As a result of the revolution in Spain, Morillo had to proclaim and swear to the Spanish constitution in the provinces that he governed. This fact wrought a marked change in the position of the contending armies. The representative government established certain rights for provinces, and at the same time created the hope among the Spaniards that the revolution would end by conferring the privilege of representation on the American colonies. The Spanish government initiated peace negotiations with the patriots, and Morillo was made president of a commission which went to talk this matter over with the heads of the Colombian revolution in July, 1820. A "Junta Pacificadora," or assembly to establish peace, was set up by Morillo in Caracas. Its first work was to send communications to the various generals to suspend military operations for a month, while settlement was being reached, and Bolívar was approached. On this occasion, Bolívar was addressed as "His Excellency, the President of the Republic." He was no longer the rebel, the insurgent or the bandit. Bolívar was not to be deceived by any conciliatory attitude on the part of the government. He decided that all his subordinate officers should furnish every means for the conferences with the royalists, but always on the basis of the independence of Colombia. "It will never be humiliating," he wrote in a letter to one of his officers, "to offer peace on the principles established in the declaration of the Republic of Venezuela,[1] which ought to be the foundation of all negotiations; first, because it is ordered by a law of the Republic, and second, because it is necessary according to the nature and for the salvation of Colombia." [Footnote 1: That of November, 1818.] Consequently, Congress answered the commissioners who came to deal with Bolívar that the sovereign congress of Colombia would listen with pleasure to all the propositions of the Spanish government, provided they were founded on the acknowledgment of the sovereignty and independence of Colombia, and that it would not admit any departure from this principle, often proclaimed by the government and people of the republic. Latorre, one of the most distinguished and gentlemanly of the Spanish commanders, sent a personal note to Bolívar, in which he expressed the hope that Bolívar would some day give him the pleasure of embracing him as his brother. Bolívar answered accepting the armistice, but reiterated that he would listen to no proposition not based on the independence of Colombia.