Papers Relating to Foreign Affairs, Accompanying the Annual Message of the President to the Second Session of the Thirty-ninth Congress

Mr. Washburn to Mr. Seward.

Corrientes, May 24, 1866.

Sir: Since the date of my despatch of the 4th instant there has been little of importance to note in regard to the war between the allies and Paraguay. At that time the allied army had already passed over the river and was encamped on Paraguay soil. On the 6th instant I paid a visit to the encampment, which was at a place called Estero Bellaco, some three leagues inland from the river. I then had another interview with President Mitre, the result of which will appear from the correspondence I have since had with him, and of which I send copies herewith.

The place where the allied army was then encamped was very unsuitable for a camping ground, as it was low and damp, with many lakes or ponds, with an almost absolute dearth of grass for the cattle and horses. Since then, however, I hear that the allies have advanced about two leagues, towards Humayta, and are now encamped on high ground, where the grass is abundant. The Paraguayans had thrown up two lines of intrenchments, and it was supposed that the space which has been gained would not be surrendered without severe fighting. But scarcely any resistance was made, and it now seems very doubtful if a stand will be made even at Humayta. President Lopez has given up two or three of what were supposed to be his strongest points, with scarcely a show of resistance, and now it is believed that the disparity of forces between him and his enemies is so great that no advantage of position which he may have at Humayta will be sufficient to induce him to give battle. I think, however, that the fate of Humayta will be decided in a very few days. The allies are steadily advancing, and are now so near the two fortified places, Curupaiti and Humayta, that a collision, and that very soon, is inevitable. What Lopez will do if he loses Humayta is a matter of conjecture; the country will be at the mercy of the allies.

I take the liberty to send you with this a copy of the triple alliance, which I find translated into English and published in the Buenos Ay res Standard, the only paper published in English in this part of the world. I also send a leading editorial of the same paper, commenting on the somewhat remarkable terms of the alliance. You will gather from this article that the publication of the treaty has caused great dissatisfaction in Buenos Ayres, and, from all I can learn, it has very much affected the popularity of President Mitre, and many people are already beginning to threaten and talk of another of those miserable revolutions that have been the great impediment to the prosperity of the South American republics. That no such attempt will be made, however, is rendered probable by the fact that there seems to be no leader having sufficient prestige to make himself dangerous or formidable.

I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient and humble servant,

CHARLES A WASHBURN.

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

Mr. Washburn to President Mitre.

Corrientes, May 17, 1866.

Sir: On the 7th of the present month I had the honor of an interview with your excellency at your encampment, near Itapiru. This was the third time I had been at your camp, and each time with the same object. The first interview was on the 6th of February, and on that occasion your excellency expressed a desire to consult your ministers in Buenos Ayres in regard to the matter to which I had called your attention, viz., the passage of myself and family above the allied forces to Paraguay, where I am accredited as minister of the United States. As several days would be required for this I returned to Buenos Ayres, and having conferred with his excellency the minister for foreign affairs, Señor Don Rufino de Elizalde, I received from him an open letter to your excellency requesting that you would furnish me with such facilities for going within the Paraguay lines as had been promised me. Owing to an accident it was not till the 6th of April that I could avail myself of the courtesies and facilities that had been offered me by your government, and I immediately went to your, encampment at Paso de la Patria, where I had the honor of another interview. In the meanwhile the position of your army and of the allied squadron had changed, as active operations against Paraguay were then going on on the river Parana. After this interview, and after your excellency had conferred with the chief officers of the allied forces, you did me the honor to write me a letter saying that owing to the circumstances having so greatly changed since the time when the previous understanding had been made, you thought it necessary and proper to refer the matter again to your government, and requested me to wait without taking action till its decision was received. With this request I readily complied, and as I supposed that a month would afford ample time to communicate with Buenos Ayres, several times if necessary, I waited that length of time, or till the 7th of May, when I visited you again, this time near Itapiru, and on Paraguay territory. Your excellency then informed me that the subject on which I had then, as before, come, had been referred to your government at Buenos Ayres, but no answer had been received, though one was expected within two or three days, and I was assured that I might expect the decision from your excellency within three or four days at furthest. That was on the 7th instant. Ten days have passed, and I am still as ignorant whether I am to be allowed to obey the instructions of my government and communicate with the government to which it has accredited me, as I was three months ago, when I first conferred with your excellency on the subject.

