No. 400.
General Sickles to Mr. Fish.
Madrid, March 30, 1873. (Received April 23.)
Sir: On Tuesday last, pursuant to appointment, I had a conference with the minister of state and his colleague of the colonial office respecting several pending questions.
In reply to a reference made by myself at the outset to the case of Santa Rosa, Mr. Castelar informed me that he was released, and he had received an expression of your thanks, through Admiral Polo, for the action of the Spanish government in the matter. Mr. Sorni added, that the release of this person was his first official act after entering the colonial department. Mr. Castelar said the omission to acquaint me with the action of the government, in reply to my note of the 2d ultimo, must be attributed solely to his pre-occupation in the assembly and in the cabinet council.
Passing to the subject of embargoed estates in Cuba, Mr. Castelar stated, in reply to a preliminary inquiry, that he had not received from his predecessor any explanation of the question. Having recapitulated the origin and bases of our reclamations and the course of the negotiations which had taken place, I presented two propositions for the consideration and action of the Spanish government, as follows:
- First. That the embargoes, so far as they affected the property of citizens of the United States, were violations of the seventh article of the treaty of 1795, which expressly forbids all embargoes, and also because the property was seized by the arbitrary act of the executive authorities, thus depriving the owners of the right to a judicial hearing and judgment expressly guaranteed by treaty.
- Second. That the reference of these reclamations to the mixed commission sitting in Washington was a dilatory and inadequate remedy, and that in all cases in which evidence had been presented showing that the claimants were citizens of the United States the right to the immediate restitution of their estates was clear and unquestionable.
Having explained the arrangement made with Mr. Martos before his resignation, by which the pending cases were referred for immediate action to the Spanish minister at Washington and the captain-general of [Page 960] Cuba, I stated that your reasonable expectation of a satisfactory result from this disposition of the matter had been disappointed, since no action had been taken, and no reason had been assigned for the continued delay; and I added that some of these cases had been pending more than two years, that the embargoes in certain instances had been so improvidently ordered that the property of one party had been seized for the alleged offense of another, arid that in another case the promised restitution was impeded by the refusal of one branch of the administration in Cuba to furnish evidence demanded by the bureau having the matter of these embargoed estates in charge. Under these circumstances, and in view of the vexatious character of these proceedings, I urged the prompt action of the government of the republic in releasing all property of American citizens now held by the Cuban authorities in violation of the treaty of 1795 and of the law of nations.
Mr. Castelar took notes of the essential points of my statement, and promised to inform himself of the purport of my several communications addressed to his predecessor with reference to this class of reclamations; and he added that I might assure you of his desire and purpose to remove at once any just ground of complaint on this subject.
Mr. Sorni, on his part, repeated the same assurance, and remarked that he would acquaint himself with the state of the question so far as his department was concerned, and see that no unnecessary delay should happen in the disposition of the pending cases.
I then suggested for the consideration of ministers that great abuses had been committed in the matter of embargoes; that, as a war measure, they had done more harm than good to the government; that the practice of seizing large properties by executive order on mere rumor, and often on the suggestion of persons inimical to the owners, had swelled the ranks and increased the resources of the insurgents, and that the proceeds of these estates had been so manipulated as to demoralize and enfeeble the administration of affairs in Cuba. In view of these, and other like reflections, I pointed out the expediency of a general measure restoring all estates confiscated by arbitrary decrees, and confining any future sequestrations that might be deemed necessary to the regular and authorized action of the established judicial tribunals.
Mr. Sorni, who is a lawyer of distinction, replied that both in a legal and administrative aspect there were serious grounds to question the justice and utility of these proceedings, and it was his intention to make this matter the subject of a special instruction to the captain-general of Cuba.
Referring to the correspondence that had taken place respecting the complaints of our shipmasters and merchants on account of the unreasonable tines and exactions imposed on American vessels in Cuba, I begged the attention of the colonial minister to this subject.
His excellency kindly promised that it should not escape his notice.
