The Portland daily press., 1867-04-18
The Coup d'Etat i'm Ca,o

President Mosquera, under whose rr
rule the United States of Colombia have ,a,s
ly languished has at last done stroke os
work. Mosquera is the man, who on New
Years day or thereabOut offered to resign his
office, for the singular reason, as reported,
that the people were too immoral and un-
worthy of him." 1t is probable that the report
was erroneous and that Mosquera complained
of the unworthiness, not of the people but of a
refractory Congress with which, like our Mr..
johnson, he had to deal His resignation was
regarded as step preliminary to the inaugur-
alton of civil war, and was not accepted. AT
that time Mosquera had purchased two war
steamers in England and his Minister in the
United States had purchased the r. r. Cuyler,
which was seized In New York on suspicion
Of being Chilian privateer but afterwards re-
leased. The Cuyler was armed with six nine
inch Dahlgrens and two heavy PARROTS, Am
munition was known to have been ordered
from England, and the President had further
more ordered the seizure of all warlike materi-s
ais crossing the Isthmus for the Pacific repub-
lies at war with Spain. Nevertheless he de-
clared the public treasury insolvent and the
country largely indebted to him. refusing to
pay even the expenses of the deputies in Con-
gress assembled. A Congress without pay and
defrauded even of its mileage would naturally
be indignant. Mosquera's favorite plan for
raising revenue is by the confiscation and sale
of the property of the Catholic Church.
Whether the Ways and Means committee of
the Colombian Congress refused to sanction a
new measure OF this kind, without some reason
able security for mileage &c, does not yet ap-
pear. Suffice it to say that the President and
Congress were not happy together, and his res
ignation though rendered was not accepted.
| (. After worrying through two or three unsat.
| isfactory months, Mosquera, who does not ap-
| pear to be bSest with the Mosaic meekness of
| President johnson but has more serviceable
| army ordered his troops to prorogue the
| troublesome Congress. No sooner said than
DONE On the 18th March Congress was beset
while in actual session, distinguished members
from Panama, Choco and the rest making mo-
tions and speeches as il talking were the only
| work worth doing in this busy world. Sixty
| eight of them were clapped in prison, among
| them Manuel Murillo, late President of the
| Republic. The Bolivar had arrived from Eng
land, with 80 tons of gunpowder and 1000 ri
| fes as cargo, at Buenaventura on the Pacific
coast. The r. r. Cuyler, now the Razo, had
arrived at Santa Martha in the Caribbean sea-
| Gen. Level dc Coda, the leader of last years
revolution in Colombia, put himself at the
head of the national troops at Santa Martha,
routed the State troops, deposed the State gov
| ernment, landed the armament of the Razo,
| fortified the town, sailed eastward for Rio
| Hacha, deposed the State government there,
| and so pursued his conquering way, establish
| ing everywhere provisional governments ow-
| ing allegiance to Mosquera and leaving 'peace
and good order" behind him. $3.50 adn af
The net result of the coup d'etat at latest
dates, gives Mosquera undisturbed possession
of Bogota, the capital of the republic; of San
ia Martha and the Magdalena river, the key to
the interior; of Buenaventura and probably
Tumaco on the Pacific coast. In short he has
in his hands all the principal custom houses on
both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, and has
an army and navy at his back to defend them.
The probability is that he will now declare
himself dictator, order new confiscation Of
church property, buy more war vessels and
strengthen his army, with a view to the con-
summation of his grand scheme, long suspect
ed, of reuniting the members of Old Colnm-
bia, creating an empire and founding a dynas-
1 ty. Indeed the order of conquest is thought
to be already arranged. A correspondent of
the New York Tribune wrote from Panama
last February that Mosquera's plan is "first to
attack Venezuela and having subdued this re-
| public to fall upon Ecuador" Whether Chill
Peru and Bolivia will stand quietly by to wit.
ness the execution Of this programme remains
| to be seen. = ----.- - - W.