Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, Transmitted to Congress, With the Annual Message of the President, December 3, 1877

No. 320.
Mr. Maynard to Mr. Fish.

Legation of the United States,
Constantinople, February 10, 1877. (Received March 9.)

No. 130]

Sir: I have the honor to announce a very important ehange in the ministry during the present week.

On Monday, the 5th, it was rumored that the grand vizier, Midhat Pasha, had been succeeded by Edhem Pasha, recently Ottoman embassador at Berlin, and one of the representatives of the Sublime Porte in the late conference; and toward evening the rumor was confirmed by an “extra” from one of the daily papers. The next day the change, with many others, was formally announced, and the reason for it given in a long and carefully-prepared article, manifestly emanating from the Porte, and is, therefore, the explanation which the public is asked to accept, t append a copy of the announcement and of the explanation.

The papers of Thursday, the 8th, confined the imperial hatt (decree) and other paragraphs relating to the same subject which are also inclosed.

Nothing has happened since the massacre of the consuls at Salonica in May last which has so completely dumbfounded the class of persons known as Turcophiles. They are silent with astonishment and mortification. With them, his highness Midhat Pasha was the ideal of Turkish statesmanship—a reformer and a true patriot. He had been a prime favorite with the British embassy, and was relied upon to circumvent and bring to naught the machinations imputed to Russia. It was he who had compassed the fall of the late Sultan Abdul-Aziz and the deposition of Mourad V; who had escaped the assassin when his associates, Hussein Avni Pasha and Rachid Pasha, were slain; who had marshaled “Young Turkey” and the Softas alike under the attractive banner of reform; who had supplanted the moderate and prudent Mehemet Ruchdi Pasha, and, constitution in hand, had assumed for the second time the high office of grand vizier; and who had spurned the conditions offered by the conference, bidding defiance to the great powers of Europe, and asserting loftily the independence of Turkey.

That he should have been set aside by the Sultan was bad enough, hut the reasons assigned for it were infinitely worse. If they were true, a gross imposition had been practiced by this honored and trusted functionary; if they were not true, a depth of turpitude in Turkish councils had been reached lower than anything yet charged by the bitterest enemies.

A sketch of Midhat Pasha has just appeared, evidently from one of this class of admirers, a little rhetorical and sensational perhaps, but giving biographical facts and incidents, I presume, accurately. He is represented as violent and vindictive and ambitious. He was grand vizier from July 31 to October 18, 1872, eighty days, when he was succeeded by Mehemet Ruchdi Pasha, chiefly, says Mr. Boker, by reason of the Sultan’s personal dislike. We are told in the sketch just referred to, that he “then began to conspire with England, with the Ulemas, with the Sheikh-ul-Islam, and, it is said, even with Russia.” My previous dispatches have shown how he clambered back to his former post, which he reached on the 18th of December last, maintained less than fifty days to be driven out in disgrace and sent an exile to a point which, if his enemies are wise after their kind, he will never reach.

It is due to him to add that unofficial people discredit wholly the charges of treason and conspiracy against the Sultan, and ascribe his overthrow to an intrigue, of which the head is Mahmoud Damad Pasha, a brother-in-law of the Sultan, following the immemorial usage of the Sublime Porte. His successor, Edhem Pasha, has not hitherto been conspicuous in public affairs, and no one has much to say about him. I called on him with the other members of the diplomatic body and was favorably impressed with his language and his manner.

I am, &c.,

HORACE MAYNARD.

[Inclosure 1 in No. 130.]

the change of grand vizier—ministerial and administrative nominations.

Yesterday afternoon, His Highness Edhem Pasha was formally installed at the Porte, with the customary state ceremonial, as successor to His Highness Midhat Pasha in the Grand Vizierate. The imperial hatt, which raises Edhem Pasha to the dignity of grand Vizier, also nominates Khourshid Pasha, governor-general of Aleppo, to be musteshar, or under secretary of state of the Grand Vizierate. The office of minister of the interior, which was created during the administration of the late A’ali Pasha, but suppressed after the death of that statesman, has been revived, and Djevdet Pasha, now minister of justice, has been appointed the new minister of the interior, Costaki Adossides Pasha, now president of the Pera municipality, being named musteshar. Under secretary of state of the ministry of the interior, Kadri Bey, prefect of Constantinople, succeeds the new Grand Vizier, Edhem Pasha, as president of the council of state, and is raised on the occasion to the rank of mushir and vizier, thus becoming Kadri Pasha.

