José Ma Castro to Don Salvador Gallegos and Hon. Don Delfino Sanchez, February 19, 1883

Extract from the Official Gazette of Guatemala of April 12, 1883.

Hon. Messrs.: I have had the honor to receive the very important note of your excellencies dated the 15th instant, and informing me that the tranquillity and other favorable conditions in which the Republics of Central America are to-day situated for uniting under a common government, which is demanded by their great interests and the promising future to which their destinies call them, have inspired in the cabinets of Guatemala and Salvador the noble thought of attempting the said union, for which purpose, your excellencies being accredited to the other Central American Governments, with your present character, have obtained from those of Honduras and Nicaragua the promise to concur, each one, by means of five delegates, to a congress of plenipotentiaries, which is to meet in March next, in the city of Santa Tecla or Ahuachapan, to discuss and sign the projects of the general constitution and other organic laws conducive to the grand end indicated; and that you invite my Government to the same concurrence.

This communication, so pleasing from its origin, and interesting from the magnitude of its object, being brought to the notice of the President of this Republic, he has given me instructions to answer it in the following terms.

The union of the Central American Republics, under a compact which shall perfectly provide for all time the constant equilibrium necessary to make it just, profitable, and durable, is a thing demanded by the nature, the history, the future aggrandizement, the respectability, and the good name of Central America.

Impartial Costa Ricans so recognize it, and immediately with the same pleasure with which the Governments of Honduras and Nicaragua have promised to send their delegates to the congress, whose mission is limited to discussing and signing the projects of the general constitution and organic laws to be proposed for the political reorganization of Central America, that of Costa Rica responding also to the fraternal call of those of Guatemala and Salvador, promises to send, together with the delegates of Nicaragua, the five corresponding to it.

It also takes pleasure in promising the Governments that your excellencies worthily represent, that the said projects being received, it will give account of them to the legislative power of this Republic, to the end that it may determine by its high judgment and patriotism what it may think best, in accordance with the legal prescriptions, and keeping in view, as no doubt it will do, the particular convenience of the country and the general interests of Central America.

In thus answering your excellencies I have, &c.,