Vicente Restrepo to Scruggs, April 14, 1885

Mr. Restrepo to Mr. Scruggs.

Mr. Minister: I have received an order from the President of the Republic to manifest to your excellency that the State of Panama is in a perilous situation, viewed with reference to the preservation of order, as well exterior as interior, a situation which threatens the sovereignty of Colombia over that territory, since we find it impossible to send military forces thither with the necessary rapidity; and that the time has arrived for soliciting the intervention of the Government which your excellency worthily represents in accordance with article 35 of the treaty of December 12, 1846, to the end that pending the arrival there of the national troops said Government will undertake to maintain harmless the rights and authority of the Colombian Government in the State of Panama.

In the hope that your excellency will have the goodness to address the Government of the United States upon the subject of this note by the line of telegraph via Buenaventura, now in working Order,

I gladly improve, &c.,