Mr. Sullivan to Mr. Seward.
Sir: I have the honor to transmit herewith copies (A, B, and C) of correspondence just had between the Colombian government and the United States consul at Carthagena and myself, on the subject of the trial and acquittal of the well-known persons who, on the 1st of September last, had most barbarously and cruelly murdered native-born citizens of our country at Carthagena.
My unaltered statement of this inhuman affair, and the causes which led to it, will be found in my note to the Colombian government on the 5th of October last, a copy of which I inclosed to you with my dispatch No. 333, of the 12th of October.
On yesterday the secretary for foreign relations of Colombia had paid me a most friendly visit, and assured me that the President and cabinet of Colombia had fully concurred in my note of the 5th instant, of which [Page 1063] inclosure B is a copy; that the President had recommended to congress, yet in session, to empower the executive government to indemnify the relatives of those who were murdered, as well as the two who had miraculously escaped on that awful occasion; and that both houses of congress had introduced bills for that purpose, and that they would most assuredly become a law.
Extracts A, 1, 2, 3, in Inclosure B, are taken from official letters of foreign consuls and consular agents at Carthagena, viz:
Extract A, British consul.
Extract No. 1, Italian vice-consul.
Extract No. 2, British consul.
Extract No. 3, Prussian vice-consul.
But a day or two since Colonel Cespedes, one of the murderers, had applied to the President of Colombia to be reinstated in the army, and the President replied that although he, Cespedes, was acquitted by the jury and judge, he, the President, still considered him as a cruel assassin, and that he should have no favor from his administration.
This is a great triumph for all foreigners in Colombia, and is a double security for our people passing across the Isthmus of Panama, to and from California and Asia.
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I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant,
Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State, Washington, D. C.