His Excellency Ahmed Vefik Effendi is named president of the new Ottoman Chamber of Deputies. Ohannes Tchamitch Effendi is raised to the rank of bala, and appointed minister of commerce and agriculture in place of Halim Pasha, named a member of the new Ottoman Senate. Assym Pasha, governor-general of Adrianople, is appointed minister of justice, as successor to Djevdet Pasha, and is succeeded as vali of Adrianople by Ali Pasha, lately governor-general of the Herzegovina, and formerly ambassador in Paris. Sadyk Pasha, at present ambassador in Paris, has been named governor-general of the province of the Danube in place of Rifaat Pasha, who succeeds Hourshid Pasha as vali of Aleppo. Ohannes Effendi (Sakis), president of the court of appeal, is appointed under secretary of state (musteshar) of the ministry of public instruction.

Ahmed Moukhtar Pasha, late in command of the military operations in the Herzegovina, and recently named governor-general of the Island of Crete, has been appointed commander-in-chief of the fourth army corps, in place of Samih Pasha, appointed vali of Crete. Saïd Bey, ex-musteshar of the Grand Vizierate, is named a member of the council of state.

[Inclosure 2 in No. 130.]

[From the Daily Levant Herald of February 6, 1877.]

Yesterday added another heavy blow to the battery of shocks by which this sorely-tried empire has lately been besieged. The minister in whom all hopes were centered, and whom popular opinion held to be the very personification of patriotism and the ne plus ultra of high-mindedness and integrity, has been detected in a shabby and traitorous plot to overthrow the Sultan and establish himself as dictator under the nominal rule of one whose mind is dead. From the hour of Midhat Pasha’s elevation to the Grand Vizierate it was known that no mutuality of confidence existed between the sovereign and his minister. The firmness of the Sultan clashed with the unyielding character of Midhat, who would have preferred serving a more pliant sovereign, and, in his less-guarded moments, expressed this preference. Moreover, the Sultan always doubted the sincerity of Midhat Pasha as the champion of a liberal policy, and in the many qualifications and reservations which deteriorate the charter of the constitution, discerned an arriére-pensée, which, by the unveiling of the present plot, is proved to have existed. The relations between the sovereign and the late Grand Vizier were, therefore, never cordial, and the inflexible, high-handed manner of Midhat provoked more than one remonstrance on the part of the Sultan. The immediate cause of the actual rupture which awakened suspicion and led to the discovery of Mid hat’s rash design arose from the Grand Vizier’s neglect to give effect to a desire frequently and strongly expressed by His Majesty to strengthen the public service by the introduction of foreigners, and more especially of Englishmen of experience, in leading positions in all departments. It seems that last week this question formed the subject of some remarks on His Majesty’s part, who took the Grand Vizier to task for not having given any effect to his wishes. The Grand Vizier replied curtly: the audience terminated, and, on returning home, Midhat Pasha addressed a letter to the Sultan in terms which, to say the least, were undeferential, and which were a sort of paraphrase of a not very happy speech lately made by Zia Pasha at Smyrna. Summoned to the palace to give an explanation of his letter, the Grand Vizier imprudently disobeyed the imperial command, and continued to absent himself from the palace, although the order to attend was repeated on three successive days.

