e Diego Paredes was received as charge d'affaires of the
Republic of New Granada. On the 20th of June, 1855, General Pedro
Alcantara Herran was again received as envoy extraordinary and minister
plenipotentiary, duly accredited by the Republic of New Granada, and he
has ever since remained, under the same credentials, as the
representative of that Republic near the Government of the United
States. On the 10th of September, 1857, a claims convention was
concluded between the United States and the Republic of Granada. This
convention is still in force, and has in part been executed. In May,
1858, the constitution of the Republic was remodeled, and the nation
assumed the political title of "The Granadian Confederacy." This fact
was formally announced to this Government, but without any change in
their representative here. Previously to the 4th day of March, 1861, a
revolutionary war against the Republic of New Granada, which had thus
been recognized and treated with by the United States, broke out in New
Granada, assuming to set up a new government under the name of "The
United States of Colombia." This war has had various vicissitudes,
sometimes favorable, sometimes adverse, to the revolutionary movements.
The revolutionary organization has hitherto been simply a military
provisionary power, and no definitive constitution of government has yet
been established in New Granada in place of that organized by the
constitution of 1858. The minister of the United States to the Granadian
Confederacy, who was appointed on the 29th day of May, 1861, was
directed, in view of the occupation of the capital by the revolutionary
party and of the uncertainty of the civil war, not to present his
credentials to either the Government of the Granadian Confederacy or to
the provisional military Government, but to conduct his affairs
informally, as is customary in such cases, and to report the progress of
events and await the instructions of this Government. The advices which
have been received from him have not hitherto been sufficiently
conclusive to determine me to recognize the revolutionary Government.
General Herran being here, with full authority from the Government of
New Granada, which had been so long recognized by the United States, I
have not received any representative from the revolutionary Government,
which has not yet been recognized, because such a proceeding would in
itself be an act of recognition.

Official communications h