No. 626.
General Sickles to Mr. Fish.
Will send to-morrow to London legation translation of reply to demand for reparation, to be cabled in full. Will also send Spanish text, which will not be cabled without your orders.
The reply is an invitation to enter upon a discussion of the questions involved, for which this government will be prepared as soon as it obtains a knowledge of the facts. Complaint is made that our demand is not supported by proofs and argument. The demand is characterized as without foundation, imperious, arbitrary, compulsory, and humiliating. And it is contended that the United States are not, in the present condition of the case, legally competent to present a peremptory reclamation.
In my cable of this morning I gave you the substance of the two enumerated [Page 952] declarations with which the note concludes. I now repeat them:
- First. Spain will come to no decision until satisfied an offense has been committed.
- Second. When so convinced through her own sources of information, or by the showing of the United States, due reparation will be made.