No. 521.
Mr. Cushing to Mr. Fish.
Legation of
the United States,
Madrid, January 12, 1875.
(Received February 8.)
No. 211.]
Sir: I inclose herewith the following documents,
which exhibit the present general diplomatic situation of Spain relatively
to other governments, including the United States, namely:
- 1.
- Copy of a circular communication from the Marquis de Molins, as
minister of state ad interim under the regency ministry, received by
me on the 5th instant.
- 2.
- A communication from the proprietary minister of state, D.
Alejandro Castro, received on the 7th instant.
- 3.
- A decree of the new King, issued after his arrival in Spain, which
officially constitutes the new government, as published in the
Gaceta de Madrid of the 10th.
- 4.
- My response to the note of the Marquis de Molins, and to that of
Mr. Castro.
* * * * * * *
I speak of the change as a revolution, for such in
fact it is in a constitutional sense. Although the ministers assume a
regular transmission of sovreignty by descent from Queen Isabel to her
eldest son and legitimate heir, Don Alfonso, and while, in doing so, they
pass over the constitution of 1869, as a nullity, to go back to the last
previous constitution in force, that of 1845, yet, according to this last
constitution, the theory of succession would be defective by reason of the
irregularity of the abdication of Queen Isabel, since that constitution
provides as follows:
“Art. 46. The King requires (necesita) to be authorized by a special law—
- “1. To alienate, cede, or exchange any part of the territory of
Spain.
- “2. To admit foreign troops into the kingdom.
- “3. To ratify treaties of offensive alliance, special ones of
commerce, and those which stipulate the payment of subsidies to any
foreign power.
- “4. To abdicate the crown in favor of his
immediate successor.”
Now, Isabel has abdicated, it is true, but by a mere private act, without
authority of any previous law, in consequence of which the point has been
made, again and again, that her abdication might at any time [Page 1090] be revoked by her, and she might at will
re-assume the crown. To be sure, there is now no cause to apprehend any such
act on her part, she having, in various forms, accorded her assent and
approval to the accession of Don Alfonso. Notwithstanding which, however, as
a question of constitutional right, the flaw in the succession still remains
to the effect of imparting a shade at least of revolutionary quality to the
dynastic restoration.
In various other respects the accession of Don Alfonso involves departure
from constitutionalism.
Thus, in the circular note of the Marquis de Molins, he speaks of the regency
ministry as an organization “provided for by all the constitutions in the
event of the absence of the King.”
I cannot find any such provision in the constitution of 1845, or in any other
constitution.
The constitution provides that, in case of a minority of the King, his father
or mother, or, in defect of them, the next heir to the crown, shall enter at
once on the exercise of the regency. But that provision does not legally
apply here, because by the same constitution the King arrives at majority at
the age of fourteen. Besides which, this provision of the constitution has
not been observed in fact by calling the King’s father or mother to the
regency. (Arts. 55 and 56.)
Another article (60) provides that, if there be no other person to whom of
right belongs the regency, the Cortes shall nominate one, to be composed of
one, three, or five persons. But here has been no nomination by the Cortes,
and the present regency consists of nine persons.
Article 61 again provides that, “when the King shall be in a state of
impossibility to exercise his authority, and that impossibility shall have
been recognized by the Cortes,” then also the royal authority shall be
exercised by a regent or a regency. But that is in no respect the present
case.
Meanwhile the constitution does not provide for any such regency as the
Marquis de Molins suggests, “in the absence of the
King;” and absence from where? From Madrid? Clearly not; for it has been the
practice of the King to act wherever he might be in any part of Spain.
Absence from Spain? But there is no such provision in the constitution; and,
in point of fact, the decree appointing the regency ministry expressly
purports to be founded on an act of Don Alfonso performed outside of
Spain.
Finally, add to all this the consideration that it was not a regency
appointed, as a regency only could be, by the Cortes, but a regency ministry
combining with the quality of a ministry the incompatible one of a regency,
and its members designated in fact by a volunteer reunion of important
persons under the auspices of the captain-general of New Castille; and we
shall thus be constrained to conclude that the change has really been a
revolutionary one.
It must be conceded at the same time that this revolution approaches nearer
to legality than any previous one; that it has been accomplished without the
effusion of a drop of blood, or the occurrence of the slightest breach of
the peace or other disorder 5 and that it appears to be generally acceptable
in all parts of Spain, outside of the immediate theater of civil war, and
recognized as a consummated political fact by the rest of Europe.
