Martinez' administration not only gave Nicaragua the longest period of internal peace she had ever had, but promoted her prosperity in every branch, and notably in finances. At the time of its inauguration, the government had not one hundred dollars in the treasury. The liberating army had not been paid during the late war, and the only way to adjust the arrears was by issuing warrants, which the merchants soon got possession of at sixty to eighty per cent discount, and returned to the treasury at par in payment of import duties on merchandise, thus greatly reducing the revenue from that source. The government also adopted the unusual course of assuming to indemnify private persons for the losses they had sustained during the civil war, those resulting from the burning of Granada included.[XVII-68] And yet Martinez, after his victory of April 29, 1863, against the united forces of Salvador and Honduras, succeeded within six years in doubling the amount of public revenues, and in arranging for the payment of the foreign debt. [Sidenote: NEW CONSTITUTION.] The constituent assembly, on the 19th of August, 1858, adopted a new constitution, declaring Nicaragua to be a sovereign, free, and independent republic under a popular representative government.[XVII-69] Two days later the assembly resolved to continue acting as an ordinary legislature, and decreed that all public functionaries should retain their respective offices until the new constitutional régime should have been installed. Prior to this, on the 30th of January, that body had declared illegitimate all the provisional administrations which had ruled Nicaragua from 1854 till the 8th of November, 1857, excepting only the gobierno binario from June 24, 1857.[XVII-70] [Sidenote: PRESIDENT MARTINEZ.]