[Inclosure 1 in No.
346.—Translation.]
El Nacional on the protocol.
Honduras has seen herself obliged to give satisfaction to the Government
of the United States, and the people of Honduras have the right to know
for what this satisfaction has been given, and the more as the
publication of said documents may wound the susceptibilities of
individuals and of a party.
The government intrusts, without any commentary, to the examination and
consideration of the people, its conduct in this deplorable affair, in
the certainty that the people and the honest and impartial men will duly
appreciate the events and will know how to adjudge and to give to each
one what is his due.
The acts consummated in Omoa during the months of war in 1873 are well
known
[Page 168]
an all Central America.
The interested versions of the men who figured as actors in those
deplorable scenes are not to cloud the light of truth, which,
illuminating, discloses the prophetic and gloomy picture.
A government that has inscribed on its banner the word “honesty “could
not uphold acts that have merited universal reprobation, and have
brought upon Honduras an immense responsibility. That would have been as
childish as foolish to aggravate the odium and shame of the country.
The government, cognizant of the excesses committed in Omoa against
natives and foreigners by the forces of the republic, or by occasion of
the same forces, sent to take a twofold information, with the twofold
purpose of placing in its true light the reality of these acts and to
punish severely the authors. Such was the first idea and the first
resolution of the government on the occurrences at Omoa; but,
unfortunately, party spirit, which perverts everything, rendered
difficult or impossible the exercise of justice upon the men who
scandalized Central America and dishonored Honduras by a conduct that
has no example nor precedent in the history of our great
misfortunes.
The government, if it had continued in its first plan of bringing to
justice all of the culpable, would certainly have labored under
difficulties of the gravest character. Impartiality, the eternal
characteristic of justice, could not have existed during the
preponderance of one party over the other, and the heat of passion that
at times inflames all. Justice would not have been justice; it would
have taken the ignoble appearance of revenge; and the government would
have destroyed with its own hands and its own influence its programme of
conciliation, of tolerance, of oblivion, and of amalgamation. So it is
that only an amnesty so ample, so unconditional as that issued by the
Congress of 1875, could be the heroic remedy for the evils that carry us
so far and in which we all more or less have a part.
To conclude, and as it will be seen by the simple reader of the protocol
signed and notes exchanged with the minister of the United States, the
government has proceeded with the strictest impartiality, rendering
homage to justice and principles, without respect to persons, and
working, as it is accustomed, entirely above party feeling, which
lessens and dishonors us.
The government has looked at the events and has forgotten the men.
Noble Hondurans! Men of the green sash and of the red sash! Here is the
work of your hands, the misfortune, the misery, and the dishonor of your
country.
