Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, Transmitted to Congress, With the Annual Message of the President, December 7, 1874

No. 100.
Mr. Williamson to Mr. Fish.

[Extract.]

United States Legation in Central America,
Guatemala, March 23, 1874. (Received April 20.)

No. 120.]

Sir: I have the honor to inform you the government of Guatemala has recently issued two decrees in regard to the religious orders of the country.

One decree has for its object the abolition of all convents and monasteries and the confiscation of the property; the other prohibits the priests from wearing their clerical dress in the streets.

Both decrees have been executed with military promptness and rigor. The nuns are now guests in the houses of their friends. Among them is an American lady, the prioress of the convent of St. Teresa, to whom I have offered the hospitalities of the legation.

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I have, &c.,

GEO. WILLIAMSON.