Under these circumstances your excellency will not, I trust, think it unreasonable if I request that a decision on this matter, which I may communicate to my government with as little delay as possible, may be accorded to me as soon as it shall be consistent with your perfect convenience.

I take this occasion to tender to your excellency the assurances of my very high regard and distinguished consideration.

CHARLES A. WASHBURN.

His Excellency Brigadier General Bartolome Mitre, President of the Argentine Republic, and Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Army.

[Translation.]

President Mitre to Mr. Washburn.

Headquarters, Estero Bellaco, May 19, 1868.

I have just received the courteous communication of your excellency, bearing date of the 17th instant, in which after making a résumé (reseña) of the means taken by your excellency to obtain a passage to the capital of Paraguay, you ask me for a decision on this matter, that you may communicate it as soon as possible to your government.

Acknowledging the exactness of the recollections (recuerdos) of your excellency in regard to what has taken place in the conferences in which I have had the satisfaction of talking with your excellency, and personally appreciating the qualities that so much distinguish you, I feel it very sensibly at not finding myself yet in a situation to be able to give a definite answer upon the matter to which your before-mentioned communication refers.

Its solution, as your excellency already knows, submitted as much to the Argentine government as to the other allies in the present struggle against the government of Paraguay. I have not yet any information upon it, and though when, after the last conference that I had with your excellency, I insisted newly for such solution from the Argentine government, it has not yet had time requisite (tiempo material) to transmit it to me after such intimation, (insinuacion.) But your excellency may be assured that whatever may thus be transmitted to me, I shall hasten to communicate to your excellency, improving such opportunity, as I improve the present, to reiterate to your excellency the assurances of my most distinguished consideration.

BARTOLOME MITRE.

His Excellency Hon. Charles A. Washburn, Minister of the United States in Paraguay.

[From the Buenos Ayres Standard, May 17, 1866.]

Triple Alliance Treaty.

The government of the oriental republic of the Uruguay, the government of his Majesty the Emperor of Brazil, and the government of the Argentine republic—the two last rinding themselves at war with the government of Paraguay by its having been declared against them in fact by this government, and the first in a state of hostility, and its internal security menaced by the said government which violated the republic, solemn treaties, and the international usages of civilized nations, and committed unjustifiable acts after having disturbed the relations with its neighbors by the most abusive and aggressive proceedings— persuaded that the peace, security, and well-being of their respective nations is impossible while the actual government of Paraguay exists, and that it is an imperious necessity, called for by the greatest interest, to cause that government to disappear, respecting the sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity of the republic of Paraguay, nave resolved, with this object, to celebrate a treaty of alliance, offensive and defensive, and thereto have appointed to be their plenipotentiaries, to wit: His excellency the provisional governor of the oriental republic of the Uruguay; his excellency Dr. D. Carlos de Castro, his minister secretary of state in the department of foreign affairs; his Majesty the Emperor of Brazil; his excellency Señor Dr. F. Octaviano de Almeida Rosa, of his council, deputy to the general legislative assembly, and officer of the imperial order of the rose; his excellency the President of the Argentine Confederation; his excellency Señor Dr. D. Rufino de Elizalde, his minister and secretary of state in the department of foreign affairs—who, after having exchanged their respective credentials, which were found to be in good and due form, did agree as follows:

Article 1. The oriental republic of the Uruguay, his Majesty the Emperor of Brazil, and the Argentine Republic unite in offensive and defensive alliance in the war provoked by the government of Paraguay.

