WASHINGTON, _January 14, 1863_.
_To the House of Representatives_:
The Secretary of State has submitted to me a resolution of the House of
Representatives of the 5th instant, which has been delivered to him, and
which is in the following words:
_Resolved_, That the Secretary of State be requested to communicate
to this House, if not in his judgment incompatible with the public
interest, why our minister in New Granada has not presented his
credentials to the actual Government of that country; also the reasons
for which Señor Murillo is not recognized by the United States as the
diplomatic representative of the Mosquera Government of that country;
also what negotiations have been had, if any, with General Herran, as
the representative of Ospina's Government in New Granada, since it
went into existence.
On the 12th day of December, 1846, a treaty of amity, peace, and concord
was concluded between the United States of America and the Republic of
New Granada, which is still in force. On the 7th day of December, 1847,
General Pedro Alcántara Herran, who had been duly accredited, was
received here as the envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of
that Republic. On the 30th day of August, 1849, Señor Don Rafael Rivas
was received by this Government as chargé d'affaires of the same
Republic. On the 5th day of December, 1851, a consular convention was
concluded between that Republic and the United States, which treaty was
signed on behalf of the Republic of Granada by the same Señor Rivas.
This treaty is still in force. On the 27th of April, 1852, Señor Don
Victoriano de Diego Paredes was received as chargé d'affaires of the
Republic of New Granada. On the 20th of June, 1855, General Pedro
Alcántara Herran was again received as envoy extraordinary and minister
plenipotentiary, duly accredited by the Republic of New Granada, and he
has ever since remained, under the same credentials, as the
representative of that Republic near the Government of the United
States. On the 10th of September, 1857, a claims convention was
concluded between the United States and the Republic of Granada. This
convention is still in force, and has in part been executed. In May,
1858, the constitution of the Republic was remodeled, and the nation
assumed the political title of "The Granadian Confederacy." This fact
was formally announced to this Government, but without any change in
their representative here. Previously to the 4th day of March, 1861, a
revolutionary war against the Republic of New Granada, which had thus
been recognized and treated with by the United States, broke out in New
Granada, assuming to set up a new government under the name of "The
United States of Colombia." This war has had various vicissitudes,
sometimes favorable, sometimes adverse, to the revolutionary movements.
The revolutionary organization has hitherto been simply a military
provisionary power, and no definitive constitution of government has yet
been established in New Granada in place of that organized by the
constitution of 1858. The minister of the United States to the Granadian
Confederacy, who was appointed on the 29th day of May, 1861, was
directed, in view of the occupation of the capital by the revolutionary
party and of the uncertainty of the civil war, not to present his
credentials to either the Government of the Granadian Confederacy or to
the provisional military Government, but to conduct his affairs
informally, as is customary in such cases, and to report the progress of
events and await the instructions of this Government. The advices which
have been received from him have not hitherto been sufficiently
conclusive to determine me to recognize the revolutionary Government.
General Herran being here, with full authority from the Government of
New Granada, which had been so long recognized by the United States, I
have not received any representative from the revolutionary Government,
which has not yet been recognized, because such a proceeding would in
itself be an act of recognition.
Official communications have been had on various incidental and
occasional questions with General Herran as the minister plenipotentiary
and envoy extraordinary of the Granadian Confederacy, but in no other
character. No definitive measure or proceeding has resulted from these
communications, and a communication of them at present would not, in my
judgment, be compatible with the public interest.