No. 205.
Mr. Evarts
to Mr. Dichman.
Washington, June 7, 1880.
Sir: I transmit herewith for your information copies of correspondence* recently exchanged between this Department and the Colombian representative at this capital, concerning the reported operations of the United States vessels Adams and Kearsarge in the waters of the Isthmus of Panama.
Your unnumbered dispatch, written from Aspinwall on the 6th ultimo, in which you reported your friendly interview with the chief executive of the State of Panama, and especially your report of President Cervera’s pledge that he would hold in abeyance any contemplated steps with regard to the Adams and Kearsarge until you should have made to the federal authorities at Bogota the communication with which you were charged, left the Department totally unprepared for the precipitate and unfriendly action of President Cervera on the 12th of May, only one week after your interview with him, when, in a communication to the consular officers of the United States at Aspinwall and Panama, he abruptly ordered the cessation of the friendly operations of the two vessels and the immediate withdrawal of the Adams from Golfo Dulce, on the ground that no custom-house facilities existed there.
It is presumed that you are already in possession of the text of President Cervera’s unprecedented order, but nevertheless a copy in the original language, as received from Mr. Thoringtou, is appended hereto to complete your record of the matter.
You will lose no time in making earnest but dispassionate representations to the Colombian Government concerning this arbitrary act of the authorities of Panama. It is desirable that in so doing, in terms which are left to your discretion, you should, so far as practicable, pursue the mode of treatment of the subject followed in my note to Señor Arosemena, contrasting the conciliatory nature of the federal representations made at this capital by the national representative of Colombia with [Page 324] the harsh and utterly unwarrantable course of the state authorities in violation of the common amenities of treatment among civilized and friendly nations. It is desired that the firm and dignified representations you are hereby directed to make shall leave no doubt in the minds of President Nuñez’s cabinet of the gravity which we attach to President Cervera’s action and of the necessity that it should be disavowed or so explained as to deprive it of the unfortunate appearance of unfriendliness which it now bears.
I am, &c.,
Appendices.—Vide correspondence with the Colombian legation at Washington, infra.