The representatives of the Liberals, Dr. Pablo Arosemena, vice-president
of the Republic, Dr. Belisario Porras, Mr. Eusebio Morales, and General
Domingo Diaz, after reciting the wrongs and injustice which they allege
to have suffered at the last election, requested the Secretary of War to
give them an unequivocal answer to the following four questions:
These gentlemen laid all stress on the danger of unfair means being taken
by the Conservative party to remain in power in spite of a majority of
voters on the side of the Liberals, but returned favorable answers to
all questions concerning the honesty of the administration in other
matters.
I have the honor to inclose translation of this memorial, which appeared
in the Panama Journal of November 8.
[Inclosure.—Translation.]
[From the Panama Journal, November 8, 1905.]
important conference.
Yesterday between the hours of 5.30 and 7 p.m. the directors of the
Liberal party, composed of Messrs. Pablo Arosemena, B. Porras,
Eusebio A. Morales, and General Domingo Diaz, together with the
secretary of the directorate, Dr. Francisco Filos, held an important
conference with the Hon. William H. Taft, Secretary of War of the
United States. The object of this conference was the presentation to
the distinguished representative of the American Government of a
memorandum (treatise, memorial), which we hereinafter publish for
the benefit of our readers.
The directorate was received with the greatest geniality, and after
some conversation on topics affecting the country in general, in
which the Hon. Chas. E. Magoon, governor of the Zone and minister of
the United States to Panama, took an active part, Mr. Taft received
and read the memorial.
He stated in concise terms that no government which, in order to
remain in power, needed to have recourse to fraud and violence at
the polls had the right to exist, and that the American
[Page 717]
Government will not uphold
systems of government which are based on such unlawful
practices.
He expressed his intention to personally present the memorial to
President Amador and to also submit the same to President Roosevelt,
feeling absolutely sure that the latter entertains opinions
identical with his own and will do his best to give us a square
deal.
He volunteered the opinion that this memorial should be widely
published.
The Liberal directorate found themselves in the presence of a man who
merits his fame; a man of absolute integrity; frank, of a clear
intelligence, which at a glance grasps the most complicated
questions; a patriot, and fearless in his political convictions.
Secretary Taft is a man well capacitated to rise to the highest
position in the gift of his country and to honor it, as it was
honored by Washington and Lincoln, and as it is honored to-day by
Theodore Roosevelt.
memorial presented to the hon.
william h. taft, secretary of war of the united states, by the
national directorate of the liberal party of Panama, treating of
the political relationship and ties between the republic of
Panama and the united states.
The diplomatic correspondence, which toward the end of 1903 was
exchanged in Washington between Secretary Hay and Gen. Rafael Reyes,
envoy extraordinary of Colombia, on account of the attitude assumed
by the Government of the United States with regard to the separation
of the department of Panama and its transformation into an
independent republic, demonstrates that the American Government
considered itself bound to maintain the established order of things
and to prevent that interoceanic traffic should be suspended or
impeded by military operations which might convert the territory of
the Isthmus into a battlefield. The position taken by Secretary Hay
was summarized in the following conclusions:
- 1.
- That by the treaty of 1846 the American Union guaranteed
the sovereignty of Colombia over the territory of the
Isthmus in case of attack by another nation.
- 2.
- That this guaranty of neutrality could not be applied in
case of an internal movement on the part of the guaranteed
section, and that if this latter, by its own efforts,
constituted itself into an independent nation she became the
beneficiary of that guaranty as successor in sovereignty of
the territory.
The treaty celebrated on November 18 of that same year (1903)
contains the above doctrine, although in a more concrete form. The
United States thereby guarantees the sovereignty and independence of
Panama. This treaty, whose principal object is to facilitate the
construction of a canal across the Isthmus, was also bound to make
provision for the preservation of public order, so that universal
traffic might not suffer disturbances; and, in fact, this faculty
was allotted to the United States, as shown in the latter part of
Article VII of said treaty, which says:
“Equal right and equal authority is granted to the United States for
the maintenance of public order in the cities of Panama and Colon
and their surrounding territories and bays in the event that in the
judgment of the United States the Republic of Panama should not be
able to maintain it.”
