Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, Transmitted to Congress, With the Annual Message of the President, December 7, 1874
No. 614.
General Sickles to Mr. Fish.
Madrid , November 16, 1873. (Received December 8.)
Sir: I have the honor to forward herewith a copy and a translation of a note from the minister of state, received yesterday at two o’clock [Page 940] in the morning, in reply to the protest which, in obedience to your orders, I had addressed to this government on the 14th instant, respecting the slaughter at Santiago de Cuba. You will, perhaps, deem it proper to take some notice of this offensive communication, and I therefore, in addition to the translation, send a copy of the original.
I also inclose a copy of my own reply to Mr. Carvajal, which I hope may have your approval. You will observe that I have confined my observations to a correction of such of the misapprehensions of the minister as seemed to require immediate notice.
In this relation I likewise forward for your perusal a copy and translation of a leading article in “El Imparcial” of the 14th instant. The view taken by this journal is precisely that presented by Mr. Carvajal, and one is at a loss to determine whether the minister inspired the editorial, or the editor wrote the note.
I may remark that the press of Madrid, and indeed of Spain, divides its space between denunciations of the United States, including their representative at Madrid, and praise of the authorities in Cuba for their zeal and fidelity in the discharge of their duty in all this matter of the Virginius.
I am, &c,
Mr. José de Carvajal to General Sickles.
Madrid , November 14, 1873.
Sir: I have just received your note dated to-day, protesting, in the exercise of your office, in the name of the Government of the United States, and assuming on your own account the voice of humanity, the representation of which does not belong to you exclusively, by reason of the executions which took place in Santiago de Cuba on the 7th and 8th days of this month.
The protest having been presented in general terms, and without relation to any wrong (agravio) inflicted on the American Union, the government of the Spanish Republic cannot recognize your competency to make it, even as Spain would have had no such right with respect to the sanguinary acts which have happened in our own day, as well in the United States as in other nations of the old and new continents.
The protest being thus rejected with serene energy, I have to fix my attention upon the harshness of style, and upon the heated and improper words you used to qualify the conduct of the Spanish authorities. If the document subscribed by you lacks the solemnity which might be lent to it by the right to address it to me, the temperance of its form ought at least to have demonstrated that it was not dictated by passion.
I would touch lightly upon this matter if I had only to occupy myself with the sting of the insult, (ofensa,) but, comprehending its intent, the government cannot consent that, in anticipation of its own judgment, the representative of a foreign nation, even though friendly, should characterize the Spanish authorities in other terms than those which the government itself deems just; an interference always inadmissible, but still more strange when neither the cabinet of Washington nor this of Madrid, nor yourself, have at the present hour sufficient data upon which to ground a complaint, whether concerning the seizure of the Virginius, or in relation to the subsequent occurrences.
Your qualificatory terms cannot even be repeated here, for they would impair the measured tone of this communication; but you will note that, without a knowledge of the facts, it would have been at all times an act of temerity to pass judgment upon the authorities, and that until such knowledge is acquired, it befits the elevation of character you have attained, to consider those as guardians and representatives of the law, while the persons shot were rebels seeking to trample the law under foot, enemies of the country, and disturbers of the peace and of the rule of a sister republic.
Disregarding mere impressions, you should have suspended your opinions, as the government of the republic has suspended its own, for it does not wish to expose itself to the stigma of being hasty and light in such delicate and complex matters. In this attitude it will continue to remain until it acquires full certitude; and you may rest [Page 941] assured that its spirit will not he altered by any kind of pressure whatever, neither will it be exasperated by your note to the extremity of forgetting what is alike due to the dignity of this country, and to that respect for, the laws which is above all mere expediency and national susceptibilities.
You conclude by declaring, also by order of your Government, that it will demand ample reparation for any offense committed upon American citizens or upon its flag.
It is to be regretted that you have not maintained under this point of view of problematical reality, the attitude adopted in the verbal conferences to which you make direct reference. In them you confided to the spontaneity and the cordial sentiments of the Spanish government the solution to be given to this incident, which you now, prematurely and with querulous anticipation, bring to the official arena, wherein I shall not fail to maintain steadfastly that the government of the republic is resolved that the law shall be complied with, as well in Spanish territory as in our international relations, and that no disparagement of any right will be tolerated.
I avail myself, &c.
General Sickles to Mr. José de Carvajal.
Madrid , November 15, 1873.
The undersigned had the honor, at two o’clock this morning, to receive the reply of his excellency the minister of state to the written protest made by the undersigned, in behalf of his Government, against the proceedings of the authorities at Santiago de Cuba, in putting to death, in a sudden, cruel, and unusual manner, a large number of persons illegally captured on the high seas on board the American ship Virginius.
The communication from his excellency the minister of state will be forwarded by the next post to Washington for the consideration and action of the Government of the undersigned.
