Office of the Historian

Mr. Koerner to Mr. Seward.

No. 107.]
Legation of the United States, Madrid, June 28, 1864.

Sir:Some days ago Mr. Moreira, the consul of Peru at Madrid, handed me a memorandum of certain propositions made by the Spanish government to that of Peru to be transmitted by him to his government. Mr. Moreira told me at the same time of Mr. Pacheco’s having informed him that I would be furnished with a copy of the memorandum for communication to my government. I have not yet received it, but have ascertained that such a copy has been ordered to be made, and to be sent to me, but, owing to the customary delay in the different bureaus here, it has not yet reached me. I enclose a translated copy.

I confess that those propositions do not entirely correspond with the conciliatory language held to me by Mr. Pacheco on previous occasions, nor even with his speech in the Cortes. They are not in form, nor in substance, such as will, in my humble opinion, secure at once a peaceable settlement. They are conceived in a spirit which seems to take it for granted that Peru has committed a series of wrongs, and that the conduct of Spain, or rather her agents, is wholly immaculate.

It appears right enough for Spain to demand that Peru should disavow its complicity with the alleged attempts on Mr. Salazar’s life, and that this avowal should precede all further negotiations; but whether the Spanish government may insist that this should be done by a special commissioner to be sent for that express purpose to Madrid is quite a different question. It seems to me that the manner in which to make the disavowal ought to have been left to the choice of Peru.

Again, this avowal having been made, should not the formal reception of the Spanish commissioner (assurances of such reception being previously given by [Page 88] Peru) be preceded by a restoration of the islands? or if Spain objects to that, should not the acts of reception and delivery be at the least simultaneous?

It seems to me, also, but right that Admiral Pinzon should be relieved from command; nor can I see any propriety in a large increase of the Spanish fleet in the Pacific, such a measure looking very much like a menace.

I have not been able to see Mr. Pacheco since I have read and examined the memorandum. I shall probably see him to-day, and I will make an effort to persuade him to make some modifications. I doubt the success of my undertaking, as the memorandum has been considered and approved by the council of ministers. But I think I ought to leave nothing untried which is proper and not calculated to offend Spanish susceptibilities, in order to prevent a serious rupture.

Mr. Pacheco’s great, perhaps only defect as a statesman, according to the information given me by those who have known him long and well, is a certain pliancy and lack of firmness. I believe that he has been made to intensify his demands by some of his hot-headed colleagues in the ministry.

This being mail day, I must close by adding merely that a ministerial crisis is again threatened. The principal question which divides the ministry, and brings some of them in collision with the desire and the plans of the Queen, is whether her mother Christina, ignominiously driven out of Spain, in 1854, by the revolution of O’Donnel, should be permitted to return or not.

The minister of state will leave with the court for San Ildefonso on the 1st of July and Madrid will be quite deserted, a great many families having left town already. The Cortes were adjourned last Friday.

I have the honor to be your most obedient servant,

GUSTAVUS KOERNER.

Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State, Washington.

[Translated copy.]

Primera Secretaria de Estado.

1. The Peruvian government will send a diplomatic representative of note to Madrid, who will have to declare in its name, and with all solemnity, that it disavows the design of the authorities of Callao, so far as they wanted to take prisoner the secretary of the Spanish commissioner, and that those authorities (whatever they may have been) are already removed from office, and that the said government has not promoted or in any way participated in the attempts on the person of the Spanish commissioner, made by Peruvians, during his voyage from Callao to Paita, Panama, and Aspinwall, and is disposed to punish these persons.

2. The Spanish government will send a representative to Lima with the object to claim that justice be administered in the Talambo case, and with credentials equal to those which Mr. Salazar had, which commissioner is to be received by the Peruvian government.

3. Immediately upon this reception the Chincha islands will be delivered over to a commissioner nominated by the Peruvian government.

4. Peru will appoint and send to Spain a plenipotentiary in order to arrange on prudent terms, and in complete good faith, a treaty between said republic and the Spanish nation, similar to those which have been concluded with the other Spanish American republics.

J. J. PACHECO.

This is a true copy of the original transmitted to the government of Peru by the consul of said republic in Madrid.