This unguarded defiance of his sovereign aroused suspicions, the police wore set on the alert, and on Sunday a correspondence was discovered which convicted Midhat of plotting to compel Abdul-Hamid to abdicate. Yesterday morning, therefore, a peremptory message was sent to Midhat to present himself at Dolma-Baghtché, which he had no alternative but to obey. On entering, his highness “was immediately placed under arrest, and required, by the first chamberlain, to give up the vizierial seals; He was then shown the letters which brought home to him his connection with the conspiracy, and, as there was no denying the evidence of his own letters, Midhat Pasha threw himself upon the clemency of his sovereign. A council of ministers being called, the ex-Grand Vizier was declared guilty of high treason and worthy of death. But the Sultan reminded the ministers that under the constitution no man could be condemned without a public trial. Midhat was then asked whether he would prefer being placed on his trial for high treason, or quitting Ottoman territory. Electing voluntary exile, his highness was next asked if he would go to Greece, but this he declined, saying that he would prefer being sent to Brindisi. Complaining of having no ready money at his disposal, a sum of five hundred pounds was handed to him, and shortly afterward he embarked for the destination of his choice on board the imperial yacht Izzeddin.

Such we believe to be the facts connected with this lamentable incident. It is in every way deplorable; as an example, it is bad; as a disturbing influence, it is unwholesome; as a specimen of what the friends of Turkey have to hope for, it is to the last degree melancholy. Still the facts before us prove that the Sultan has acted with prudence, clemency, and firmness, and the display of these qualities at such a juncture has, no doubt, saved the capital from disturbances. More than this, however, it has placed the sovereign before the people in a new light, revealing to them those qualities of heart and mind which win for a sovereign the confidence of his people, and gain him a lasting place in their affection.

[Inclosure 3 in No. 130.]

the imperial hatt.

The following is a translation of the imperial hatt relative to the change of Grand Vizier:

To my illustrious Vizier Edhem Pasha:

Having taken into consideration the requirements of our epoch, and the new situation occupied by our empire, we have established the constitution by our own freewill and initiative, the happy results of which it is to be hoped may inspire all with respect and confidence, and assure the future welfare of the country.

The realization of this aim depends greatly on the conduct of public functionaries of all ranks in the official hierarchy, who are enjoined to keep strictly within the limits of their several departments, and in no manner to transgress the laws laid down for their guidance; while, on the other hand, the loyal execution of all essential measures for the maintenance of the principle of equality which we have proclaimed in favor of all our subjects must be strictly carried out. To do this, it has been found expedient to make important changes in the ministry, and in the personnel of the same. The retirement and departure of Midhat Pasha having been rendered necessary in consequence of certain events which come under the jurisdiction of the constitution, we, in accordance with the provisions of the charter, and in full knowledge of your highness capacity, invest you with the office of Grand Vizier. The constitution having ordained the administrative decentralization and the reform of the provincial organization, the salaries of the caïmacams of the cazas (districts) must be augmented in a reasonable manner, and the nomination of the functionaries in question must only take place after the most minute inquiry—the same rule equally applying to the mutes-sarifs. These nominations must be submitted to our approval, and projected laws to this effect will be presented to the Chamber of Deputies for its consideration.

Interior affairs ought to acquire greater importance and extension, and for this reason the office of minister of home affairs will be re-established and will be brought into direct relationship with the provincial authorities. Djevdet Pasha, minister of justice, is therefore appointed to fill the post of minister of home affairs, uniting, as he does, all the qualities necessary for this office by his well-known knowledge and experience.

Seeing that various projects of law having their origin in the constitution must be created without delay so that they may be submitted to the Chamber of Deputies which will speedily meet for business, the post of president of the council of state acquires greater importance than formerly. We have named Kadri Bey, prefect of Constantinople, to this office, raising him at the same time to the rank of vizier.

Assim Pasha, vali of Adrianople, is appointed minister of justice.

The vilayets of Adrianople and of the Danube being at the present moment of special importance, it is essentially necessary that functionaries of well-known intelligence should be placed at the head of their administration. Therefore, Sadik Pasha, our ambassador at Paris, is named vali of the province of the Danube,, and All Pasha, ex-vali of the Herzegovina, is appointed to the same office at Adrianople.

We have equally confided to Ohannes Effendi (Tchamitch), member of the council of state, who possesses special knowledge on the subject, the post of minister of commerce and agriculture, raising his excellency to the rank bala.

Ahmet Moukhtar Pasha, at present vali of Crete, is nominated commander-in-chief of the fourth army corps, replacing Samih Pasha, who is appointed governor of Candia.

