Mr. Perry to Mr. Seward
Sir: Reserving the privilege to report by next steamer more in detail my proceedings under your instruction No. 107, of August 22, I have time only before this week’s mail is made up to say that Mr. Bermudez de Castro is afraid that anything we can do here now will be too late, and that Admiral Pareja will have already commenced hostilities under his instructions unless Chili shall [Page 556] have made such concessions as satisfied him. It is probable he would receive the instructions indicated to you in my No. 214, of July 23, on the 13th or 14th instant, and he would no doubt proceed to execute them without delay.
Nevertheless, as the first stage of the hostilities authorized was to be a blockade of the Chilian ports, to be followed at the expiration of one month (if Chili should not yield to his demands) by other acts of a more vigorous nature, I have obtained this, that Mr. Bermudez de Castro writes to Admiral Pareja immediately to suspend such further acts of hostility for two weeks longer, in the hope that your good offices near the Chilian government meantime may make their adoption unnecessary.
Spain is willing to abandon every point of her demands against Chili except one only: she insists that the Spanish flag shall be saluted. She feels that the Spanish flag has been insulted, and she cannot withdraw so long as Chili, by refusing to salute, maintains that insult. Should Chili now salute the Spanish flag, Spain will interpret that act of international courtesy as a disavowal of any intention to insult Spain in the acts complained of at Santiago, and will immediately salute the flag of Chili in her turn, in token of complete amity and good intelligence, and will thereupon withdraw her fleet, making no further mention of any other of her subjects of complaint. If, however, Chili should refuse that act of courtesy, Spain will interpret such refusal as the sign of a settled hostility of sentiment toward her on the part of Chili, and will thereupon proceed to vigorous acts of war, maintaining on her own side all those reclamations against Chili heretofore made, and such as may hereafter arise in consequence of the war itself.
I am given to understand that Admiral Pareja’s orders are to make short work of it, and that the blow he will strike will be a heavy one.
I am, however, fully assured that not an inch of Chilian territory will be permanently occupied, nor any abasement of her complete sovereignty and independence be attempted in any ease or form.
This being the precise state of the affair, may I hope that your good offices at the scene of operations can be rendered in time to prevent bloodshed, and prove sufficient to persuade Chili that in deference to the peace of the world, unless, indeed, it be her purpose to make war at any rate, she cannot refuse this act of courtesy, made necessary by the fact that Spain considers her flag to have been insulted.
It strikes me that the question is not so much whether the acts at Santiago, believed by Spain to have taken place in a certain way, and explained by Chili to have taken place in a different way, really did or did not constitute a national insult; but it is whether it be worth while for Chili to go to war upon a question of interpretation of certain doings of a crowd of people at Santiago not very clearly ascertained.
The great feet to be considered—and of this feet there can be no doubt—is, that Spain is really laboring under a sense of insult on the part of Chili, but she now waives all her former demands and consents to accept an act of international courtesy, customary in such cases, as a disavowal on the part of the Chilian government of all intention to insult the; Spanish flag at Santiago or anywhere. And it seems to me, if there really has been no such intention, and if there be no disposition to maintain such an intention now, Chili, as a reasonable government, cannot refuse the exchange of salutes now proposed. Should this belief be shared by the President, I trust a prompt effort by the United States in Chili may yet be successful to pi event the war.
With sentiments of the highest respect, sir, your obedient servant,
Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State, Washington,