The young King was received with royal honors in his passage through France
to Marseilles, on his way to Barcelona. It seems undeniable that his
reception at Barcelona was thoroughly cordial, as it will undoubtedly be at
Valencia, where he arrived yesterday by water from Barcelona, [Page 1091] and, meanwhile, unequivocal
manifestations of support of him continue to arrive from all parts of
Spain.
According to announcements made, he is to reach Madrid on Thursday, the 14th,
where the most extensive arrangements and preparations have been made for
his reception with all imaginable manifestations of loyalty and welcome.
And, after remaining here a few days, he will proceed, by way of Zaragoza,
to present himself to the army of the north.
* * * * * * *
The chiefs of all the legations held a meeting yesterday at the residence of
Mr. le Comte de Chandordy, the French ambassador, to decide what course we
shall take in the matter of the reception of King Alfonso.
We have all received individual cards of invitation to occupy a balcony of
the ministry of Gobernacion, for the purpose of witnessing the processional
entrance of the King into Madrid, and have accepted the invitation.
Question then arose whether we should call on the King, as proposed by the
Austrian minister; but the French, Russian, British, and some other
ministers, myself included, opined that it did not become us to take any
such step until officially instructed or authorized so to do by our
respective governments, and that proposition was rejected.
Next came the question whether we should partake in any of the forms of
demonstration customary in Madrid on occasions of this nature, such as
placing hangings at the windows, hoisting flags in the day-time, and
illuminating our houses or offices in the night.
The conclusion was unanimous to hoist no flag, to put out hangings at
discretion, it we found it convenient, but not otherwise; but to illuminate
as a matter of unexceptional conformity with social usages in Europe.
I annex, in justification of my own act in this respect, an extract from the
last edition of Marten’s Guide Diplomatique, with the very significant
explanatory note of the annotator Pinheiro.
I reserve for another dispatch some more confidential observations in
reference to the special position of the United States in Spain at this
time.
I have, &c.,
P. S.—January 13, 1875. While this dispatch is being copied there comes
to hand a note from the minister of state, under date of the 12th, in
reply to mine of the 11th, to which J refer in this postscript in order
to save the loss of time which would be produced by recopying the
dispatch itself.
You will perceive, I think, that Mr. Castro meets me more than half way
in the expression of readiness to proceed in this transaction of matters
pending between the ministry and this legation. I shall therefore call
upon him at the earliest convenient opportunity, and proceed at once to
business.
[Inclosure 1 in No.
211.—Translation.]
The Marquis de Molins to
Mr. Cushing.
Ministry of
State,
The
Palace, January 3, 1875.
(Received January 5.)
Sir: The events which have just been realized
in Spain are so clear and evident that they need no demonstration; so
legal and necessary, that they require no apology; and, nevertheless, so
great a desire animates the regency ministry not to interrupt the [Page 1092] friendly relations which
unite Spain with other countries, that, even in the absence of the king
and of the minister especially charged with international affairs, it
has the honor to address you through my channel.
Since the time when the dynasty of which Don Alfonso is the
representative set foot, he being yet a child, on foreign soil, every
kind of government has been tried in Spain without any success, or
rather, let us say, with deplorable and ruinous result. Elective
monarchy, federal republic, cantonal republic, unitarian republic, civil
dictatorship, military dictatorship, and even the absolutist system,
which a family of pretenders symbolizes in our country, and which, in
spite of all efforts, although it is potent to occupy and ruin a portion
of our territory, is powerless to establish itself throughout the whole
kingdom—all has been inefficacious as well as dolorous.
Meanwhile the hearts and desires of all the world were turned with sorrow
from the spectacle of present things toward the heir of our ancient
kings, to Don Alphonso do Borbon y Borbon, who, by the abdication of his
august mother, united in his person the monarchical right and the
parliamentary tradition.
Those who, see in the religious principle the mainspring of our national
history, and whose sensibilities were wounded by the excesses which in
this respect were committed by the revolution, reasonably set their
hopes in him, who, being the worthy heir of Catholic monarchs, abounded
in the faith of Ms fathers without, however, seeking to make thereof an
instrument and a standard for his political aspirations.
Those who, giving due heed to this same national history and still more
to the just exigencies of the present age, believe to be impossible
every form of government not founded in the parliamentary doctrines
which the ancient Cortes foreshadowed, and which are realized among
modern nations, also turned their eyes trustingly toward the king, the
immediate descendant of two illustrious princesses, who, now more than
forty years ago, bound together indissolubly the interests and the
existence of their throne with the interests and the existence of
parliamentary principles.