A certain means of assuring good government to the country is the assistance which our ministers and councilors receive from functionaries at once capable and intelligent. For this purpose we have decided to select special agents from Europe, whose advice on financial matters will be beneficial to the empire at large.

Hourchid Pasha, governor-general of Aleppo, is named councilor of the grand vizier and president of the commission charged with the choice of the kaimakamas. This commission will be composed of members of ministerial departments and of councilors of state.

Rifaat Pasha, ex-governor-general of the vilayet of the Danube, will go to Aleppo to fill a similar post there.

Costaki Bey, president of the sixth municipal circle, is created councilor of the ministry of the interior.

Ohannes Effendi (Sakis), president of the court of appeals of Constantinople, has been appointed councilor to the ministry of public instruction.

According to article 77 of the constitution, which deals with the choice and nomination of the president of the Chamber of Deputies, the law relating thereto will be put in force and take effect from the commencement of the ensuing year.

Article 65 of the constitution prescribes the number of deputies to be elected according to the population.

The provisional president of the Chamber of Deputies for this year, which is regulated according to the provisional institutions specified in article 119 of the charter, will be Vefik Effendi, the uprightness and loyalty of whose character, as well as his capacity for directing parliamentary debates, are universally acknowledged.

The ex-minister of commerce, Halim Pasha, is named member of the Senate, and the ex-councilor of the grand vizier, Said Effendi, will become a member of the council of state.

We are anxious that our orders should immediately be put in practice, and that every one should labor without ceasing to fulfill the laws of the constitution. You are required to put in force all the reforms which circumstances may render necessary, and you are called upon to submit to our high approbation all the decisions regarding the same.

May the Most High condescend to grant success to our efforts.

[Inclosure 4 in No. 130.]

midhat pasha.

We take from the Pall Mall Gazette the following brief summary of the portrait of Midhat Pasha, given in the Journal des D6bats by “Ignotus”, a writer who has written several remarkable political sketches:

“Ignotus” says of the ex-grand vizier: He brings to the Eastern question a new and unforeseen element—that of the revolution. The old empire has been reanimated with the aid of arsenic, that medicament which saves or kills in certain maladies. The work is too grandiose for the portrait of the workman not to be interesting, Midhat Pasha was born at Constantinople in 1822; his father was a high functionary. There is a legend of Midhat in his youth having been chained to the corpse of a faithless spouse and flung into a ravine, but this is doubtful. What is true is that Stefanaki Bey, looking over the papers of his father, found the following note: “Midhat, secretary of the grand council, will lead Turkey far and go far himself.” It is said that women are wanting in Turkish history; but this is an error. The Turkish woman, nothing as wife and sister, plays a prominent part as mother. The mother and son, until he is twelve years old, are imprisoned together. The Turk is doubly the son of his mother. Now, the mother of Midhat was an Albanian, and he has the defects and the qualities of the mountain race of Albania. He is energetic and violent. He is vindictive and honest. His temperament is that of a wild mountaineer and a fine gentleman. His defects have become almost virtues. His father was a Turk, lulled in Oriental slumber. His mother was as beautiful and lively as a Circassian. At eighteen years of age Midhat entered into the “translating office” of the Sublime Porte, which is the nursery of Turkish statesmen. At nineteen he went to Syria as secretary to Faïk Effendi. Midhat afterward became secretary of the grand council, and rose in position. He was made governor of the vilayet of the Danube, and he set up as a reformer. Ha is one of the men upon whom “Young Turkey,” whose views have never been clearly defined, but which are essentially revolutionary, counts. The principal members of the “Young Turkey” party were soon condemned to death or exiled. Midhat was afterward named governor of Bagdad, and increased his reputation. The grand vizier was alarmed, and recalled him. He was next appointed governor of Adrianople, and before starting for that place demanded an audience with the Sultan. There he spoke respectfully but firmly to Abdul Aziz. The Sultan listened without, uttering a word, and then said, “You are grand vizier.” This greatly astonished poor Mahmoud Nedin. Unfortunately, three months afterward the Sultan rejected the constitution which Midhat presented. Midhat fell, and then began to conspire with England, with the Ulemas, with the Sheik-ul-Islam, and, it is said, even with Russia. Midhat represents a great, patriotic idea. After the abdication of Abdul Aziz some one said, “Thank God, it is finished”; but Midhat replied, “It has only commenced.” The grand vizier is the impersonification of what is most elevated in the Turk, as Count Cavour and Prince Bismarck of what is most elevated in the Italian and the German. On December 19, 1876, Abdul Hamid made Midhat Pasha grand vizier. The “Young Turkey” party already finds him too monarchical. But no one is better than a conspirator who has succeeded, to stifle conspiracies. He has given offices to the revolutionary party, which is the true way of putting them under restraint. And then Midhat invented the famous adage, which is the résumé of his life and his work, “Religion is the love of country.” He created a Mussulman-Christian empire. This is the first word of his constitution, which is a sonorous variation on the patriotic chord. By means of the constitution Christians vote against foreign Christians; the cross and the crescent are placed together on the same banner; Rome forgets her secular quarrel with her younger sister, Constantinople; Catholics of all countries pray for Midhat. This man arrested the holy war which would have crushed his country; he invented a purely national war. The patriarchs are with him. Turkey, if she triumphs, will sing a Mussulman and Christian “Te Deum”; and should she expire, a crescent and a cross, will be placed over her grave. When Midhat prays, what does he pray for, this grand vizier of the new empire? Midhat is a good Mussulman, and speaks with the greatest respect of Christianity. He likes France, but desires to do otherwise than we have done. He speaks French, like every well-educated Turk at Stamboul. He is a man of eloquence, but theatrical in manner, and to Oriental imagery joins the vigor of the West. One might say that the grand vizier has put out the lights on the stage where he performs. Everything is in confusion. History has been turned topsy-turvy, as a. table covered with papers when the wind rushes suddenly in. Midhat Pasha, responsible as an English minister, represents rather the Turkish people than the Sultan. Mohammed copied our Gospels; Midhat copies our Revolution.

