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This article examines indultos after the Golpe de Melo of 1854. While the government hoped that these acts of clemency would erase all traces of the rebellion, a flood of appeals for indultos ensured that the post-war reckoning went on longer than the war itself. Drawing on archival and published material documenting this phenomenon, the article documents post-war politics in New Granada. The tension between popular ideals concerning pardonable behavior and the dispassionate constitutionalism promoted by the government documents the limits of the early republican project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Between 1853 and 1885, the governing principle of federalism was practically unquestioned by Colombian elites. Despite the abundant historiography on the period, what federalism meant to different actors, and the politics of its institutionalization, have not been systematically addressed. This article reviews this historiography searching for clues with which to answer these questions. It first describes the gap in the historiography regarding the problem. Then it examines the topic from the perspective of the literature on state formation. Third, it examines the most current explanations regarding the adoption of federalism. The article ends with a discussion of where we stand on the question and offers some perspectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]