No. 587.
Mr. Cushing to Mr. Fish.
Fish, Secretary of State, Washington:
My note to Castro is as follows:
Madrid, February 11.
[Confidential.]
Mr. Minister:
My Dear Sir: I have the honor herewith, in respectful accordance with a suggestion made by your excellency during our conversation of yesterday, to submit my views regarding the precise sum of indemnity proper to be allowed to the United States in the matter of the Virginius. Your excellency will observe in reading the note of Mr. Ulloa to Mr. Macdonell, of the 6th of August, that the sum paid to Great Britain in this behalf purports to be an advance or partial payment, leaving the total amount to be fixed by future negotiation.
Now, as your excellency has already, induced by laudable desire of concord, agreed that the sum allowed to the United States shall be unconditional, I propose, in the same desire of concord, that it shall be definitive and without having the door remain open for further reclamation in the premises, which proposal cannot but be acceptable to the Spanish government. Moreover, the arrangement made with Great Britain comprehended another condition which, as I think, it is for the interest both of Spain and the United States to pretermit; that is, the engagement of Great Britain to account to Spain for the distribution of the sum in the first instance accorded. It seems to me that such a condition might lead to future causes of dispute which it would be better for our respective governments to prevent and avoid.
This point was much discussed by the tribunal of arbitration at Geneva, with the judicious conclusion that it was most advisable to decree a specific sum in gross to be paid by Great Britain, committing to the United States the national duty and the national responsibility of the equitable distribution of such sum among the several claimants without any accounting therefor to Great Britain. I propose, therefore, that the sum to be paid in the present case be a final one, and intrusted, in so far as regards the distribution thereof, to the discretion of the United States.
Our claim was based on the sum paid to Great Britain for each ordinary white man as a starting-point, but with exclusion of the lesser sum allowed for colored youths, and it proceeded on the calculation of an increased rate for officers, that increase not arbitrary, but measured by the relative rate of wages of officers and men in the steam-service.
In this respect, also, my judgment was guided by experience gained in the arbitral proceedings at Geneva.
[Page 1249]The necessary result was a larger sum total than that offered to Great Britain. First, because no depreciatory discrimination for colored persons entered into my calculations; secondly, because it embraced a larger number of persons; and thirdly, a greater proportion of officers, including the captain.
In view of all which, I propose, as the lowest amount which will satisfy my Government, the sum of $80,000, to cover all claims of the United States for pecuniary indemnity, in the matter, whatever they may be; and still more to facilitate the conclusion of the present provisional arrangement, I propose to leave the time of payment to be fixed in our official agreement, feeling sure, from what I have had the gratification of seeing of the spirit of justice, frankness, and good faith which animates your excellency, that we shall readily agree on this point, since you will not propose any delay unworthy of Spain or unacceptable to the United States. If your excellency shall be pleased to signify assent to these views, it will be my most agreeable duty to telegraph home that this painful controversy, transmitted to you by previous administrations, has, by our joint efforts, been at length concluded in a manner honorable to both nations and eminently conducive to a permanent good understanding between the respective governments.
I avail, &c.
His note to me reads thus:
Ministry of State,
The Palace, February 15.
[Confidential.]
My Dear Sir: In due time I received your excellency’s letter of the 11th instant, which, to my deep regret, manifold and urgent occupations have not permitted meto answer sooner, as I should have desired, in order to respond duly to the friendly solicitude displayed by your excellency for the speedy and definitive settlement of the important affair which occupies us. I have, in compensation, the honor to be enabled today to inform your excellency, in the name of the government of His Majesty, of the full acceptance of the proposition of the Government of the United States, which fixes at $80,000 the total of the sum to be paid by that of Spain for distribution among the families of the Americans shot in consequence of the capture of the Virginius.
In communicating to your excellency this conformity, I must add that, in treating of a Government so worthy of consideration as that of Washington, and of persons so worthy of respect as those who compose it, whatever the form in which this amicable settlement between the two cabinets had been effected, it would never have been my intention to propose that the Government of your excellency should give account of the manner in which the sum agreed upon was distributed, and much less having intervened so efficaciously in these negotiations one who, like your excellency, merits by his distinguished personal qualities the highest esteem of the government of His Majesty. This distribution, therefore, appertains exclusively to the Government of the United States, inspired by the upright and notable sentiments which animate it. It remains to me now to await with real impatience until, the representation of your excellency near His Majesty the King being regularized, we can in common accord formalize this agreement, due principally to the spirit of the friendly sentiments which exist between the two governments, and of which your excellency has been a faithful and most worthy interpreter in the course of the negotiations.
I am, sir, &c.