Office of the Historian

No. 46.

United States Legation,
Rio de Janeiro, September 28, 1871. (Received November 3.)
No. 15.]

Sir: Asking your reference to my No. 13 of the 23d instant, in relation to the appointment of the Baron de Itajubá as one of the arbitrators at Geneva, I beg to add the following statements in regard to him, for your information,

Marcos Antonio de Araúgo (now Baron de Itajubá) was professor of commercial jurisprudence in the law-school of Olitida, (now called the Faculty of Law of the Recife,) in the province of Pernambuco.

He resigned this place, and was sent in 1834 as consul-general of Brazil to Hamburg, where he remained some sixteen or seventeen years, and where he married a lady of fortune.

In 1852 he was named envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary [Page 68] of Brazil in Berlin, where he gained the highest consideration and respect, and especially the personal regard of the then prince of Prussia, now the Emperor William of Germany.

In 1867, receiving then the title of Baron de Itajubá, he was transferred as envoy, &c, to France, where he has ever since resided.

He is a native of the province of Minas Geraes, the mountain-country of the interior of this empire, from which so many of its best men have come.

The Baron de Itajubá has thus resided thirty-seven years in Europe, interrupted by hardly a visit to Brazil, and his studies and occupations there, as well as here, in early life, have fitted him for the place to which he has been named.

I am, &c,

JAMES R. PARTRIDGE.

Annexed is a copy of my reply to the minister of foreign affairs notifying me of his appointment.

[Inclosure.]
United States Legation,
Rio de Janeiro, September 27, 1871.

To the Councilor Mr. Manoel Francisco Correia,
Minister and Secretary of State, &c., &c, &c.:

I have received the dispatch (No. 3887) dated on the 23d September, in which the councilor and secretary of state, Senhor Manoel Francisco Correia, minister of foreign affairs, informs me that Her highness the princess imperial, regent, in name of His Majesty the Emperor, has been pleased to appoint the Baron de Itajubá, of His Majesty’s council, and now envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary in France, as a member of the tribunal of arbitration, under the first article of the treaty of Washington.

I have, by the packet of the 24th instant, already communicated this information to the honorable the Secretary of State at Washington, and I do not doubt that the President of the United States will learn with satisfaction the appointment of the Baron de Itajubá, who has so distinguished a reputation for learning and impartiality, which reputation, added to the confidence of the Emperor, of itself a high proof of his merits, ought to render such nomination entirely acceptable to both the powers concerned.

I desire to thank the councilor, Mr. Correia, for his promptness in making known to me this appointment in time for the packet, and I avail myself of the occasion to renew the assurances of my complete consideration.

JAMES R. PARTRIDGE.