Art. 2. The allies will concur with all the means they can dispose of, by land or on the rivers, according as may be necessary.

Art. 3. The operations of the war being to commence in the territory of the Argentine Republic, or on a part of Paraguay an territory bordering on the same, the command in chief and the direction of the allied armies remains intrusted to the President of the Argentine Republic, general-in-chief of its army, Brigadier General Don Bartolome Mitre.

The maritime forces of the allies will be under the immediate command of Vice Admiral Viscount de Tamandare, commander-in-chief of the squadron of his Majesty the Emperor of Brazil.

The land forces of the oriental republic of the Uruguay, a division of the Argentine forces, and another of the Brazilian forces, to be designated by their respective superior chiefs, will form an army under the immediate orders of the provisional governor of the oriental republic of the Uraguay, Brigadier General Don Venancio Flores.

The land forces of his Majesty the Emperor of Brazil will form an army under the immediate orders of their general-in-chief, Brigadier Manoel Luis Osorio.

Although the high contracting parties are agreed not to change the field of the operations of war, nevertheless, in order to preserve the sovereign rights of the three nations, they do agree from this time, on the principle of reciprocity, for the command in chief, in the event of those operations having to pass over to the oriental or Brazilian territory.

Art. 4. The internal military order and economy of the allied troops will depend solely on their respective chiefs.

The pay, victuals, munitions of war, arms, clothing, equipment, and means of transport, of the allied troops will be for account of the respective states.

Art. 5. The high contracting parties will afford mutually all the assistance or elements which they may have, and which the others may require, in the form to be agreed upon.

Art. 6. The allies pledge themselves solemnly not to lay down their arms unless by common accord, nor until they shall have overthrown the present government of Paraguay, and not to treat with the enemy separately, nor sign any treaty of peace, truce, armistice, or convention whatsoever, for putting an end to or suspending the war, unless by a perfect agreement of all.

Art. 7. The war not being against the people of Paraguay, but against its government, the allies may admit into a Paraguayan legion all the citizens of that nation who may choose to concur to overthrow the said government, and will furnish them with all the elements they may require, in the form and under the conditions to be agreed upon.

Art. 8. The allies oblige themselves to respect the independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity of the republic of Paraguay. Consequently, the Paraguayan people may choose their government, and give to themselves the institutions they please, not incorporating it nor asking for a protectorate under any of the allies as a consequence of this war.

Art. 9. The independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity of the republic of Paraguay shall be guaranteed collectively, in conformity with the foregoing article, by the high contracting parties, during the period of five years.

Art. 10. It is agreed between the high contracting parties that the exemptions, privileges, or concessions, which they may obtain from the government of Paraguay, shall be common to all gratuitously, if they be gratuitous, and with the same compensation if they be conditional.

Art. 11. The present government of Paraguay being overthrown, the allies will proceed to make the necessary arrangements with the authority constituted, to insure the free navigation of the rivers Parana and Paraguay in such manner that the regulations or laws of that republic shall not obstruct, hinder, nor burden the transit or direct navigation of the merchantmen and vessels of war of the allied states proceeding to their respective territory, or to territory not belonging to Paraguay, and they will take suitable guarantees for the effectiveness of those arrangements on the base that those regulations of fluvial police, whether they be for those two rivers, or likewise for the river Uruguay, shall be made by common accord between the allies and such other bordering states as shall, within the term to be agreed upon by the said allies, accept the invitation made to them.

Art. 12. The allies reserve to themselves to concert the measures most suitable in order to guarantee peace with the republic of Paraguay after the overthrow of the present government.

Art. 13. The allies will appoint in due season the plenipotentiaries required to celebrate the arrangements, conventions, or treaties, that may have to be made with the government that shall be established in Paraguay.

Art. 14. The allies will exact from this government payment of the expenses of the war [which they have been themselves obliged to accept, as well as reparation and indemnification for the damages and injuries caused to their public and private properties, and to the persons of their citizens, without express declaration of war, and for the damages and injuries committed subsequently, in violation of the principles which govern the laws of war.

