Mr. Washburn to Señor Benitez.
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of the 23d, in which, after discussing some points of courtesy, you proceed to give your reasons why Porter C. Bliss and George F. Masterman should not be regarded as members of this legation, and should be expelled from it by me. As regards the questions of courtesy, I have no wish to enter upon them at this time. If the danger is so imminent as you allege, it is better to leave all discussion on points of courtesy until more quiet times, when on review of what is past it will doubtless be easy to explain, justify, or excuse anything that may have appeared hasty or inconsiderate at the time. I therefore come to the more serious matter of your note.
In this you tell me that from my house correspondence from the enemy’s generals are received and replied to, treating of the details of a plot, and expressing a fear that the same conduct is still continued. You then add that it is not you who have said to me that the complot had been combined to break out on the 24th instant, and that you thank me for the information. Certainly your note of the 21st gave me the first information that I had that anything particular was to be attempted on that day. From that note I make the following quotation: “Mientras pueda dar á Y. E. la debida contestacion vengo á prevenir á V. E. que por la combinacion de la traicion con el enemigo, este debia ejectuar ciertos movimientos para el dia 24 del corriente.” This is all the information I have had on this point, and in my reply on the 22d I say that you advise me that the treasonable combination with the enemy was to have made certain movements on the 24th, thus giving in an almost literal translation of your own words the “noticia” for which you thank me; certainly it appears to me that the thanks are due from me to you, rather than from you to me. The first knowledge I had of the matter was contained in your note of the 21st.
Respecting the question whether Mr. Bliss and Mr. Masterman are or are not rightfully and legally members of this legation, I waive all discussion at present; I have assumed, as I believe correctly, that they [Page 756] are; and if now I were to recede from that position, it would appear weak, and would be a confession that I had acted illegally in sending them away, for which act I should be arraigned and censured by my government. I may be in error in my judgment, but holding the opinions that I do, I have no other course to pursue than give them the protection of my legation until I can send them to their respective countries to be tried. If the government of Paraguay should feel itself justified in taking them away by force, all nations of the civilized world will be called upon to pronounce upon the legality of the act. I may be condemned for error of judgment, but I shall certainly be commended for insisting to the last on the rights of legation.
In thus insisting on the rights of legation, I trust you will believe that it is from no desire to shield criminals. If the parties to whom I have given shelter and hospitality have, in the mean time, been engaged in a plot or conspiracy against this government, there is no person in the country, save those whose lives were threatened—and, for any thing I know, I may have been included in the number—who has so much reason as I have to desire that justice should be done, or the criminals punished. And it is due to myself and to my government that I should give all aid in my power, that I can legally and consistently do, to aid in the discovery of the criminals; and if you have any questions to ask respecting any suspected person, and I can give you any information that might be of use in ascertaining the truth, I shall be most happy in a friendly and unofficial way to do so.
I regret to observe that you remark your official declarations have less weight with me than the statements of the accused parties. I do not assume the character of a judge; I only say that being, as I consider, members of my legation, they are not liable to be tried by the tribunals of Paraguay.
The government, however, if convinced that they are not members of this legation, may pursue them as criminals and fugitives, and the writers on international law have prescribed how such characters may be lawfully and properly taken from the house of a foreign minister. It will not be for me to complain that any criminal is taken by force from my legation; but the responsibility of the act will then be upon the government of Paraguay, and not on the minister who had surrendered them, believing that he ought not to do so.
To the specific charge made against Mr. Bliss I will not allude, lest again you should thank me for information that I had only derived from you. I can only say in regard to him, that if the charge be substantiated there is no person in the world who will have so good reason as myself to demand his punishment. And I have full confidence that my own government will administer firm and inflexible justice. Does the government of Paraguay doubt it?
To the remarks of your honor that you regretted that I had so little hope of being longer useful by remaining in the country, and that you thought that the representative of a friendly nation would take pleasure in seeing frustrated a great conspiracy formed to facilitate the triumph of the enemy, I would reply that I fully agree with you. As I said before, I have more reason than almost any other person to desire that the whole affair should be thoroughly investigated, and the guilty parties punished. When I wrote my note of the 14th instant I had no idea of the accusations that would afterwards be brought against the persons to whom I had given shelter and hospitality. But when I was asked to deliver up or Send from my house two persons whom I had considered [Page 757] as members of my legation, I thought that if the government insisted on that, and my legation privileges were to be denied, I ought not longer to remain in the country.
There are other points in your note to which I may hereafter have occasion to allude, but as they do not affect the immediate question I will not now discuss them. But, as I have said, I am not only willing, but anxious to lend any assistance in my power to discover the truth in regard to the combination of which you have made mention. I therefore will here add, what I more properly might have said in my note of the 23d, in answer to yours, asking the delivery of a certain package. As to the package I have nothing more to say, as I never saw nor heard of it. But as you say on the day after the return of Señor Berges from San Fernando I visited him at his quinta, and brought away such package, which on my return at nightfall I deposited in my office, I will add a few words to what I said yesterday.
As I said in my note of the 23d, I did not see Señor Berges for several days after his return. But I find in my diary the following, which I literally transcribe, notwithstanding my bad Spanish in which I keep my journal, for the sake of learning the language:
A la tarde fui a visitar Berges en su quinta. Le encontré muy enfermo en cama. Despues pasé hasta la casa de la Señora presidenta á quien encontré en buena salud pero triste; volvi por la casa de Leite adonde encontré Vasconcellos enfermo con chuchu. El mandó por me algnnos billetes para Leite. Nada de nuevo de abajo.
Translation.—That evening I visited Berges at his country seat. I found him sick in bed. Then I called at the house of the President’s lady, who was well, but looked sad. I returned by way of Leite’s, where I met Vasconcellos, suffering from influenza. He sent some letters to Leite by me. No news from below.
I had been requested by Mr. and Mrs. Pereira to pass by their former residence and bring them certain things that they needed, among which was some money, Paraguayan currency. To oblige them I took with me the saddle-bags [alforjas] of my friend Traunefeld, that I had borrowed some days before. On returning at nightfall I put the saddle-bags into my office; and the next morning, after Señor Pereira had counted the money, he delivered it to me to keep; and the larger part of it is now in my possession.
You will admit that this is not a very dignified nor elevated matter to put into a diplomatic correspondence, nevertheless I give all the particulars, hoping that I may thus be useful in arriving at the truth, and that the information will be received in the same spirit in which it is offered.
It is with profound regret that I find myself compelled to differ with the government of Paraguay in regard to the case of Mr. Bliss and Mr. Masterman; but if any man has reason to respect firmness it is his excellency Marshal Lopez, who, after having maintained a struggle almost unparalelled in history for national independence, and having endured years of toil and sacrifice to defend his country and maintain a principle, cannot but regard in another the same firmness, and the same adherence to conviction and duty, with respect and approval.
That the plot of which you speak has been detected and frustrated, I would ask you to convey my most cordial and earnest felicitations to his excellency Marshal Lopez. I well remember what a thrill of horror ran through the civilized world when the great and good Abraham Lincoln fell before a foul assassin, and the universal execration that the deed provoked. That any person should be found in Paraguay engaged in a similar plot is to me horrible beyond expression. Will you also felicitate his excellency the President for the returning of his birthday, and express my regret that I was unable yesterday, owing to the pressing [Page 758] duty of preparing this letter, to visit his excellency the vice-president at Luque and formally offer my congratulations.
I improve this occasion to tender to your highness assurances of high regard and distinguished consideration.
His Honor Gumesindo Benitez, Acting Minister for Foreign Affairs.