4th. To take cognizance of all actions for responsibility against the Governors, Presidents, Superior Officers and the Judges of the superior tribunals of the States, for infraction of the Constitution and laws of the Union.

5th. To take cognizance of all actions for responsibility incurred by generals and commanders-in-chief of the national forces, and against the superior officers of the principal offices of the Treasury department of the Union.

6th. To decide upon all questions arising between the States themselves, or between one or more States and the General Government of the Union, about competence of powers, property, limits, and all other disputed matters.

7th. To take cognizance of all disputed matters relating to maritime prizes, the contravention by national or foreign vessels of legal enactments regarding the foreign or the coasting trade, or of the formalities to be observed in the national ports, or concerning the regulations relating to maritime navigation, and to the navigation of such rivers as water the territory of more than one State, or pass on to that of a neighbouring nation.

8th. To take cognizance of all controversies which may arise regarding the contracts or agreements which the Government of the Union may enter into with the States or with private individuals; and in last resort, of all questions in which the stipulations of public Treaties have to be applied.

9th. To take cognizance of the controversies that arise relative to inter-oceanic communications through the territory of the Union, and the security of transit by the same.

10th. To take cognizance of all disputes arising relative to the property or revenue of the Union.

11th. To adjust any competition that may arise between the tribunals and courts of different States, between the tribunals and courts of one or more States and the tribunals of the Union, or between two or more of the latter tribunals.

12th. To appoint the subaltern officers of the court itself, and remove them at pleasure.

13th. To give all the information which the Legislative Chambers, the President of the Union, or the Attorney-General may require from it, relative to the matters of which it takes cognizance.

14th. To declare what Acts of the National Congress, or of the Executive Power of the Union have been annulled by a majority of the State legislatures; and

15th. To exercise whatever other functions the law may determine respecting the matters within the competence of the General Govern

ment.

LXXII. The Supreme Court has the power of suspending by a

unanimous vote, on the demand of the Attorney-General or of any citizen, the execution of the Legislative Acts of the State Assemblies, in so far as such Acts may be contrary to the Constitution or the laws of the Union, reporting in all cases to the Senate, in order that that body may definitively decide upon the validity or nullity of the said Acts.

CHAP. IX.-Public Ministry.

LXXIII. The duties of the Public Ministry are performed by the Chamber of Representatives, by a functionary denominated "Attorney-General of the Nation," and by such other functionaries as the law may determine.

LXXIV. The attributions of the Public Ministry are:

1st. To see that all the public functionaries in the service of the Union punctually fulfil their duties.

2nd. To accuse before the Senate or the Supreme Federal Court all public functionaries under the jurisdiction of those corporations; and,

3rd. To discharge whatever other functions the law may assign to it.

CHAP. X.-Elections.

LXXV. The election of the President of the Union is to be made by the vote of the States, each State having one vote, which shall be that of the relative majority of its respective electors according to its own legislation. The Congress shall declare as elected President, the citizen who may have obtained the absolute majority of the votes of the States. Should no one have obtained that majority, the Congress shall make the election from among the persons who may have obtained the largest number of votes.

§. The citizen who may have exercised the Presidency cannot be re-elected for the ensuing Presidential period.

LXXVI. The election of Judges of the Supreme Federal Court shall be made in the following manner :

The Legislature of each State shall send to the Congress a list of persons equal in number to the vacancies to be filled, and the Congress shall declare as elected the 5 who have the largest number of votes, and who fulfil the conditions laid down in Article LXX. All cases of equal numbers shall be decided by lot.

CHAP. XI.-Sundry Enactments.

LXXVII. The High Federal Powers shall reside in such place or places as the law shall determine.

LXXVIII. The territories thinly populated or inhabited by tribes of aborigines which the State or States to which they belong may cede to the general Government, for the purpose of promoting

colonization, or for making material improvements, shall be governed by a special law.

§. As soon as a territory contains a civilized population amounting to 3,000 inhabitants, it shall send a commissioner to the Chamber of Representatives, who shall have vote and voice in the discussion of all laws relating to the territories, and voice but no vote in the laws of general interest. When the number of civilized inhabitants reaches 20,000, the territory shall send, in lieu of the commissioner, a Deputy with voico and vote in all discussions; and for more than 50,000 inhabitants, it shall send the number of Deputies to which it may be entitled agreeably to Article XXXVIII of this Constitution.

LXXIX. The period of office of the President of the United States, and of the Senators and Representatives, shall be two years.

LXXX. The period of office of the Judges of the Supreme Federal Court shall be four years; and that of the AttorneyGeneral two years.

LXXXI. The President of the Union, his Secretaries of State, the Attorney-General and the Judges of the Supreme Federal Court, can none of them be elected Senators or Representatives.

