United States of Colombia
The radical liberals had won the Colombian Civil War (1860–1862), and created the Constitution of Rionegro promulgated on May 8, 1863.
On February 3, 1863 Congress approved the name United States of Colombia for the country.
The new constitution liberalized social and economic policies, proclaiming the freedom to express one's ideas orally or in written form; freedom to work or to organize any business; freedom of the press; freedom to travel through the territory; to enter or to leave it; freedom of education, freedom of religion, freedom of association, and freedom to possess arms and ammunition.
It established a federal system with a central presidency (presidency of the union) for two years and without the possibility of immediate re-election. The election of the president of the union was indirect: each one of the Nine States (Panama, Antioquia, Magdalena, Bolivar, Santander, Boyacá, Cundinamarca, Tolima and the Cauca) would choose their candidates following particular electoral procedures for each state; then, each one of the nine states would deposit a vote to elect the president of the union. The winning candidate was that who had the absolute majority of votes; if an absolute majority was not obtained, the Congress would choose him from the same group of candidates.
Under this decentralized regime, regionalistic feelings reached their ultimate expression.
On May 12, four days after having proclaimed the constitution, the 61 delegates chose Tomás Cipriano de Mosquera to govern for two years until April 1, 1864, the moment at which the new regulations to name a president would start. Mosquera had the anticlerical tone of liberalism, and the conservatives a pro-clerical tone that would continue for many decades.
Read more about this topic: Constitutional History Of Colombia, The Constitution of 1863
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