Mr. Seward to Mr. Blair.
Sir: Your dispatches of the 10th of November, Nos. 5 and 6, have been received. In your No. 5 you announce that a revolution has taken place in Costa Rica, which was effected by the mere display of military force, unresisted, and without the effusion of blood. You further announce that in that movement the President, Señor Castro, was deposed, and the first provisional substitute, Señor Jimenez, had assumed the executive power. The further transactions mentioned are an acquiescence of the several provinces, the suspension of the constitution, and the call of a national convention to adopt a new constitution. As a consequence of these events, you have recognized the new President, subject to directions on the occasion from the President of the United States.
It does not belong to the government or people of the United States to examine the causes which have led to this revolution, or to pronounce upon the exigency which they created. Nevertheless, great as that exigency may have been, the subversion of a free republican constitution, only nine years old, by military force, in a sister American republic, cannot but be an occasion of regret and apprehension to the friends of the system of republican government, not only here, but throughout the world.
It only remains to say that the course which you have pursued is approved, insomuch as it appears that there is not only no civil war, but no government contending with the one which has been established.
I am, sir, your obedient servant,
Jacob B. Blair, Esq., &c., &c., &c.