Mr. Washburn to Señor Benitez.
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of yesterday, in which I am requested to send from my house the American citizen Porter C. Bliss and the English subject George Masterman, who you say are as gravely accused as the others that I have been asked to cease to shelter in the legation.
Respecting these two individuals, I have to say that I have always considered them as belonging to the legation. Mr. Masterman came to reside in it as medical attendant of my family in September last, and in my note dated February 24, but forwarded with my other note of April 4, his name is included as one of the legation. As no objection was then made, I considered that he was recognized as such by the government as much as any one in my house. The name of Mr. Bliss was likewise given as of the legation in both of the lists above referred to. In reply to my note of February 22, his excellency Señor Berges said that Mr. Bliss, not being in the class of servants, would confine himself to the legation premises, as he would be liable to arrest if found outside of them. For the last three months he has scrupulously done so, and besides has been of great assistance to me in my official duties, and so long as I remain in Paraguay I desire to retain him. Considering, therefore, as I do, both of these persons as members of the legation, I can have no discussion in regard to delivering them up or sending them from my house. Were I to do so, I should abdicate all my functions and rights as minister; for if I acknowledge the right of the government to take away one person whom I consider a member of my legation, I must concede it for all, and thus if it so pleased the government I might be left not only without a servant but without wife, child, or secretary. According to the reasoning of your honor in your note of the 11th instant, if it is only alleged that they are accused, I have no recourse but to deliver them up.
It is with a regret such as I have seldom experienced in my whole life that I observe, after so long a residence in Paraguay, where I have experienced so much kindness and courtesy from both government and people, and to which I have endeavored to respond in a manner that has nearly brought on a war between my country and your country’s enemies, and which is still threatening hourly to do it, that I seem to have lost the confidence and respect of this government. That I had enjoyed them to a high extent until within a short period is amply shown both in official correspondence and in the columns of the official newspaper. But owing to my having received other persons into my legation than belong to it, or to my remaining in the city after its evacuation, or to some other cause of which I am ignorant, I seem to be regarded so differently that I do not see how I can be of any service to my own government, to that of Paraguay, or to any individual in it by longer remaining here. I had hoped to remain to the end of the war, and not to bid farewell to the people of Paraguay, who have carried on a war with a bravery and endurance that must render it one of the most remarkable in the pages of history, and give its illustrious chief magistrate and commander of its armies one of the most conspicuous places in the annals of the war, till I could do so seeing them in the enjoyment of that peace and prosperity that their valor and devotion had so nobly earned. But that hope I now see myself compelled to abandon. The course which I have felt it my [Page 742] duty to adopt seems to have been so at variance with the views of the government that I do not see that I can be longer useful. I therefore have the honor to ask for passports for all persons belonging to this legation, and that facilities for leaving the country, such as comport with the character of an accredited minister, may be furnished with as little delay as circumstances may permit.
I avail myself of the present occasion to tender to your honor the assurances of my distinguished consideration.
His Honor Gumesindo Benitez, Acting Minister for Foreign Affairs.