direction such matters are properly entrusted; but under present circumstances, in which dangers are pressing, and in which it would be difficult to meet them successfully without some immediate Authority to regulate and direct the necessary movements and operations, such Authority shall be for the present delegated to the respective Governments; with the express understanding, however, that the said Governments shall, in cases where the necessity is not urgent, render an account to, and await the orders of, Congress, and in all other cases make their Reports within a reasonable time.

XIV. The above provisions respecting the Land Forces must be understood as applying to those of the Sea, as well as to all warlike Establishments, whose direction, organization, and appointment of Officers of every rank, as well as the construction of Arsenals and fortified Harbours, and the building and arming of Ships of War, belong exclusively to the authority of Congress: they shall, however, remain for the present under the immediate inspection of the respective Governments, subject to the restrictions and limitations already mentioned.

XV. The Congress shall have the power of assigning to each of the Provinces the number of Militia which it ought to contribute towards the common defence; and this quota shall be regulated by the circumstances in which the said Province is placed, with respect to the Enemy, its resources of this description, and the number of its Population. The Province shall cause them to march, fully clothed, armed and equipped, within the time prescribed, and to the place appointed; but the expenses incurred from the time of their entering the service of the Union shall be paid out of the Common Treasury, precisely as is directed with respect to the Regular Troops. The Officers of both these descriptions of Troops, up to the rank of Colonel inclusive, shall be appointed by the Provinces; but from that rank upwards their appointment shall rest with the Congress, more especially that of the Commanders or Generals in Chief of any Expedition.

XVI. The Provinces shall provide themselves as quickly as possible with the necessary arms,-muskets, sabres, &c., to the use of which their Population is accustomed, or in which they are in future to be duly trained and exercised, and more especially with cannon, battering trains, and field guns, and the requisite ammunition, all of which shall be kept ready for service in magazines and store-houses.

XVII. For the same purpose, no time shall be lost in disciplining the said Troops, in forming them into Corps and Companies according to the extent of the Population, and in exercising them once or twice in every week, (principally on holydays, after attending Mass at their respective Parishes,) an occupation which, independently of its utility for the Country, and for the Men themselves, in withdrawing [1812-14.] 3 Z

them from other pursuits not equally healthy, may in the present day be considered as most acceptable in the eyes of the Divinity, inasmuch as they will be employed for the defence of their native land, of their dearest rights, and of the menaced religion of their Forefathers: a truth which should be particularly impressed upon their Parishioners by the Priests appointed by the Civil Law, except when, as is hardly to be expected, this sacred duty shall have been spontaneously performed.

XVI. The Congress shall have the power of making and issuing the orders and regulations, whether general or particular, which are requisite for the direction and government of the Land and Sea Forces during the time they are on foot; the same power shall also extend to the Militias of all the Provinces, the latter being entrusted with the care of instructing and disciplining them in conformity with. those orders, to the end that under any circumstances, one uniform system throughout the Armies of the Union may be depended upon. But upon the cessation of the state of War in which the Country is now actually engaged, no Province shall maintain any Regular Troops, or Ships of War, except such as may be absolutely necessary for the protection of the Frontiers, the garrisoning of Fortresses and the protection of commerce; and these Troops must be at the disposal of, and subject to, the authority of Congress.

XIX. Such Ports and Provinces of New Granada as still groan under the oppression of their ancient Tyrants, shall be the first objects of the tender and protective solicitude of the Congress; the former being secured from all external invasion, and the latter freed from the chains with which they are now ignominiously bound, in order that, the yoke being shaken off, and the open expression of their will secured to them, they may form themselves into so many free and independent Governments, similar to those of which this Union is now so happily composed.

XX. But as nothing of this kind can be effected, without a National Fund or Common Treasury, sufficient to meet the great expenses which are required for the salvation of the Country and for the common security, at a period when we have to contend with Enemies both at home and abroad, or with such at least as prudence bids us to fear, and when the more effectually to avoid or vanquish them, it is necessary that we should be fore-armed; the Congress shall have the power to impose Taxes, levy Contributions, or fix Duties, upon all such objects and materials as are in general request, and are not peculiar or exclusive to any Province in particular, and also to allot quotas, or extraordinary contingents to each of the said Provinces, in the ratio of its Population, and other circumstances, and invariably in a just and equitable proportion. These quotas or contingents shall be levied and received by the respective Boards, Juntas, or Governments, without

excuse or denial; the said Boards, Juntas, or Governments being held responsible to the other Provinces for whatever evils the said Commission may cause, and subject to such measures as the Congress shall, in its wisdom, think fit to adopt, in order to enforce the payment of the said quota or contingent, or to secure it in any other way, at the expense of the Province so failing in, or being neglectful of, its duty.

XXI. In virtue, therefore, of these principles, and considering as homogeneous the Custom-house Duties of the Ports, Citadels, or Frontier Towns, in which places only the said Duties could have any relation with Foreign commerce; considering also that the said Duties are either directly or indirectly exacted from all the Provinces of the Union, into which the articles of merchandise which enter the Country by the said Ports or Frontier Towns are introduced, circulated, and consumed; the Custom-house Duties and whatever is derived therefrom shall belong to the common weal, and shall constitute one of the Funds of the Confederation; and the said Ports, Citadels, or Frontier Towns shall not therefore hinder or obstruct Foreign commerce, (under which term is to be understood even that of Spain, or of the Ports of the Spanish Peninsula, the Isles adjacent, and other States, Kingdoms, Provinces, Islands or Continents of America which form no part of New Granada,) by fresh Duties, or any kind of obstacles which may be prejudicial to the public good, and which shall not have been already established, approved, and decreed by the General Congress.