The undersigned, nevertheless, hastens to remove a misapprehension which seems to have led his excellency to suppose that the language of the protest, and especially the words used to characterize the conduct of the authorities at Santiago de Cuba, were chosen by the undersigned in the expression of his own appreciation of the acts in question. It is, indeed, quite indifferent how the undersigned may describe such events, since the civilized world will not be slow to brand, as it deserves, a violation of human and divine justice, and history will not fail to record the verdict. It may, however, be interesting to his excellency Mr. Carvajal to know that the language of the protest to which he takes exception is a precise transcript from the instructions received by the undersigned from his Government.
And if the undersigned ventures to correct another involuntary error betrayed in the reply of his excellency, it is only because in so doing something may, perhaps, be contributed to a more discriminating estimate of the question at issue between the two governments. When Mr. Carvajal asserts that this government is not in possession of sufficient information respecting the capture of the Virginius by a Spanish cruiser and the execution of more than fifty of the persons comprising the crew and passengers on board the vessel, it must be admitted that his authority for the statement is indisputable. But when his excellency proceeds to affirm that neither the Government of the United States nor the undersigned are sufficiently informed of the nationality of the Virginius or of the circumstances attending her capture and the punishments inflicted on her” officers, crew, and passengers by the authorities of Santiago de Cuba to warrant a reclamation or a protest against those acts, the undersigned can do no less than point out to the minister of state that he thus assumes to speak of matters not within his cognizance and beyond his means of knowledge.
It is not, therefore, surprising that his excellency, while declaring that this government is without the necessary data to determine whether or not the Spanish naval and military authorities have acted within the line of their duty and of public and municipal law, at the same moment denounces the unfortunate victims of a cruel and sanguinary administration as criminals deserving instant death, and applauds the chief actors in the bloody tragedy.
In conclusion, the undersigned must observe that his excellency is also singularly unfortunate in misapprehending the forbearance of the Government of the United States in deferring the presentation of a formal demand for reparation in this transaction. It was not, as Mr. Carvajal seems to suppose, because the Government of the undersigned was unable to measure the atonement due to it, but rather for the reason, twice stated to his excellency, that the President wished to afford an opportunity to the government of the republic, unembarrassed by any exigency save its own sense [Page 942] of duty, and moved only by a noble sentiment of justice, to make sack ample reparation to a friendly power as the laws and usages of nations required.
The undersigned is grateful to his excellency the minister of state for the assurance that the law will be vindicated and maintained in Cuba. The Government of the United States has never ceased to enjoin upon the undersigned to make every appeal and omit no effort that might convince the government of Spain of the urgent need of such measures as would stop the demoralization and ameliorate the situation of that unhappy island. And if at last, under the good auspices of Mr. Carvajal, with the aid of that serenity that is unmoved by slaughter and that energy that rejects the voice of humanity, which even the humblest may utter and the most powerful cannot hush, this government is successful in restoring order and peace and liberty, where hitherto, and now, all is tumult and conflict and despotism, the fame of this achievement, not confined to Spain, will reach the continents beyond the seas and gladden the hearts of millions who believe that the New World discovered by Columbus is the home of freemen and not of slaves.
The undersigned avails himself, &c.
Leading article in “El Impartial” of November 14, 1873.
the question of the day.
When so much is being said of the diplomatic complications in which Spain may become involved by reason of the late events announced to us by telegraph from Havana, it seems to us not improper to touch upon a few considerations suggested to us by the dispatches from Washington, which we found yesterday in the French press, and by that communicated to us last night by the Fabra agency.
Little or no importance has been attached to the interviews the American minister has held with the President of the executive power, and with the minister of state, during the last few days. With that good sense which marks public opinion in all countries when questions that rise above the level of mere party rivalries are under” discussion, all have seen that this solicitude of the American minister was completely officious, and we do not know to what degree it reflects the views of his Government. Whatever use the Spanish authorities may make of their power, when their decisions involve persons put under their control by the laws of nationality, or the extraordinary ones of war, certainly no claim is admissible from the representative of another power-least of all if it be a friendly one, and republican, treating, as in the present case, with a nation constituted as a republic.
From this view of the case, the American representative could not attempt any interference without making what would be called in legal language an impertinent demand.
Nor could the seizure of the steamer Virginius serve as a pretext for a diplomatic claim, except in case of a capture not having been effected within the conditions established by generally-recognized maritime law, and for such conditions to be called in question by the United States Government it would be necessary to acknowledge that the pirate craft sailed under the protection of the stars and stripes, and with letters of marque—a supposition which can neither enter into the views of the Washington Government, nor indeed would it be lawful, unless preceded by a declaration of war. In any case, there might be a doubt as to whether or not the vessel was captured in jurisdictional waters; but granting this, the right of protest against seizure would belong not to the United States but to England, if such a seizure proved to have been made on the coast of Jamaica. But no such hypothesis can be admitted; for it is known, as has been affirmed by the press, that the capture was effected more than twenty-four miles from the Jamaica coast, and at a time when the vessel was being pursued from the shores of Cuba.