According to this clause the United States is under no obligation
whatever to maintain public order, even in the cities of Panama and
Colon. The treaty gives them the faculty and authority to do so, but
does not impose it upon them as a duty, the fulfillment of which
might be exacted by the other party to the treaty.
Correlative to this clause of the treaty there exists in our
constitution an article—No. 136—which says thus:
“The Government of the United States of America may intervene
anywhere in the Republic of Panama for the reestablishment of
constitutional peace and order if this should be disturbed, provided
that by virtue of public treaty said nation should assume or have
assumed to guarantee the independence and sovereignty of this
Republic.”
This article, as a constitutional provision in the fundamental
charter of a free country, is not worth the paper it is written on,
because it is plain that a constitution can only contain internal
organic rules of state, but not regulations and orders for a foreign
country to comply with.
Nevertheless, and although after a careful analysis made of the canal
treaty and the above constitutional clause we may not arrive at the
conclusion that it be the duty of the United States to maintain
order in this Republic, there are in this country neither citizens
nor political parties who fail to understand that it is the interest
of the United States that public order remain undisturbed at the
terminals of the interoceanic waterway now being constructed, and,
in fact, all through the country.
This in the general consensus of opinion being the accepted
situation, it gives rise to a different line of thought.
II. Public order in a country is the harmonious working of its
institutions. It is the normal state which results from the respect
shown by the government to the individual rights of the people and
from the submission of the latter to the existing laws.
[Page 718]
A government which violates the constitution or the laws, which
attacks or ignores the rights of the citizens, or which in any
manner, directly or indirectly, favors or tolerates such violations
on the part of unscrupulous underlings is not within the bounds of
constitutional order.
If, therefore, to-morrow it should happen that a government should
violate in a flagrant manner the free suffrage, is this or is it not
an act which constitutes an infraction against lawful and
constitutional order?
Should, in the opinion of the illustrious Government of the United
States, the violation of free suffrage on the part of the Panama
Government not be considered an attempt against constitutional
order, what remedy remains there for the people of the Isthmus to
protect their rights and to prevent usurpation of their
sovereignty?
The present government of the country was formed most auspiciously,
with a cabinet composed of members of both political parties, but
since then the Liberal members of the cabinet have joined the ranks
of the other party, so that the government to-day is solely in the
hands of the Conservatives.
Following Colombian customs, the government is getting itself in
readiness to take a hand in the coming elections for congressmen,
and through agents and its own employees it is circulating in the
towns of the interior the threat that it will stop at nothing and
spare no means in order to gain the elections; that it has the
support of the United States and that it will, if necessary, use
high-handed means and force in order to attain its ends. On the
other hand, it has also given notice that if the people of Panama
should resist this usurpation American troops will come to maintain
order and to shoot them down without mercy.
Thus the government wants to place the people of Panama before an
alternative: Either they permit the coming elections to be a farce,
or they offer resistance and thus provoke the intervention of the
United States to maintain order.
We represent the Liberal party, which has an overwhelming majority
all through the country, and as its leaders we deem the time
opportune to state to the government which your excellency
represents that we do not approve of the recourse to arms as a
remedy for political wrongs, but still less do we approve of that
system of violation of free suffrage which it is intended to impose
upon us, invoking the support of the great American nation for this
purpose.
Already in the last elections, held on December 16 last, which were
only of minor importance, we realized to what length the agents of
the government would go.
