Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, Transmitted to Congress, With the Annual Message of the President, December 7, 1874
No. 310.
General Schenck to Mr. Fish.
London, August 20, 1874. (Received August 31.)
Sir: I send herewith a communication addressed to you from one who styles himself, I believe, the first secretary of state of the King of Spain, dated at Lequeitio, on the 7th instant, communicating the appeal made by Don Carlos to the “Christian powers,” These papers came to me last night by the London post.
I have not thought it either needful or proper to make any acknowledgment of the note to me accompanying them, but forward the original of that to you also with the other inclosures. Indeed, if I were disposed to do so, I should not know where or to whom to write to say the communication had been received.
The main object of this address by Don Carlos to the governments being obviously to forestall or prevent, if possible, a recognition on their several parts of the existing government, under Serrano, in Spain, it is not only likely to fail of effect as to other powers, but is a mere protest against a foregone decision so far as the action of the United States is concerned.
I have, &c.,
Mr. Viñalet to General Schenck.
Lequeitio, August 7, 1874.
Your excellency: In obedience to the orders which I have received from His Majesty the King, my lord, I have the honor to address your excellency for the purpose of begging you favorably to receive the inclosed communication, which is [Page 542] addressed to the minister of foreign affairs of the country which your excellency so worthily represents at the English court.
Your excellency will perceive that the principle in question is one of strict justice. This is invoked by the King, my august master, in presence of the calumnious accusations made against him by his enemies, and I trust that your excellency’s love of justice will lead you to lend me your co-operation.
Be pleased to accept, Mr. Minister, the assurances of my high consideration.
His Excellency the Envoy Extraordinary and
Minister Plenipotentiary
Of the
United States of America at London.
Mr. Viñalet to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the United States.
Your Excellency: His Majesty the King, my august master, has addressed to the Christian powers the inclosed document, which I have the honor to transmit to them.
In fulfilling this high mission, I have sufficient confidence in the impartiality and the justice of the cabinet over which your excellency so worthily presides to appreciate the policy and the principles of equity which have guided it, and I hope that it will prepare the mind of His Excellency the President of the Republic in favor of a cause which is as just as it is patriotic.
With a view to elucidating this important document, I take the liberty of inclosing to your excellency the manifesto addressed by His Majesty to the Spaniards, and referred to in said document.
Be pleased to accept, Mr. Minister, the assurances of my high consideration.
His Excellency the Minister of Foreign
Aiwairs
Of the United States of
America.
Don Carlos to the Christian powers.
Being King of Spain by right, and reigning in fact over a vast portion of the monarchy, I address the powers of Christendom, which cannot remain indifferent to the fate of a great nation, whose destinies will certainly exercise an influence upon the events of the world.
I wish to be known, I wish to be judged by my acts, and not by the slanders which have been circulated concerning me. I wish Christendom, if it is to decide between the nameless government at Madrid and me, to know that an abyss separates the just claim of the legitimate King from the iniquity of a band of adventurers now transformed into dictators.
I obeyed the voice of duty and patriotism in confiding my claim to the Crown to the fortune of arms, after having exhausted all peaceful means in the effort to save my beloved country from the imminent horrors of a Spanish ninety-three.
God has favored me. I have obtained the true plebiscite, which thousands of Spaniards daily seal with the purest of their blood.