We are confident, then, that there neither does exist any diplomatic claim on the part of the United States touching this matter, nor are there any grounds for such a claim, and all that has been said of late about the affair can only be construed into officious interference on the part of the American minister, fomented, doubtless, by certain deputies anxious to trammel the government, in a spirit of patriotism which the opinion of the country even now estimates at its full value. And if there should be any doubt as to our statement of the case, it would be dispelled by a perusal of the telegrams referred to at the opening of our article.
We find in the Journal des Debats a dispatch from Washington, of the 8th, which says:
“Mr. Fish, convinced that the intentions of the Spanish Republic are entirely pacific, will come to no definite determination in the affair of the Virginius until exact information of the facts in the case shall have been received.”
[Page 943]But lest the above dispatch should be regarded as did news, here is another received only last night:
“Washington, 13.—The ministers have had a protracted council on the affair of the Virginius, captured by the Spanish war-steamer Tornado. They have resolved not to take any definite action until full official information is at hand.”
It is well that the minister for foreign affairs of the American Republic does not call in question the pacific intentions of the government of Spain; but in so doing he only renders a tribute of justice to our policy, and acknowledges our perfect right to govern ourselves as we please, and, above all, to protect our territory from the schemes of wily filibusters. But it should be observed that on the 13th, the Washington Government must have had at least eight mails from Havana, with official information from their agents touching the capture of the Virginius, which these agents might have received as early as the 1st; and yet the council of ministers of President Grant could come to no decision for lack of official news. At all events, it is not clear on what basis the United States can lay a claim for wounded rights or even a pretext therefor, when their agents in Cuba were unable to furnish information of the supposed outrage on the American flag after the interval of eight days; moreover it is not to be supposed that that Government will pretend to make any formal and admissible claiin for the acts of severe justice administered in Santiago de Cuba, since, as a colleague pertinently remarks, neither Spain nor any other power has said anything official or officious to the United States for the horrid butchery of the Modoc Indians, commanded or authorized by that Government.
As far as we know, no official claim has been made for these acts, and none is likely to be made. From any nation rather than from the United States, some pretext for interference in our affairs and for trammeling the government of Spain might be expected. There, as in all countries where practical democracy is a fact, public opinion is paramount and cannot be ignored by governments. In this affair, far less than in any other related to European politics, can the Washington Government afford to act self-inspired, and thus jeopardize their popularity. It must not be concealed that the immense majority of the American people are in favor of the consolidation of the Spanish Republic, and it would not be advantageous to the Government of General Grant to oppose that popular current by involving Spain in international complications at a time like this, when our government needs all its strength to solve our internal difficulties.
Furthermore, we do not know how far the American people will complacently regard the officious zeal of their representative in Madrid and his efforts to embarrass the progress of the government, apparently seconding the schemes of the irreconcilable deputies; for setting aside the fact that this behavior does not correspond with what the government of the Spanish Republic has a right to expect from the American people, it cannot even be justified by instructions from his Government, if the telegram of the Fabra agency be true when it says that the council of ministers which met yesterday in Washington were unable to reach a definite resolution for lack of data. Will Mr. Sickles be likely to have fuller information than his Government? It is to be supposed that this is not the case, and therefore we attach no importance whatever to these movements of the American representative.
And while we are on the subject of relations with the United States, we are bound to address to Mr. Castelar’s government a few patriotic exhortations. Spain was never in a better condition to solve the Cuban question than now. Everybody will call to mind that when we were a monarchy not a day passed but that the Washington Government, under one pretext or another, made claims on us, and not a presidential message was read in Congress but was pregnant with censure and even threats against Spain on her Cuban policy. Since the declaration of the republic in Spain, public opinion has undergone a complete change, and Mr. Castelar would do well to profit by this favorable disposition by putting forth a supreme effort to close out at once the insurrection in Cuba. No government was ever so favorably situated to realize this end; and should it be attained now, the present government would win laurels for the republic, the only ones, perhaps, the country could justly place to its credit. We at least would not grudge it this glory; for monarchists or partisans of whatever political doctrine, we are, first of all, Spaniards.
And we will close these lines, dashed off under the impression made on us by the latest news, with one suggestion to the government, who will pardon us on the score of the sentiment that dictates it, though it may be deemed impertinent.
Mr. Sickles holds certain personal opinions on the maintenance of the Spanish flag in America, and without doubt these find an echo in the great republic among a few fanatics, not by any means the most influential, nor, as a consequence, most esteemed, but the vast majority of the American people are more prejudiced against Mr. Sickles’s opinions than against Spain.