Even the popular classes and the most advanced parties, already taught by
the experience of unfounded hopes and of deceitful promises, had sadly
learned that the government most prodigal of those hopes and promises
was the one that most trampled them under foot when the opportunity
occurred, and exacted the greatest sacrifices of principles, of men and
of interest; and they too turned their gaze toward the young heir to a
constitutional throne, under the shadow of which great development had
been successfully given to the public wealth, and credit had been
maintained, without forgetting, however, either to spare Spanish blood
or to defend sacred and still glorious interests. All opinions, in fine,
and all classes had a unanimous although secret desire to return with
Don Alfonso to constitutional order and to hereditary right;
tore-establish with the throne the principal agent and the best
supporter which, by a singular exception, the public liberties have ever
had in our country. There are well-founded motives to believe that the
depositaries of public power themselves knew and confessed that the
proclamation of Don Alfonso, made in one way or another, was the only
solution of the Spanish crisis.
There is foundation also for presuming that, if the foreign powers
benevolently recognized the last dictatorship, it was in the
understanding that it would lead to a monarchical solution.
That which may indeed be questioned, and does in truth appear strange,
is, that the evil being so great, the remedy so evident, and the desire
for it so unanimous, King Alfonso XII was not sooner proclaimed; and the
explanation is at once simple and honorable. It neither comported with
his decorum nor with his interests, nor with the good of the country,
that the soil whereon he had been born should through his fault be
stained with blood, or that his good right should be weakened by
impositions of force or by melancholy excesses.
But the limit of public suffering having been reached, and the general
conviction being ripe, as you have seen, it was enough that at a point
distant from this capital the name of Don Alfonso should be pronounced
to cause that, without violence of any kind, and without any promise
whatever, in a few hours, all the great cities, although ungarrisoned,
and all the lesser villages, even those governed by revolutionary
authorities, and the armies themselves, without any action that might
have tended to produce indiscipline, should proclaim as legitimate,
constitutional king, Don Alfonso. Nor is this strange, because the
traditional and hereditary right is an irresistible force, and the
names, the personal qualities, and the dynastic antecedents of the King,
Don Alfonso de Borbon, are a political programme. His very name, the
most gloriously repeated in our history, exerts a prestige, and his
education also, received during misfortune and in several capitals of
Europe, is a guarantee of culture and of skill.
Of these circumstances was the product, and was born and constituted the
present public power, with the sole aim of reuniting the monarchical and
constitutionally, hereditary tradition by bringing to Spain the King Don
Alfonso XII, assuming forthwith the character of regency ministry,
provided for by all the constitutions in the event of the absence of the
King.
No further than this, Mr. Minister, extend either the faculties or the
plans of the [Page 1093] regency
ministry, and for this reason they are not more explicitly expressed;
but the public events are in themselves of too much gravity, and too
keen our desire to surround, as soon as possible, the legitimate and
constitutional throne of Don Alfonso with the good international
relations which before existed, for us to longer delay giving you
information of these facts, which we doubt not and hope you will bring
to the knowledge of your Government, re-inforced, perhaps, with the
influential testimony of that which you may have seen and appreciated
for yourself in a country in which you have already resided for some
time, and where you are justly esteemed.
The government has been constituted in the following manner:
- President of the regency ministry, Don Antonio Cánovas del
Castillo;
- Minister of state, Don Alejandro Castro;
- Of grace and justice, Don Francisco de Cárdenas;
- Of war, the lieutenant-general Don Joaquin Jovellar;
- Of finance, Don Pedro Salaverria;
- Of gohernacion, Don Francisco Romero Robledo;
- Of public works, Don Manuel de Orovio, Marques de
Orovio;
- Of ultramar, Don Adelardo Lopez de Ayala; and
- Minister of marine and of state ad
interim, the undersigned.
I avail myself of this occasion to oiler to you the assurances of my most
distinguished consideration.
The Minister Plenipotentiary of the United
States.
[Inclosure 2 in No.
211.—Translation.]
Mr. Castro to Mr.
Cushing.
Ministry of
State,
The
Palace, January 6, 1875.
(Received January 7.)
Your Excellency: I have the honor to address
myself to your excellency with the object of stating to you that
yesterday I took charge of the ministry of state, to which I was
appointed by decree of December 31, ultimo.
In bringing this to your knowledge, I improve the occasion to offer to
your excellency the assurances of my most distinguished
consideration.
The Minister Plenipotentiary of the United
States.
[Inclosure 3 in No.
211.—Translation.]
Royal decree appointing a ministry.
Barcelona, January
9—3.50 p.m.