Without arms and without money to buy any, as Europe knows, I have formed an army with the elements supplied to me by the self-denial and the enthusiasm of a great people. I have conquered the enemy wherever he has offered me battle, when I have not offered it to him myself. I have but once retired before cannon six times as numerous as my own and incomparable in point of superiority; the strategic retreat from Bilbao, moreover, in which I lost neither a man nor a cannon, was brilliantly offset by the victory at Abarzuza. My vanguard is at the gates of Madrid, and the hour is near when I shall have completely annihilated that army of the republic which it is vainly sought to oppose to my victorious march. My enemies render their weakness apparent by the robberies, murders, and acts of incendiarism which they openly decree, and in which they engage in cold blood. After having ruined the country by their fatal ambition, they dishonor it by their crimes and murder it by their barbarous folly. Spain knows how I have behaved toward them. I appeal to the honor of [Page 543] those who were my prisoners before the battle of Abarzuza; they who are Spaniards will tell how I treated them, always doing justice to courage, even in those who had fought against me, receiving at my table mere commanders of battalions, rendering their lot more comfortable, and always finally setting them at liberty or exchanging them on receiving a simple verbal promise that an equal number of my own men held as prisoners should be returned to me; and this I have done notwithstanding the incessant failures on the part of the Madrid government to keep the promises made to me through the generals-in-chief of the republican troops, and notwithstanding the deportation to deadly climates of our men who were taken prisoners by them or retained as hostages among a peaceful population.
A day came, however, when our enemies ravaged our fields, burned our villages, murdered our wounded, and committed all kinds of atrocities. This I could not tolerate, and I subjected the guilty parties to the rigors of justice; yet, although all the incendiaries and all the murderers were condemned to death, I only permitted one in ten to be executed, declaring that, as the protector of the interests and lives of my people, I would spare them even then.
Being powerless to do anything else, and as cowardly as they are vile, they had recourse to calumny, accusing me before Europe, and before the world, of acts of vandalism which they alone are capable of committing.
I protest against these lies. If the governments and the cabinets wish to know the truth let them send representatives to the theater of our operations; the ruins of Abarzuza, of Zabal, and of Villatuerta are so many witnesses to the truth of what I affirm. They will see these ruins, they will judge, and it will be known, through them, what sort of discipline prevails in my army, what a paternal government I have given to these provinces, what acclamations they lavish upon me, and what love they manifest for me, even under the oppression of their enemies, which bears without mercy upon their persons, their families, and their property.
I have hesitated, and I still hesitate, to make reprisals, by adopting similar measures against all who are not directly in arms against me; still, if I am compelled to do so, I shall draw from my sentiments of justice the force necessary to enable me to resist the promptings of my generous heart, and I shall be all the more severe in view of the length of time during which I shall have shown clemency. The authentic information which the representatives of Christian countries will be able to obtain on the spot, and for the obtainment of which I will furnish every facility, will serve the cause of justice better than the false statements which are circulated at pleasure by those who have inaugurated a reign of terror in Spain, and who have, by decree, organized a monopoly of falsehood.
I have even been accused of having caused a foreigner to be shot for no other reason than because he was a correspondent of a newspaper. It is false. A German, who was taken with a revolver in his hand, at the head of a band of incendiaries on the outskirts of the village of Villatuerta, was tried by a court-martial, condemned, and executed. What was done there was well done; I maintain it, and the same thing will be done again, if it shall be necessary to punish, as in this case, an incendiary and spy.
A foreigner, moreover, who takes part in a civil war places himself, by so doing, beyond the pale of the international laws of war, and exposes himself to all the consequences of his act. For my part, in order to avoid national or international complications, I gave the strictest orders, at the very opening of the campaign, that the services of none of the foreign officers and soldiers who volunteered en masse to fight for my cause should be accepted.
I told Spain in my manifest, dated at my headquarters at Morentin, July 16, 1874, what were my views on government, politics, finances, religion, and international affairs. I here confirm all those declarations. My flag is that of order, and all legitimate progress, all moral and material improvements find shelter under its wide folds. Those who have sought refuge under it already feel its benefits, which will soon extend over all Spain and her colonies.
The government of the republic is dead; it declares itself conquered. All its organs and all its friends, both within and without, call for foreign intervention as the last hope, the last anchor of safety; and this because there are no more forces in Spain that can be marshaled against my advancing army, which is the living and enthusiastic expression of the national will.
This tells everything.
I do not believe that any government will decide to sustain a cause that is completely lost, to fight on the side of the authors of such abominable deeds, and to be associated in a policy whose basis is treason and whose main-spring is rapacity.