XXII. To the common Fund of the Congress also belong the proceeds of the Mints now in the Kingdom itself, as well as those of all others which may be hereafter established in any of the Provinces of the Union; and to it alone belongs the right of coining money, fixing the standard, and assigning the value. In consequence of this principle, the 2 existing Mints of Santafé and Popayan shall be forthwith placed under the direct and exclusive authority of the Congress ; and all their proceeds shall be at its disposal.

XXIII. To the liberality of the Provinces is left the disposal of those Common Lands which lie within the known and inhabited limits of their Territories, and which at some future day, by the settlement and naturalization of Foreigners, or the increase of the Population, may be productive of a considerable income to the Congress; but the Congress will consider as indisputably belonging to it, all such as may at present be considered as waste, or having no Owner or Owners, on account of their being uninhabited, and beyond the known limits of the said Provinces, although comprehended under the general demarkation of the Kingdom and the Boundary Lines which divide them from other Powers and States, or ancient Viceroyalties; such as those which are watered by the Amazon, Napo, Putumayo, Caqueta, Guaviari, and other Rivers which discharge themselves either into the first-mentioned

stream, or into the vast Orinoco, and on the banks of which, in process of time, will be established new Nations which may form part of this Union, and on which it behoves us at least to maintain Frontier Towns, that shall separate and divide us from the neighbouring Nations which now occupy the Eastern Coast of South America.

XXIV. The wandering Tribes, or Nations of Wild Indians, which are located or established within the said Territories, shall not on this account be molested or suffer the least annoyance or persecution; on the contrary they shall be respected as legitimate and ancient Proprietors, and shall have extended to them the benefits of civilization and religion, through the medium of commerce, and all other conciliatory means suggested by reason and dictated by Christian charity, and which alone become a civilized and cultivated People: such are the measures to be adopted towards those Tribes, unless indeed their hostilities should compel us to pursue another course.

XXV. For the same reason, we may enter into Treaties and Negotiations with such Tribes upon these subjects, protecting their rights with that spirit of humanity and philosophy which is required by their present state of imbecility, and by a consideration of the evils, which, without our participation or connivance, may have been caused to them by their Conquerors.

XXVI. But if within the known limits of the Provinces, or between those of one Province and another, there should be Tribes of this description already established, who might conveniently form part of this Union, or of the Provinces themselves, more especially if they be not weighed down by an ignominious Tribute, nor by a cruel and despotic Government, like that which has oppressed their Brethren for 300 years; such Tribes or Nations shall be invited and attracted by mild and friendly overtures, such, for instance, as those afforded by Treaty and by commerce, to associate themselves with us; their religion being considered no obstacle thereto, since that must inevitably sooner or later yield to truth, convinced as these Heathens must then be, by the light of reason and by the doctrines of that Gospel to which they are at present strangers.

XXVII. The Congress may also consider, as forming one of its Funds, any Mine of the precious metals which is not, as yet, the property of any Province in particular, or which any such Province may voluntarily cede to the Union, or which the latter shall acquire and purchase with its own funds, in order to work it for the advantage and profit of the State, as is now the practice in all those Governments which are able by this means to lighten the burdens, whether direct or indirect, of their People; an advantage which is still further increased by the honest means afforded by these establishments for the employment and occupation of great numbers of the Population.

XXVIII. In like manner shall be considered as belonging to

Congress the establishment of any large Manufactory or invention, more particularly any for the support or working of which the resources of the Province are inadequate. But in this, as in the former case (that of Mines), the Union shall take especial care not to engage in projects which too often have in them more of show and ostentation than of real utility, or which are calculated for other times than the present. The contents, therefore, of these 2 Articles (the XXVIIth and XXVIIIth) will be chiefly to convince the Provinces that the Taxes now raised are only temporary, that their condition will one day be ameliorated, and that when we can calmly devote ourselves to the furtherance of the common good, without exacting from the Provinces burdensome impositions, all the resources of the State, and all the cares of a paternal Government, will flow in one large stream for their general benefit and prosperity.

XXIX. If, notwithstanding these measures, the Union shall not succeed in covering the expenses of the State, which is certainly under existing circumstances impossible, the Congress shall devise and carry into effect whatever plans it may judge expedient, such as borrowing money upon its funds and revenues, the issue of paper money, or any other expedients which necessity, the urgency of the moment, and the decided resolution of the Provinces to establish and preserve their freedom may suggest, allow, and require to be accomplished, in order to obtain so inestimable a good.

XXX. When the difficulties in which we are involved shall have been removed or surmounted, and when safe and triumphant, the state of the Nation shall enable the Congress to direct its attention to its internal welfare, its first care shall be to employ its funds in introducing into the Country the arts and sciences with which we are unacquainted, in promoting agriculture, facilitating commerce, opening canals of communication, rendering rivers navigable, and widening, shortening, and improving the public roads; in short, in procuring for this happy land all the benefits, and all the good which it may be within our power to secure, benefits which will be hailed by future Generations as the fruit of those anxious cares to which we have devoted ourselves for the sake of our beloved Country.

XXXI. But besides the matters already considered, namely, such as relate to the defence of the Union and the resources upon which we may reckon, there are others which equally belong to Congress, as well from their common nature, the general interest of the Provinces, and the Sovereign authority possessed by Congress alone, for regulating or administering them, as the great representative Body of the Nation these matters shall be explained, defined, and made known in the following Articles.

XXXII. The proceeds from the Post Office, and its subordinate. branches, such as the Posting Houses (Postas) and Money Offices (Encomiendas), equally belong to the Congress, and this, less on