The insurrection had been undertaken for the purpose of defending the 1863 Constitution, and its defeat meant the destruction of departmental independence. As the logical and natural result of his victory, the president proclaimed the abolishment of the Constitution and summoned a convention to adopt a new one. Thenceforward until his death ten years later Rafael Nunez and his political ideas were supreme in Colombia, and Panama was held in the most rigid subjection. The old "United States of Colombia" was replaced by the "Republic of Columbia," one and indivisible; the departments became mere administrative divisions whose governors were appointed from Bogota; the presidential term was increased to six years; the radical liberal projects were abandoned; the clergy regained many of their privileges; and the historical conservatives continued the dominant party. As long as Nunez lived there were few outbreaks and no serious civil war, though the ousted liberals never ceased to plot the government's overthrow. The centralising system held the departments in a rigid control from whose inconveniences Panama suffered far more than the mountain districts. Practically she was allowed no voice in either her own or general affairs; the very delegates who nominally represented her in the constitutional convention of 1885 were residents of Bogota appointed by Nunez; military rule became a permanent thing on the Isthmus; all officials were strangers sent from the Andean plateau; and the million dollars of taxes wrung each year from the people of Panama were spent on maintaining the soldiers who kept them in subjection. In January, 1895, the harassed province broke out in a rebellion which was suppressed by an overwhelming force of Colombian troops in April.