No. 639.
General Sickles to Mr. Fish.
If permitted to offer a suggestion with reference to your instruction of the 19th, I would remark that the tone, temper, and substance of the written communications made to me by the minister of state are very different from the apparent purport of the telegram sent to the Spanish minister in Washington and communicated to you. The refusal to say a word about the merits of the case, in a reply to a demand repelled as arbitrary, inadmissible, and humiliating, was announced to me here on the same day that different professions were made to you. Mr. Carvajal’s notes to me are exhibited here as showing the real position of this government. They are offensive in form and unsatisfactory in substance. If we hesitate, it will be asserted and believed in Spain and Cuba that we pause before the defiant attitude assumed by this government and people. This boast will be supported by the official and formal declarations of this cabinet in reply to communications I have made to it, in obedience to your instructions. Misapprehending our forbearance, Spain would abuse any success obtained by duplicity and delay, and show herself more than ever arrogant and regardless of our rights and dignity.
On the other hand, any concession now obtained at Washington will appear to corroborate the intimation made here in high quarters and generally believed, that my action in the matter of the Virginius has not been in conformity with the instructions I have received and is not approved by my government. I have the best reasons for the opinion that my prompt withdrawal from Madrid in default of the reparation the President has directed me to demand will convince Spain we are in earnest, and she will yield to our terms and peace may be honorably preserved. The fact that Spain holds one attitude here and presents another in Washington on the same day would seem to impeach her sincerity, and this dissimulation I am sure is due to the fear of a diplomatic rupture or something worse. This cabinet have already obtained all the information they will ever get from Cuba about this transaction.
The Italian government has kindly consented to allow Count Maffei, chargé d’affaires of Italy in Madrid, to take care of American interests here, and accept the custody of the library and property of this legation, on application being made, by your authority, through our minister in Borne. I hope you will make the request, and that this courtesy may be duly acknowledged.