[Inclosure 5 in No. 130.]

[Extracts from various journals on the fall of Midhat Pasha.]

midhat pasha.

The intercourse between His Majesty the Sultan and the ex-grand vizier, on the occasion of his highness’s dismissal, was not personal. Midhat Pasha did not see the Sultan, but His Majesty communicated with him through Saïd Pasha, marshal of the palace. On the documents which indicated his connection with the plot being exhibited to him, Midhat Pasha exclaimed, “I am the victim of a Russian plot.” The police, department is now engaged in a thorough investigation of the matter. Meanwhile Midhat Pasha travels in Europe. He is not under sentence of exile, and his temporary banishment has no penal character. It was adopted as a prudential measure, justified by the circumstances as well as by the constitution itself, article 113 of which ordains as follows:

“His Majesty the Sultan has the exclusive power of expelling from the territory of the empire those who, upon trustworthy information received by the-police, are found to be causing injury to the safety of the state.”

It is impossible to form any notion at present of the extent to which Midhat Pasha was involved in the plot discovered by the minister of police; but the investigation now in progress, and the examination which Shefket Pasha, Kemel Bey, Shefket Bey, and others will undergo, will reveal the true state of the case. Midhat Pasha’s friends pronounce him incapable of conceiving any such design, but think it possible that, without directly seeking the results aimed at by the conspiracy, lie may have favored and encouraged views and ideas tending to produce those results, and may in this manner have helped to give consistency to the project.

change of grand vizier.

The following is a copy of the telegram sent by Safvet Pasha, minister of foreign affairs, to the representatives of the Porte at foreign courts, dated the 6th February, 1877:

“Midhat Pasha, having been relieved of his post of grand vizier, in consequence of proceedings on his part calculated to shake public confidence, has also received orders to quit Ottoman territory, in virtue of article 113 of the constitution.

“This change implies no modification whatever in the intention of the sovereign will to alter the constitution or the policy of the imperial government. His Majesty, the Sultan, by his imperial hatt of yesterday, prescribes anew the carrying out and rigorous application of all the liberal reforms inaugurated by the constitution.

“In announcing this information to your excellency, you are enjoined to communicate the same to the minister of foreign affairs of the government to which you are accordited.”