Señor Benitez to Mr. Washburn.
I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your excellency’s note of this afternoon, in reply to that of yesterday from this ministry, in which your excellency is pleased to say that, being limited to a few hours, it was impossible to allude to the many points touched upon in my note, and your excellency was therefore obliged to defer a more formal reply until another occasion, observing, nevertheless, that you cannot entirely agree to my opinions concerning the rights and immunities of foreign ministers and legations. But as this circumstance does not affect the practical view of the case in relation to all the persons whom I had mentioned by their names, they had all, including Leite Pereira, stated that, in order to relieve you from all embarrassment on their account, they would voluntarily leave the legation; and of those whose names were given in as not belonging to the legation there would only remain Dr. Carreras, Mr. Rodriguez, and their servant, Mrs. Leite Pereira, presuming that no objection would be made to the residence of that lady in your house, as a friend and companion of Mrs. Washburn; that these gentlemen, nevertheless, have, like the others, expressed their desire of leaving if the government should insist upon it, and that you would much prefer they should remain, this being also their own desire, and for this reason your excellency has requested them to remain until informed of the final determination of the government, as you did not understand that any offense was imputed to them, except the simple fact of their stay in the legation, and that if the government should insist upon their departure, it would assume that your excellency has no right to have guests or visitors in your house.
Your excellency adds that this would place you in so anomalous and singular a position that you would be obliged to assume a different attitude from that previously intended, and consequently you hope that the government would not insist upon it—regretting very much the departure of Mrs. Thomas and Eden, as necessary for the comfort and health of Mrs. Washburn—and conclude that in case of not learning of the return of the American gunboat within a very short time, it would become the duty of your excellency towards your family to request a passport and facilities for their passage through the military lines, and then to Buenos Ayres.
Restricted, also, in point of time at my disposal in sending this communication, I shall limit myself to the principal points, and to those of moment, deferring to another occasion the reparation of any fault or [Page 738] omission whenever you may do me the honor to send the formal reply announced.
I regret, Mr. Minister, that my opinions and conclusions concerning the right of immunities have not merited your excellency’s approbation; but I will make new efforts whenever you shall please to manifest your own.
I am grateful to you for having wished, in spite of this discordance of opinion, to meet the desires of my government in permitting the departure to-day, from your hotel, of all the persons whom I had mentioned by their names, including Leite Pereira. But if I have mentioned some names in my note of yesterday, it was not with the intention of limiting myself to them in my request; and if I have used the names of some of the workmen, it was only to remind you that they still remain there. But I ought to hope that your excellency has arranged the matter satisfactorily, since you have had the courtesy to cause the Mrs. Thomas and Eden to depart, notwithstanding the fact that Mrs. Washburn needs their services.
It never was my intention to cause the least trouble to this lady, nor to her friend, Mrs. Leite Pereira, who, as your excellency has very justly presumed, may remain with her without any objection, as well as the Mrs. Thomas and Eden, whose departure to-day from your hotel I therefore regret; but, since it has been so, they will be informed to-morrow that they can return.
I have been pained, Mr. Minister, that you have thought proper to announce to this ministry that if my government should insist upon the departure of the Orientals, Dr. Carreras and Mr. Rodriguez, you would be obliged to take a different attitude from that previously intended, expressing the hope that for that reason I would not insist upon it.
The phrase appears to me so obscure that I should have troubled you for some explanation, in order to answer it, did I not believe that it was only dictated by the belief that those individuals were chargeable with no offense beyond their residence in the legation. It is not, however, the case. And I must now inform you that they are also demanded by justice, and in so peremptory a manner that I am forced to beg you to dismiss them before 1 o’clock to-morrow.
It is painful to me to have to solicit of you within so brief a time the dismissal of two guests more, who are urgently demanded by the tribunal of justice. I did not make this declaration in my previous notice, supposing that you would have no motives of preference towards them than towards other refugees; nor did I think it my duty to exchange another communication with you upon a subject of this nature, which has already given rise to a correspondence which my government has desired to avoid, preferring that the action of justice should find them in the street.
You will perceive that there exist offenses on the part of these Orientals, and that not only must they be brought before the tribunal, but that it is urgent that they should; and I trust that, though your excellency has examined them, and requested them to remain in your hotel, that whenever they shall show themselves disposed to leave it, now that you know that they are guilty, you will hasten to dismiss them.
This reply and the present conditions of the place of your residence relieve me from the necessity of entering into the question whether your excellency has or has not the right to have guests or visitors in your house.
I thank you for the information that within a short time you intend to send your family to Buenos Ayres.
[Page 739]I improve this opportunity to renew to your excellency the assurance of my distinguished consideration and esteem.
His Excellency Charles A. Washburn, Minister Resident of the United States of America.