The South American Republics, Part 2 of 2Dawson, Thomas Cleland
History
The South American Republics, Part 2 of 2
Dawson, Thomas Cleland
South America -- History
With Mosquera at the head of affairs, under the title of "Supreme
Director," a congress was summoned whose members were called, not
deputies, representatives, or delegates, but "plenipotentiaries" of the
sovereign states. This congress adopted a new constitution, New
Granada's sixth since 1830. The triumphant liberals expelled the
Jesuits, abolished ecclesiastical entails, extinguished the monastic
orders, confiscated Church property, decreed the absolute separation of
Church and State, imprisoned the archbishop, and secularised the
schools. Suffrage was made nominally universal, and the death penalty
abolished. The name of the country was changed to the "United States of
Colombia," and it became little more than a league of nine federal
states for the purpose of defence against foreign attack. The national
government was expressly prohibited from interfering in the affairs of
the states, even for the preservation of order, and a clause of the
Constitution provided that "when one sovereign state of the union shall
be at war with another, or the citizens of any state shall be at war
among themselves, the national government is obligated to preserve the
strictest neutrality." The federal judiciary had no power to decide any
constitutional questions nor could its decisions bind the state
authorities. The national government was deprived of half its revenue
for the benefit of the states, and the receipts of the latter equalled
the federal income. This Constitution remained in force for twenty-two
years, during which civil wars and factional disputes continually racked
Colombia.
[Illustration: POST-OFFICE AT BOGOTA.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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