Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, Transmitted to Congress with the Annual Message of the President, December 4, 1871
Mr. Hurlbut to Mr. Fish
Sir: I have the honor to inclose a copy of my dispatch to Señor Zapata on the affair of the Montijo. His reply was forwarded by last mail.
I believe that, in the hurry of doing up the last mail, I neglected to number my last dispatches. They are numbered on my records 56 and 57.
Your, obedient servant,
[Untitled]
The undersigned, minister resident of the United States of America, has the honor to present his respects to the honorable Felipe Zapata, secretary for foreign relations, and to inform him that he is instructed by the honorable the Secretary of State of the United States to present the demand of the United States of America upon the government of Colombia for reparation for the recent outrageous acts of Thomas Herrera and others, in the State of Panama, in this case of the American steamer Montijo.
The facts indisputably proven in this case are these: The aforesaid steamer Montijo was an American vessel, lawfully registered as such, with her proper papers and evidences of nationality. She was under the flag of the United States, engaged in the lawful business of carrying freight and passengers from the city of Panama to other ports of that state.
Her owners are American citizens, residing in the city of Panama.
In the usual course of her legitimate business as a trading-vessel, the Montijo was in the port of David in said state. One of her owners, John Schuber, was on board. About the 2d or 3d of April, 1871, while still in said port of David, Thomas Herrera and Domingo Diaz proposed to Mr. Schuber to charter his steamer. Schuber, suspecting some revolutionary movement on their part, positively refused, and gave such suspicion as his reason for refusing.
On the 5th of April, the steamer, having taken on board her cargo and her passengers, sailed from David bound for Panama. She had a full list of passengers, among them Domingo Diaz and Thomas Herrera. On the morning of the 6th of April the Montijo, being then at anchor at Boca Chica to repair her boilers, a schooner appeared in the offing, upon sight of which Herrera and Diaz demanded of Schuber, the owner, and of Saunders, the captain, that they should set the American ensign of the steamer in a manner indicated by them. Both refused to do so, as it was evidently a preconcocted signal. Herrera and Diaz, and their friends on board the Montijo, then took the flag from the captain’s possession by force, threatening him with drawn revolvers.
They then proceeded to set the ensign, upon which the schooner came alongside, and Manuel Diaz and a Colonel Parés, and some others, joined the party who had thus forcibly usurped possession of the Montijo.
From that time, for many days, this steamer was held by this band of pirates, used by them in making war upon the constitutional government of Panama, her officers and crew compelled, by threats and violence, to remain prisoners on board their own vessel, and to work her as ordered by her captors. The vessel itself, the boilers and machinery, were injured and damaged by such use, her stores were used up and destroyed, her insurance periled, her regular and legitimate business broken up, and the whole equipment of ship and crew diverted from legitimate commerce and made involuntary parties in the disgraceful internal quarrel between rival aspirants for power in the state of Panama.
I am instructed to state to the government of Colombia that, in the opinion of the Government of the United States of America, the acts aforesaid, committed by Thomas Herrera and others, his partisans, constitute the high crime of piracy, and deserve the most severe and condign punishment.
This offense, it is to be remarked, was not perpetrated upon the high seas, but in the navigable waters whose exclusive jurisdiction is with the republic of Colombia.
The right and the duty of punishing the perpetrators of this high crime rest upon the country within whose jurisdiction the offense was committed.
[Page 241]I am instructed to apply for reparation for the insult offered to the American flag within, the waters of Colombia; for the highly criminal and piratical act of seizing by force and arms a peaceable American vessel; of reducing her owner, captain and crew to the condition of prisoners, and so holding them for many days, making them unwilling agents of a nefarious conspiracy against peace and good order, periling their lives and health in such enterprise, injuring the property of the owners of the steamer, and for all other damage which may have accrued or may accrue from such unlawful and felonious acts.
It is, therefore, reasonably expected by the United States of America that the perpetrators of these high-handed outrages will be vigorously prosecuted, under the laws of the United States of Colombia, to conviction for the crime of which they are evidently guilty.
This reparation by judicial punishment is due to the dignity of the nation whose flag has been insulted, and whose citizens have been imprisoned, and also to the dignity of the republic within whose waters so gross an outrage has been committed.
The undersigned is unofficially informed that some arrangement for an arbitration has been entered into by the owners of the steamer. The United States of America have nothing to do with any disposition made by them as to their private loss and injury, the question more immediately concerning the Government at this time being adequate and prompt punishment, by judicial proceedings against the criminals, for the offenses stated.
The undersigned may be permitted to state, in addition to the foregoing, that the fact that the outrages complained of occurred in the course of one of the numerous revolutions which unfortunately afflict this country, does not, in his judgment, constitute the slightest excuse for the acts complained of.
The revolution itself, in his opinion, was a crime, which the laws and usages of Colombia may mitigate, condone, or excuse; that, so far as affects Colombian citizens only, is a matter for Colombia alone. But when such a pretended revolution, not against the general government, but against a particular state government, assumes to violate the laws of civilized nations, the treaty stipulations of their own country, and the sovereignty of a foreign friendly nation over its own ships and its own flag, it is taken out of the category of domestic disorders, and arrives at the dignity of an offense against civilization, and must be promptly and effectually punished.
In the full confidence that the judicial power of Colombia is competent to administer complete and effective justice against the criminals indicated for the acts perpetrated by them, the undersigned, on behalf of his Government, has the honor to renew the request that all necessary steps may be taken by the executive power to bring about so desirable an end.
The undersigned also has the honor to present herewith the sworn statements of John Schuber, Robert Howard, Mrs. Hannah E. Saunders, and Captain Saunders, the originals of which are on file in the office of the United States consul at Panama, and which are believed to be absolutely true in all substantial matters, and has the honor to be, &c.,