There are fifty-five municipal districts in the Republic. In some of
them no vote was cast because the mayors (alcaldes) prevented the
notices of the appointment of election juries from reaching their
destination; in others the Liberals were attacked and shot at to
prevent them from casting their ballots; in others the lists of
voters were altered on the night preceding the elections and the
names of the Liberals were stricken out therefrom; in others the
people of the rural districts were intimidated by the police and
forced to cast a vote contrary to their convictions.
The Liberal party won the elections in Panama, the capital, in
Arraijan, Chorrera, Chepo, Pinogana, San Miguel, San Carlos, Capira,
Chame, Anton, Penonome, Nata, Ola, La Pintada, Aguadulce, Chitre,
Pocri, Guarare, Santiago, Canazas, Calobre, Montijo, Rio de Jesus,
Santa Fe, David, Alanje, Bugaba, San Lorenzo, Portobelo, Chagres,
Donoso, and Bastimentos.
After the elections had been won in all these districts the
authorities prevented the counting of the votes in some of them,
withholding the election returns so that they might not, perchance,
fall into the hands of the election committee; in others, after the
results of the election had been declared and the new municipal
councilmen had entered into office, the election judges, without any
lawful grounds on which to base their action, and in the most
outrageous manner, declared the elections null and void, such as the
elections held in the capitals of the Provinces of Code, Veraguas,
and Chiriqui, or, in other words, in the towns of Penonome,
Santiago, and David, and, furthermore, those of the districts of
Aguadulce, Chitre, La Pintada, and Pocri.
If the agents of the government made use of all kinds of artifices,
deceits, violence, and frauds in order to triumph or to avert our
triumph in municipal elections in which only minor interests were at
stake, what would they not be capable of doing when it comes to the
election of congressmen to the National Assembly, the only body that
has the power to pass upon the acts of the ruling government?
III. The fact that public order must not be disturbed, and that in
order to maintain it the Government of the United States may
intervene, being accepted in its principle, by us and by the entire
country, we have deemed it prudent and opportune to present to your
excellency this memorial, which is intended to clearly state the
ideas of the Liberal party of the Isthmus, and the hope it bases on
the spirit of justice and of the equity of the American
Government.
In truth, if the Government of the United States guarantees public
order in the territory of the Republic of Panama, and insures the
constitutional succession of the national officeholders, it is
strictly logical and just that it should also guarantee the
existence of an absolutely lawful system of government, which shall
respect the right of free suffrage, a right which forms the
foundation of the Republic. To admit that the American Government
[Page 719]
guarantees public
order and at the same time indorses the existence of a governing
system of frauds and violence would be to offer unmerited offense to
the country that has held out to us a generous hand, and which with
singular disinterestedness contributes to our progress.
The several questions which we hereby present to your execllency may
be summarized as follows:
- 1.
- Does the American Government guarantee public order and
constitutional succession in office in this Republic?
- 2.
- Is a government which violates the constitution and laws
and attacks the first right of the citizens—the right of
free suffrage—within the pale of such a protection?
- 3.
- Granted the possibility—to us an absolute certainty—that
in the coming elections all manner of outrages will be
committed against the people, will the Government of the
United States look on with indifference at the spectacle of
a defenseless people being cast at the mercy of those who
trample on their rights?
- 4.
- Will it not be preferable for the United States to adopt,
in time, such a course as would prevent their appearing
before the eyes of the world as the champions of outrage and
oppression?
The directorate of the Liberal party requests your excellency to
favor them with a frank answer to these questions and beg to
respectfully point out that a reply expressing the repugnance of the
United States to meddle in the internal affairs of a friendly nation
could not be considered by us in the light of an answer, since our
constitution confers upon your government the right to intervene for
purposes of maintaining constitutional order, and if such faculty is
given to avoid the evils of war it is natural that it also should be
used to suppress the causes which, even contrary to our wishes,
might produce them.
Panama, November 5,
1905.
- Pablo Arosemena.
- B. Porras.
- Eusebio A. Morales.
- H. Patino.
- D. Diaz.
- F. Filos, Secretary.