Nevertheless, if intervention takes place, we will calmly await it, strong in our faith and our patriotism, as we awaited the battalions of the republican army at the commencement of the campaign, when we were but a handful of men, and were destitute, of almost everything. Calling to mind the glorious example of the martyrs of independence, we shall fight for victory until the last, or we shall die at our guns shouting “long live Spain!”
[Page 544]But no; there will be no intervention; my conciliatory sentiments render me confident of this. I am full of faith in the impartiality of the powers of Christendom, and in my heart I feel that God is with us.
I desire to maintain the most cordial relations with all nations; and, since I am the guardian of Spain’s honor, I shall seek to uphold it in the dignity and greatness which wish to restore to her, and which will be the surest guarantees of the peace which she needs.
Don Carlos to the Spaniards.
One year ago to-day I drew my sword in defense of the honor, the prosperity, and the greatness of my country.
I was then followed by a handful of brave men who were almost without arms. We had no resources save our faith, and no hopes save our hope in God and the sacredness of our cause. The failure of previous efforts on the plains of Oroquieta against the duke of Aosta, who was as foreign in Spain as was the republic, had taken away the courage even of many who considered themselves brave.
But God has rewarded our faith, and has been propitious to us. I am now at the head of a considerable army, brave and well disciplined, which counts its victories by the number of its battles. The best generals of the revolution are witnesses of this fact. I have had them all against me; I have conquered them all.
This proves that my faith in the strength of right has already given me the right of strength. But the possession of this right, the only one that can be invoked by those who fight against me, does not prevent me from again appealing to the good sense of the Spaniards, and to the uprightness of all honest men.
True it is that the magnitude and the eloquence of the events of which Spain has recently been a witness almost render my words useless. My attitude and the bayonets of my volunteers say everything. I promised to save Spain or to die for her, and I shall keep my promise. The world well knows that I extended my hand to my enemies in token of peace, and reluctantly accepted the contest, which was as repugnant to my own ideas as it was to the wishes of all loyal monarchists; but, when triumph crowned the self-abnegation of the good, the arbitrariness and violence of the conquered rendered the efforts of the conquerors fruitless. Good faith, which had been trampled upon, and virtue, which had been derided, then called to me with cries of noble indignation, and I was obliged to answer those cries by drawing the glorious sword of Philip V.
I think, however, that I must tell once more what is my idea and what is the motive which guides me in this great enterprise, i. e. the restoration of Spain. My heroic defenders do not need to hear my voice again; but I have said, on a solemn occasion, that I was King of all the Spaniards, and I will prove it by addressing all, because perhaps there are some who still doubt the sincerity of my purposes, and suffer themselves to be deceived by the sophistry of my adversaries.
Born and bred in love for Spain, to save her was my first thought, and has been the one great thought of my life.
Law and tradition made me King. For this, and in order to maintain intact all the principles of the flag which Columbus planted in the New World and at Oran Jimenez de Cisneros, I refused the crown that was offered to me by the men of September, previous to the battle of Alcolea. I always thought that in order to ruin Spain there were too many pretenders, from Don Alfonso to the republic, and that it was the duty of the legitimate king to exercise his right, when, free from all compromises, he should be able, like Pelagius, to undertake the gigantic work of regenerating his country.
A King of Aragon, after having conquered the rebels of his country, cut into pieces with his dagger the odious privilege of the union, and that monument of license and anarchy was replaced by solid and true charters of liberty.
This is what I desire: To conquer the rebels, to cut their unlawful privileges to pieces with the sword of justice, and to give the people their charters of liberty.
And no one can give them better than one who, relying upon the love of his people, will not need in order to sustain his throne to take the best laborers and artisans away from agricuture and industry, and sons from their mothers, since the mothers give their sons with generous enthusiasm, and the sons are always ready for service wherever their faith and loyalty call them.
What I mean and what I desire is told in my letter to my brother, the Infante Don Alfonso, and in other documents which have been published with my signature. And [Page 545] as a chivalrous king has hut one word, what I have said remains said, and confirmed, and ratified by me.