LXXXII. The persons in the public service who are removable by the President of the Union lose their situations by accepting the office of Senator or Representative.

LXXXIII. The persons in the public service who are removable by the President of the Union likewise vacate their places two months after the elected takes possession of office, agreeably to this Constitution.

LXXXIV. No tax, contribution, or national impost shall be levied which is not expressly included in the estimates which Congress is to issue annually.

LXXXV. No disbursement shall be made out of the National Treasury of any sum not expressly voted by Congress, nor to a larger amount than that specified.

LXXXVI. The salary of the President of the Union, of the Senators and Representatives, of the Attorney-General of the Nation, and of the Judges of the Supreme Federal Court, cannot be augmented or diminished during the period for which the persons may have been elected who fill those offices at the time when any augmentation or diminution may be made.

LXXXVII. The Judges of the Supreme Federal Court, and the Judges of the other national tribunals and courts cannot be suspended except by virtue of an accusation legally made and admitted, nor deprived except in consequence of a judicial sentence given according to the laws.

LXXXVIII. All Columbians are prohibited from accepting any office, insignia, title, or salary from foreign Governments without the permission of Congress. Whoever contravenes the tenor of this Article shall forfeit the character of Columbian citizen.

LXXXIX. All public functionaries and corporations are prohibited from exercising any function or authority not expressly conferred upon them.

XC. The Executive Government will initiate negotiations with the Governments of Venezuela and Equator for the voluntary union of the 3 sections of ancient Columbia in a common nationality, under the republican, democratic, and federal form, analogous to that established by the present Constitution, and to be specified in due time by a general constituent Assembly.

XCI. The law of nations forms part of the national legislation. Its provisions shall especially rule in cases of civil war; consequently, such wars may be terminated by means of Treaties between the belligerents, who must observe the humane practices of Christian and civilized nations.

CHAP. XII.-Reform.

XCII. The present Constitution may be totally or partially reformed with the following formalities:

1st. That the reform be solicited by a majority of the State Legislatures.

2nd. That the reform be discussed and approved in both Chambers, in accordance with the rules established for the enactment of laws; and,

3rd. That the reform be ratified by the unanimous vote of the Senate of Plenipotentiaries, each State having a vote.

It may likewise be reformed by a Convention convoked by Congress for that purpose, at the request of all the State Legislatures, and composed of an equal number of Deputies for each State.

CHAP. XIII.-Rule.

XCIII. The present Constitution shall come into force from the date of its official publication, if it obtains the unanimous ratification of the Deputies of the States assembled in this Convention, as representatives of the sovereignty of the States. Should the deputation from any State refuse to ratify it, the Constitution shall not be binding upon the State that it represents; and that State shall definitively make known its will through its Legislative Assembly.

§. Should the said Assembly come to no resolution on the subject during its next session, or should it not meet within 3 months [1862-63. LIII.]

X

after the present Constitution shall have been received in the capital of the State, it shall be considered as accepted in the same manner as it has been by the other States.

Given at Rio Negro, this 8th day of May, 1863.

The President, Deputy for the Sovereign State of
Panama, JUSTO AROSEMENA.
The Vice-President, Deputy for the Sovereign State
of Cauca, JULIAN TRUJILLO.

[Here follow the signatures of Deputies from 62 States and Districts.]

TRANSITORY CONSTITUTIONAL ACT.-Rio Negro, May 8, 1863. (Translation.)

THE NATIONAL CONVENTION,

In the name and by the authority of the people and of the United States of Columbia which it represents, has agreed to decree the following Transitory Constitutional Act.

ART. I. The popular elections for President, Senators, and Representatives, shall take place in the present year, in order that the first Constitutional Congress may be installed on the 1st of February, 1864, before which Congress the new President shall assume office on the 1st of April.

II. The General Government shall continue its relations with friendly nations by means of those diplomatic agents who present new credentials, and it shall furnish the same to the agents of the Republic abroad, after the sanctioning of the Constitution, and with the consent of the Convention.

III. The first constitutional President of the United States of Columbia shall be elected by the Convention, and hold office until the 1st of April, 1864, when the President to be elected in conformity with Article LXXV of the Constitution, is to take office.

IV. The Supreme Federal Court, composed of the 3 judges now in office, and also the Attorney-General, shall continue in the exercise of their functions until the 1st of April next, when the new functionaries to be elected according to the Constitution take office.

V. The Convention shall exercise during the present session all the functions which, by the Constitution, appertain to the Congress and to each of the Chambers thereof.

VI. The Legislatures of the States shall vote in the present year, at their first meeting, for Judges of the Supreme Federal Court, so that the next Congress may enter into the scrutiny and declare the election. The citizens elected shall take office on the 1st of April, 1861.