I then remarked that with a radical change in the administration of Cuba and Porto Rico it would not be difficult to avoid, for the future, a repetition of the numerous questions that had arisen during the past four years between the United States and Spain; that now, more than ever, the Government and people of the United States would be disposed to cultivate the most friendly relations with this country; that it rested with the government of the republic, by means of simple justice to its American possessions, to deprive the insurrection of its hold upon public sympathy; that with the abolition of slavery, the reform of the administration in Cuba and Porto Rico, and the concession to the people of a proper share in the management of their local affairs, the motives which [Page 961] had incited the war of independence would disappear; that the commerce and intercourse between the United States and those islands created legitimate interests in their welfare to which no government could be indifferent, and these were the surest guarantees of the sincerity and disinterestedness of our counsels; that if we desired to acquire those possessions we would not be heard appealing to the sense of justice of the mother country for a milder and more conciliatory rule in Cuba and Porto Rico, since it would be for our advantage if Spain continued to provoke them to hatred and sedition; that if it were true that whatever contributed to alienate the affections of the Creole population from Spain must facilitate and hasten a separation, nothing could better serve the supposed desire of the United States to possess these islands than the past policy of Spain in holding a large portion of the people in absolute servitude and the remainder in a qualified condition of caste which could not increase their desire for a change of allegiance; that the large emigration which annually leaves Galicia and the Asturias for South America would naturally flow towards Cuba and Porto Rico, thus increasing their wealth and strengthening their loyalty, if emigration were not repelled from the Spanish possessions by slavery and its kindred contempt for the laboring classes; that heretofore the irreconcilable antagonism between American institutions and the system of Spanish rule in their colonies in the Gulf, had been a constant source of perturbation in the otherwise congenial relations between the two countries; that now this conflict between self-government and despotism ought to cease with the extension of free institutions to all in the Spanish Empire; that the establishment of a republican form of government seemed to afford the best, and perhaps the last, opportunity of regaining the attachment of the Cubans; that any considerable delay in putting in force the milder policy of republican rule in those parts of the island, at least where the peaceful condition of the population invited conciliatory measures, might confirm the belief of the people that all parties in Spain were disposed to treat them as an inferior race not entitled to the rights belonging to Spaniards; that nothing had contributed more to increase the sympathy felt in America for the Cuban insurgents than the fact that the Spanish revolution of 1868 brought no alleviation of the wrongs of Porto Rico nor of the eastern and western departments of Cuba, whose loyalty remained unshaken; that so soon as Cuba and Porto Rico were treated on an equal footing as an integral part of the republic, enjoying the same liberties and laws and free institutions established in the peninsula, the insurgents would no longer find encouragement in American opinion, and any attempt on the part of European powers to deprive the Spanish possessions in the Gulf of Mexico of a republican form of government might justly be regarded as an inadmissible interference with rights entitled to our consideration and respect; and that for these reasons, justice, patriotism, and self-defense commended the inauguration of a republican policy in the Spanish Antilles.
Mr. Castelar replied that the executive duties incident to the late change of government had so engrossed the attention of ministers since the formation of the present cabinet that it had been impossible to give due consideration to the important questions to which I referred; that I would nevertheless find in the well-known views of himself and his colleagues ample guarantees of their disposition to do ample justice to Cuba and Porto Rico. A great step had been taken in the unanimity and good feeling with which the emancipation act for the latter island had been enacted; in the execution of the act of 1870, the government that very day had ordered the liberation of more than ten thousand slaves (emanciados) [Page 962] in Cuba, a measure which he trusted would be regarded by the United States as a proof of the sincere purposes of this government; that the superior offices in Cuba and Porto Rico would be at once confided to eminent and able men, distinguished for their liberal opinions and enjoying the confidence of the republic; that the Cortes Constituyentes, clothed with plenary authority and animated by the most advanced ideas of the epoch, could not fail to sweep away the remains of the traditional policy of the old monarchy; that with the abolition of slavery, the existence of which could not be prolonged, the governments of Cuba and Porto Rico must be essentially modified, since the system of servile labor had been unhappily the unavoidable basis of arbitrary rule; that meanwhile the government would do all in its power to prepare the way for the inauguration of republican institutions in the Antilles; and with respect to their intercourse with the United States, with whom, as a sister republic and a loyal ally, Spain desired relations of intimate confidence and friendship, I could not doubt his sincerity when he assured me that nothing would be wanting on his part to promote the most cordial and satisfactory understanding between Spain and America.
With reference to the intimation given me by his excellency of an immediate change of governors in Cuba and Porto Rico, I suggested that the matters I had brought to his notice might conveniently be made the subject of fresh instructions to the personages now to be appointed; and I expressed the hope that in addition to the particulars already pointed out these instructions would include the cases of American citizens when arrested and confined in prison, in order that they might be allowed to communicate freely with the nearest United States consul, and obtain the advice and assistance proper to their situation. And in conclusion I remarked that it might be well to furnish the captain-general of Cuba with a copy of the seventh article of the treaty of 1795 as his guide in the questions of embargoes and in the treatment of citizens of the United States who might have occasion to claim the protection of the ordinary judicial tribunals for their persons and property.
Mr. Sorni, the minister of the colonies, replied that in preparing the instructions to be given to General Pieltain and Primo de Rivera, my suggestions would not be forgotten.
I am, &c.,