Let no one say that my language is not sufficiently clear. Men who are always ready to promise, but never prepared to fulfill their promises, have no right to raise charges of ambiguity against the declarations of a King who only promises what he is resolved to perform. There are principles which are eternal, immutable as God, from whom they proceed. But there are political doctrines which are subject to the mutability of human affairs and to the vicissitudes of circumstances and times, and it would be rash to entangle one’s self with pledges based upon unforeseen contingencies.
Spain is Catholic and monarchical, and I will satisfy her religious feelings and her love for the integrity of the legitimate monarchy. But neither does Catholic unity imply a religious espionage, nor has monarchical integrity anything to do with despotism.
I shall advance not a step beyond nor remain a step behind the Church of Jesus Christ. I shall, therefore, not molest the purchasers of her property; and it is not long since I showed unequivocally the sincerity of this declaration.
Although jealous of my sovereign authority, and convinced that in a disturbed state of society a strong hand is necessary in order to remove obstacles from the true path, I nevertheless acknowledge, and always have acknowledged, that a people has the right to be heard by its King through the medium of its freely-elected representatives; and the voice of the people, when not distorted by artifice, is a king’s best counselor. I desire, therefore, a legitimate representation of the country in the Cortes, not taking for my model the revolutionary proceeding that has been frequent in those chambers, which are called sovereign, but which history will call monstrous offshoots of tyranny.
I know that generations are corrupted or regenerated by means of public instruction, and this shall be one of the points to which I shall give my most serious attention, for Spain and Europe have been able to see well enough that their great tempests are formed in lecture-rooms and in books to burst forth in parliaments and barricades.
Reflecting minds have long been pained at the condition of the finances of Spain, and the longer my advent to the throne of my ancestors is delayed the more disastrous will this become. Let all the responsibility of these disasters fall upon the revolution. I declare that if any human power is capable of saving the public exchequer and of raising the public credit I shall do it, with the aid of God and the patriotism of the Spaniards. And one who, by the strength of his will, has converted a band of twenty-seven men into a powerful and invincible army, which is now the admiration of the world, may well hope, with the aid of God and his own perseverance, to solve so difficult a problem. At all events, if Spain does not succeed in saving her exchequer, she will act the part of an honest debtor, and will be able to say with truth that she has lost everything save her honor.
It would be beneath my dignity to deny the slanders that are circulated by some among the less-educated classes, to the effect that I am disposed to re-establish tribunals and institutions which are not in harmony with the character of modern society. Those who know no law save their own will, and who have no energy but to browbeat the conquered and trample upon the defenseless, should intimidate nobody with predictions of imaginary rigors and acts of monarchical arbitrariness. Have I not proved a hundred times, by my behavior toward my conquered adversaries, that neither arbitrariness nor rigor has any place among my kingly sentiments?
I love Spain as the child of my heart; and God, who sees the hearts of men, knows that I dream of the glory of this noble land so far as to imagine that it is perchance destined to take the initiative in the purification of the active and intelligent Latin race, which is now disseminated on both continents as the indispensable vanguard of Christian civilization. And loving Spain as I do, I must think of her ungrateful children beyond the sea, who fight against her or deride her; their ingratitude is explained, in a measure, by the wrong-doings of the mother-country, but they will doubtless return to the home of their ancestors when peace and order shall have been re-established there by my paternal solicitude.
You see that now, as yesterday, I call upon all, even those who call themselves my enemies. I call upon them to put an end to this fratricidal war, and to lay the foundations of a lasting peace. Let the ambition of an always seditious minority yield to the eloquent will of this people, which greets me with acclamations, and which freely gives me its treasures and its blood. But if the cry of rebellion continue, I will drown it with the thunder of my cannons. All Spain will make a supreme effort to shake off the yoke that oppresses her, and those who to-day refuse to accept the offer of conciliation will tomorrow be obliged to submit to the imperious law of victory.
Your king,