The oriental republic of the Uruguay will likewise exact an indemnification proportioned to the damage and injury caused to it by the government of Paraguay through the war into which it is forced to enter to defend its security, threatened by that government.

Art. 15. In a special convention shall be determined the manner and form of liquidating and paying the debt proceeding from the aforesaid causes.

Art. 16 In order to avoid the discussions and wars which questions of boundaries involve, it is established that the allies shall exact from the government of Paraguay that it celebráte definitive boundary treaties with their respective governments upon the following basis: The Argentine Republic shall be divided from the republic of Paraguay by the rivers Parana and Paraguay, until meeting the boundaries of the empire of Brazil, these being on the right margin of the river Paraguay, the Bahia Negra.

The empire of Brazil shall be divided from the republic of Paraguay on the side of the Parana by the first river below the Salto de las Siete Cahidas, which, according to the recent map of Manchez, is the Igurey, and from the mouth of the Igurey and in its course upwards until reaching its source.

On the side of the left bank of the Paraguay, by the river Apa, from its mouth to its source.

In the interior from the summits of the mountain of Maracayú, the streams on the east belonging to Brazil, and those on the west to Paraguay, and drawing lines as straight as possible from the said mountain to the sources of the Apa and of the Igurey.

Art. 17. The allies guarantee to each other reciprocally the faithful fulfilment of the agreements, arrangements, or treaties that are to be celebrated with the government that shall be established in Paraguay, in virtue of what is agreed upon by the present treaty of alliance, which shall always remain in its full force and vigor to the effect that these stipulations be respected and executed by the republic of Paraguay.

In order to obtain this result they do agree that, in the case that one of the high contracting parties should be unable to obtain from the government of Paraguay the fulfilment of what is agreed upon, or that this government should attempt to annul the stipulations adjusted with the allies, the others shall employ actively their exertions to cause them to be respected.

If these exertions should be useless, the allies will concur with all their means in order to make effective the execution of what is stipulated.

Art. 18. This treaty shall be kept secret until the principal object of the alliance shall be obtained.

Art. 19. The stipulations of this treaty that do not require legislative authorization for their ratification shall begin to take effect so soon as they be approved by the respective governments, and the others from the exchange of the ratifications, which shall take place within the term of forty days, counted from the date of said treaty, or sooner if it be possible, which shall be done in the city of Buenos Ayres.

In testimony whereof, the undersigned plenipotentiaries of his excellency the provisional governor of the oriental republic of the Uruguay, of his Majesty the Emperor of Brazil, and of his excellency the President of the Argentine Republic, in virtue of our full powers, do sign this treaty, and do cause to be put thereto our seals, in the city of Buenos Ayres, the first day of May, in the year of our Lord 1865.

C. DE CASTRO.

F. OCT. BE ALMEIDA ROSA.

RUFINO DE ELIZALDE.

[Translation.]

Protocol.

Their excellencies the plenipotentiaries of the Argentine Republic, of the oriental republic of Uruguay, and of his Majesty the Emperor of Brazil, being assembled at the department for foreign affairs, agreed:

1. That in fulfilment of the treaty of alliance of this date the fortifications of Humaitá shall be caused to be demolished, and it shall not be permitted that others of an equal nature should be erected, which might impede the faithful execution of that treaty.

2. That it being one of the measures necessary to guarantee peace with the government that shall be established in Paraguay not to leave arms or elements of war, those that are met with shall be divided in equal shares between the allies.

3. That the trophies and booty that may be taken from the enemy shall be divided between the allies who make the capture.

4. That the chiefs in command of the allied armies shall concert measures to carry what is here agreed on into effect.

And they signed this at Buenos Ayres on the first of May, 1865.

CARLOS DE CASTRO.

RUFINO DE ELIZALDE.

F. OCT. DE ALMEIDA ROSA.