[From the “Gaceta de Madrid,”
January 10, 1875.]
Royal decree.
The Minister of Marine to the
President of the Regency-Ministry, Madrid:
His Majesty has deigned to issue the following royal decree:
“Having happily arrived upon the territory of my country, and after
giving thanks to the Divine Providence for the visible protection
accorded to me and also to the people and the sea and land forces for
the constant adhesion and the enthusiastic affection they show j
exercising the prerogatives which, as constitutional King, pertain to me—
“I hereby nominate president of my council of ministers Don Antonio
Canovas del Castillo; and minister of state, Don Alejandro Castro; of
grace and justice, D. Francisco de Cárdenas; of war, Don Joaquin
Jovellar; of finance, Don Pedro Salaverria: of marine, Don Mariano Roca
de Togores, Marques de Molins; of gohernacion, Don Francisco Romero
Robledo; of fomento, Don Manuel de Orovio, Marques de Orovio; and of
ultramar, Don Adelardo Lopez de Ayala, who shall continue exercising, as
hitherto, their respective attributions during my absence from the
capital of the Kingdom, while I visit, as I propose, the armies of the
center and of the north. Given in Barcelona, the 9th of January,
1875.
Rubricated by the royal hand.
The minister of marine—
“MARIANO ROCA DE TOGORES.”
And by order of His Majesty I communicate it to your excellency for
your cognizance.
[Page 1094]
[Inclosure 4 in No. 211.]
Mr. Cushing to Mr.
Castro.
Legation of the United States,
Madrid, January 11,
1875.
Sir: I had the honor, on the 5th instant, to
receive from his excellency the Marques de Molins, as minister of state
ad Interim, a communication under date of the
3d, in which he informed me of the acclamation of Don Alfonso de Borbon
y Borbon to the throne of Spain—of the antecedents and inducements of
that event—and of the consequent organization of a regency ministry in
the absence of Don Alfonso; with expressions of desire for the
continuance of the good international relations heretofore existing
between foreign governments and that of Spain.
Reciprocating earnestly this desire, in so far as regards the United
States of America, I hastened to transmit the note of his excellency to
my Government.
I had the honor, further, on the 7th instant, to receive the note of your
excellency under date of the 5th, apprising me of your having taken
charge of the ministry of state, in pursuance of appointment, which I
have also transmitted to my Government.
I have authority to remain at my post discharging my present functions as
envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of the United States in
Spain.
I assume, however, that in accordance with the general diplomatic usage
of Europe, new letters of credence will be requisite for my formal
presentation to His Majesty the King.
Meanwhile, I assume also, that in like accordance with diplomatic usage,
officious intercourse between this legation and the ministry may still
be maintained, with advantage to both countries, for the transaction of
ordinary business, in the manner heretofore practiced in similar
circumstances on the occasion of material changes of government. In this
conception, and if your excellency entertains similar views on the
subject, it will gratify me to be able at an early day to pay my
respects in person at the ministry of state.
I avail myself of this opportunity to tender to your excellency the
assurance of my most distinguished consideration.
His Excellency Señor Don Alejandro Castro,
Minister of State.
[Inclosure 5 in No.
211.—Translation.]
Mr. Castro to Mr.
Cushing.
Ministry of
State,
The
Palace, January 12,
1875. (Received January 13)
Your Excellency: I have had the honor to
receive the note of your excellency, dated yesterday, in which you are
pleased to acknowledge reception of the communications from this
ministry of the 3d and 5th instant, giving you knowledge of the
acclamation of His Majesty Don Alfonso de Borbon y Borbon as King of
Spain, of the antecedents of this fortunate event, and, lastly, of the
organization of a regency-ministry during the absence of His
Majesty.
I take note, with the greatest satisfaction, of what your excellency is
pleased to state to me with respect to the instructions which you have
received from your Government to remain at your post, discharging your
present functions of envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of
the United States, and I am of accord with the opinion of your
excellency as to the necessity of new credentials, conformably with
diplomatic usage, for the official presentation of your excellency to
His Majesty the King, continuing meanwhile in the officious transaction
of the matters between this ministry and the legation under the worthy
charge of your excellency, as equally convenient for the interests of
both nations.
In this conception, not only shall I have great pleasure in continuing to
contribute to the cultivation of the friendly relations which have ever
existed between Spain and the United States of America, but I earnestly
desire to have the honor of making the acquaintance of your excellency,
as I already have had occasion to make that of the greater part of your
worthy colleagues of the diplomatic body.
I improve this opportunity to offer to your excellency the assurances of
my most distinguished consideration.
