This or a similar project was brought before the thirty-sixth Congress of
the United States at its second session.
Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State, Washington, D. C.
B.
[Translation.]
Contract between the United States of
Colombia and the Chiriqui Improvement Company.
T. C. de Mosquera, great general of the Union, general-in-chief of
the Colombian guard, senator, envoy extraordinary and minister
plenipotentiary near her Britannic Majesty, in the name of the
government of the United States of Colombia, of the one part, and
Ambrose W. Thompson, in the name of the Chiriqui Improvement
Company, of the other part, have entered into the following
contract:
Article I. When the Chiriqui Improvement
Company shall have completed the railroad across the district of
Bocas del Jore and Costa Rica, from the Atlantic to the Pacific
ocean, the company shall establish, if the government of the United
States of Colombia require it, a line of steamers between the
terminus of the railroad on the Atlantic and Santa Martha, touching
at Colon (Aspinwall) and Carthagena and such other ports as the
government may designate. The company shall also establish under the
same conditions another line of steamers between the terminus of the
road on the Pacific and the port of Buenaventura, touching at such
other ports as the government may require. Each boat must make at
least two round trips every month, with intervals of not less than
ten days between trips; and when other vessels of the company shall
make weekly voyages between the Atlantic terminus of the road and
the United States of America, the trips of the boats of said line
running. between said terminus and Santa Martha, the arrival and
departure of the latter vessels shall be so regulated as to connect
with the former.
Art. II. The company shall receive for the
service named in the foregoing article the whole of the postage on
the mail matter which it may carry on said line. The rates of
postage and manner of collecting it shall be fixed by the government
of the United States of Colombia, and to this end may keep its
agents on board the vessels, if it shall see proper to do so. If the
company shall so elect it may perform this mail service before the
completion of the railroad.
Art. III. The steamers of said line must be
capable of carrying at least four cannons of heavy calibre, or a
single breech-loading rifled one in place of the four. The vessels
thus armed may be put into the government service of the United
States of Colombia in case of war, and whenever said government may
require their services. In such case the government will pay to the
company either the values of the vessels or an equivalent for their
use. If the government and the company cannot agree upon the sum to
be paid, each will name an arbitrator, and these two a third, in
case they do not agree, and their decision shall be final.
Art. IV. In consideration of the
establishment of the aforementioned line of steamers, the government
of the United States of Colombia grants to the Chiriqui Improvement
Company the unappropriated lands which it may need for colonization
in the districts of Bocas del Jore and Alauje; and consequently it
shall have the right to make such use of said lands as it may deem
proper, for making improvements on them, constructing roads and
edifices for the colonies that it may establish.
[Page 542]
Art. V. If the company should construct a
railroad or Mac Adam wheel road over the lands mentioned in the
preceding article, before the establishment of colonies, and
preparatory to their establishment, it shall be entitled to a belt
of land along the sides of such road, amounting to 60,000 hectares.
The lands shall be laid off into lots of 400 square hectares
parallel to the road, the company and government being entitled to
alternate lots. The expense of surveying the lands and of making it
appear that they are unappropriated shall be borne by the
company.
Art. VI. Not less than one thirty-fifth
part of the lot of each colony shall be reserved and administered by
commissioners appointed by the government, and the whole of the
income or products of the same shall be applied to the establishment
and maintenance of public schools for the education of the children
of the colony.
Art. VII. If at any time the capital of the
republic of the United States of Colombia shall be removed to the
State of Panama, the Chiriqui Improvement Company binds itself, the
railroad being completed from the Atlantic to the Pacific through
the district of Bocas del Jore and part of the territory of the
republic of Costa Rica, to pay the sum of $250,000 towards the
construction of the necessary edifices for the general government of
the Union.
Art. VIII. The company also binds itself to
carry gratuitously over its road and on its boats all persons in the
service of the United States of Colombia, the members of congress,
and also all the elements of war which it may be necessary to
transport by them to preserve security from abroad or internal
order.
Art. IX. With the approbation of this
contract by congress, the said company is recognized as an
association complete and national for the purpose of establishing
lines of steamers with the right to carry the flag and entitled to
the rights and privileges proper to such associations, and as a
society or company for the improvement and colonization of
unappropriated lands, whose colonists shall enjoy all the
privileges, exemptions and guarantees granted by the laws to new
immigrants. So, also, will the company be recognized as a
corporation or artificial body to act by its attorneys, agents, and
directors, under the name and style of the Chiriqui Improvement
Company, with which title said company was formed in Philadelphia
and recognized by the acts of the legislature (of Pennsylvania
perhaps) of April 27 and May 6, 1854, and May 3, 1855.
Art. X. Said company, or civil industrial
corporation, shall have power to make by-laws for the good order and
management of its affairs and colonization in all matters not
affecting the authority of the nation or of the States; but when
said by-laws shall relate to general interests they must be approved
by the national government, and when to special interests of
internal order and police, by the government of the State of Panama,
in which State the road is to be constructed until it enters the
territory of the Republic of Costa Rica.
Art. XI. Said company shall have power to
issue bonds or certificates representing its capital, as may be
determined by law.
Art. XII. Said company, at its first or
subsequent sessions, shall appoint from among its members nine
directors, five of whom shall constitute a quorum, to transact
business, and the acts of the majority of which shall be binding.
Their term of office shall be fixed by the by-laws of the
company.
Art. XIII. If doubts or differences shall
arise between the national government, or that of the State of
Panama, and the Chiriqui Improvement Company, as to the fulfilment
of this contract, such questions shall be decided by a convention,
(arbitration;) and if this cannot take place by the national or
State judiciary, in accordance, with the rules prescribed by the
constitution of Colombia and in no case shall rights or exemptions
or protection from a foreign government be claimed, because citizens
or subjects of another nation may be interested in the company, and
the infringement of this provision shall ipso
facto annul this contract.
Art. XIV. If this contract shall not be
carried into effect during the year 1867, the fact of such failure
in itself will render it void. That is to say, if within the year
1867 the company shall not be fully organized and the construction
of a railroad from Chiriqui to Costa Rica, and the navigation by
steamers between Colombia and the United States of America, or
between the ports of the Atlantic and Pacific as before specified,
this contract shall be ipso facto void.
Done in
London
March 3,
1866, in the Colombian legation, No. 38, Lancaster
Gate.
T. C. DE MOSQUERA.
A. W. THOMPSON.
