Simón Bolívar (The Liberator): Patriot, Warrior, Statesman, Father of Five Nations, a Sketch of His Life and His WorkSherwell, Guillermo A. (Guillermo Antonio)
History
Simón Bolívar (The Liberator): Patriot, Warrior, Statesman, Father of Five Nations, a Sketch of His Life and His Work
Sherwell, Guillermo A. (Guillermo Antonio)
Bolívar, Simón, 1783-1830; South America -- History -- Wars of Independence, 1806-1830
"I repeat that of all I have expressed, there is nothing of so much
importance at this moment as the formation of a league truly American.
But this confederation must not be formed simply on the principles of
an ordinary alliance for attack and for defense; it must be closer than
the one lately formed in Europe against the freedom of the people.
"It is necessary that our society be a society of sister nations,
divided for the time being in the exercise of their sovereignty, on
account of the course of human events, but united, strong and powerful,
in order to support each other against aggressions of foreign powers.
"It is indispensable that you should incessantly urge the necessary
to establish immediately the foundations of an amphictyonic body or
assembly of plenipotentiaries to promote the common interests of the
American states, to settle the differences which may arise in the
future between peoples which have the same habits and the same customs,
and which, through the lack of such a sacred institution, may perhaps
kindle deplorable wars, such as those which have destroyed other
regions less fortunate."
In the projected treaty carried by the same representative, the following
appears:
"Both contracting parties guarantee to each other the integrity of
their respective territories, as constituted before the present war,
keeping the boundaries possessed at that time by each captaincy general
or viceroyalty of those who now have resumed the exercise of their
sovereignty, unless in a legal way two or more of them have agreed to
form a single body or nation, as has happened with the old captaincy
general of Venezuela and the kingdom of Nueva Granada, which now form
the Republic of Colombia."
Similar instructions were given to the representative sent to Mexico.
The treaty arranged with Perú was similar to another entered into
afterwards with Chile. In both documents it was stipulated: that an
assembly should be organized with representatives of the different
countries; that all the governments of America, or of that part of America
which had belonged to Spain, should be invited to enter into that union,
league, or perpetual confederation; that the assembly of plenipotentiaries
should be entrusted with the work of laying the foundation for, and of
establishing, the closer relations which should exist among all of those
states; and that this assembly should "serve them as a council in great
conflicts, as a point of contact in the common dangers, as faithful
interpreter of their public treaties when difficulties occur, and as an
arbitral judge and conciliator in their disputes and differences." In this
way, two great principles were sanctioned by Bolívar: the principle of
_uti-possidetis_ and the principle of arbitration, which was proclaimed in
America, for the first time, by Bolívar as president of Colombia.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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