
 nothing so prejudicial or despicable as a system of transient expedients, false- 
 hood and restrictions, which has sometimes tried to pass for patriotism, or for 
 skill in eluding obligations contracted, to defer their performance. I know 
 that at the present time, thanks to the good faith with which this business has 
 been conducted by the government, and the rectitude with which the diplomatic 
 agents of friendly nations, residing in this capital, have acted, no pending diffi- 
 culty exists which might compromise our exterior peace. Notwithstanding 
 the general agitation of the world, and the complications which daily arise in 
 the relations of different nations, from the state of effervescence in which 
 Europe appears to be, I trust that no obstacle will be presented, from without, 
 to our march of progress ; but, on the contrary, I promise myself that, by 
 punctually fulfilling all our duties, and cultivating with frankness and honor 
 the friendship of other nations, modest and independent, without preferences 
 or alliances which- might enchain our policy, we may attain respect and sym- 
 pathy. The consideration of the great nations towards the small, goes on 
 developing itself in proportion as civilization displays proof of the preconsti- 
 tuted and unchangeable harmony which exists between general interests, and 
 the equally inevitable sanction which chastises, if not as crimes, at least as 
 faults, violations of the natural law. Thus it is that an attentive observer, in 
 spite of certain exceptional facts, perceives a very considerable progress in 
 international morality, with positive advantage to nations of small material 
 forces ; but, to participate in .that progress, it is also indispensable that they 
 show themselves worthy of it, by the severity of their policy, the rectitude of 
 their measures, and the exact fulfillment of their obligations. 
 
 With the seal of such general principles, the administration which is to-day 
 inaugurated will be marked ; and thus it is that I promise to fulfill the duty of 
 accrediting ourselves abroad. With neighboring nations, twins with Colombia 
 in history, and of identical and very similar social conditions, we shall act as 
 friends, if not as brothers, in the most cordial and loving acceptation of the 
 
6 
 
 word. Nothing will be omitted for the establishment of a moral alliance with 
 them, which may banish war forever, and be fruitful of benefits. These 
 peoples, of Spanish origin, born on the same day, emancipated from the same 
 mother-country in the same year, and aspiring to an analogous social and po- 
 litical condition, form in reality only one nation, with great elements of power 
 and progress, and without any necessity of foreign protection, because they are 
 able, by themselves alone, to procure for themselves the honorable security 
 which is derived from inherent power. They all were born, it is true, with hered- 
 itary diseases, and they all have had a most painful infancy ; but it is now 
 plainly apparent that they are reaching their manhood, and that, by tearing 
 from their vitals the tumors which were devouring them, they are acquiring 
 solid and lasting civilization. And — what a singular fact ! — while the old 
 communities, which have so much reproached us for our frequent revolutions, 
 now begin to acknowledge that the edifice in which they were sheltered is tot- 
 tering, and wars commencing on all sides, seriously threaten their social order, 
 Spanish America is closing her revolutionary period, regenerating herself by 
 liberty, and confirming the new democratic social order. Unquestionably the 
 Aurora of their peace and happiness is now exhibiting its resplendence ; and 
 the steamers which plough their rivers, and the locomotives which have begun 
 to traverse their deserts, presage the approach of the days promised to virtue 
 and industry. Then the implacable censors of our misfortunes must acknow- 
 ledge, that what appeared to be the decay and incapacity of the race, was the 
 germ and exuberance of life ; and that abroad, where order was believed to 
 have been established forever, they were running through flowery banks to a 
 wild cataract. And it will come to pass, that the political science of the New 
 World, founded on the rights of all, and to which these peoples have trusted 
 their futurity for more than fifty years, will receive its definitive consecration. 
 
 You have called my attention, in your address, to the general situation of 
 the country, the prospects of the liberal cause, and my own public condition. 
 
 I know that the general situation of the country ha^ many dark shades, 
 since the recent termination of the conflicts of a violent civil war, which caused 
 great devastations in material order, and perhaps still greater in moral order ; 
 but it is no less true that there are great elements of reorganization, with which 
 peace may soon be secured, credit re-established, and sources of material pros- 
 perity opened : sources more than sufficient for their restoration. The results of 
 war have always been terrible, and especially those of civil war. The condi- 
 tion of the country was not better on emerging from the war of Independence. 
 At that time there were not all the elements of reorganization which we now 
 possess. Everything suffers from a state of conflict : material order, as well 
 as moral order; matter as well as mind; but there is no reason to despair. 
 Efforts will be made to raise and support interior credit, which has been so 
 much depressed by inevitable causes during an obstinate and destructive 
 struggle ; the branches of income to the Treasury will be administered with 
 
all the strictness which our necessities require ; and the most diligent solici- 
 tude will be extended to all business incumbent on the federal power. 
 
 Besides giving a steady and scrupulous attention to the reorganization of 
 the service, which in a great degree constitutes the force of the government, 
 I shall apply myself to the task of making the constitutional theory of the 
 sovereignty of the States operate in perfect harmony with the proper exercise 
 of the federal authority. That harmonious movement of the two existences 
 is one of the difficulties of the federal system, arising from the usurping ten- 
 dencies of the one over the other. For my part, I wish to follow in this the 
 example of the immortal Jefferson, who is considered, in the United States of 
 America, as the founder of local liberties during the period of his administra- 
 tion, in the extension which he gave to the independent action of the States, 
 by circumscribing the federal authority which the first administrations had 
 extended. That is to say, that I shall secure respect for the autonomy of the 
 States, as far as the preservation of the national unity and internal and exter- 
 nal peace will permit ; but I will not consent that the chain shall be broken, 
 or that the federal authority be disobeyed or disregarded, while acting within 
 its constitutional sphere. On the harmonious but inexorable action of the two 
 entities, in my opinion, depend the subsistence of the Union and the integrity of 
 this territory, which is bounded by two seas, and Avhich is to become the abode 
 of free citizens, who, stimulated by institutions, shall devote themselves to in- 
 struction and labor, to avail themselves, as a Christian community, of the 
 gifts which this country offers to us. 
 
 I have strong confidence that, by pursuing a tolerant and enlightened po- 
 licy in its forms, firm in purpose, obedient to the Constitution in its spirit and 
 letter, protecting liberty, being exact in its service, resolute in requiring what 
 is due and paying what is owed, peace, which is now the object of general as- 
 piration, the sincere desire of the great laboring and civilized majority, the 
 point of departure for every improvement, as well as for the reign of right 
 and security to all and every one, will not be delayed ; and liberty, which re- 
 pairs, improves and fertilizes everything, will soon crown all our wishes. 
 
 I shall exert myself, Sir, to succeed in making all these benefits realities 
 during the period of my administration ; and, if by that means I shall merit 
 the gratitude of my fellow-citizens, which is surely the best of rewards for a 
 republican, it will be but just, just, indeed it is, that henceforward it should 
 be paid, in abundance and sincerity, to the illustrious citizen whom I have the 
 honor to succeed ; because to his exemplary consecration of himself to the good 
 of the Eepublic we owe the possibility of realizing all this ; while to the no- 
 bility of his character the country is now indebted for a lofty example of 
 obedience to its constitution, and of virtuous disinterestedness. 
 
 M. MURILLO. 
 
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