Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, Transmitted to Congress, With the Annual Message of the President, December 6, 1880
No. 508.
Mr. Mathews to Mr. Evarts.
Tangier, April 16, 1880. (Received May 17.)
Sir: In compliance with the instructions conveyed to me in your dispatch No. 162, dated the 13th ultimo, I have the honor to transmit to you herewith copies of my correspondence with our minister at Madrid inclosing copies of the annexes accompanying my dispatch; also a copy of the address of the Italian minister plenipotentiary at the last conference at Tangier, referred to in my dispatch to Mr. Fairchild.
I have, &c.,
Mr. Fairchild to Mr. Mathews.
Madrid, April 7, 1880.
Sir: You have, doubtless, been informed by the Department of State that I have been authorized, on behalf of the United States, to take part in a friendly conference [Page 798] of foreign representatives, which it is proposed to hold at Madrid, for the purpose of discussing the question of the protection extended to native Moors by the diplomatic and consular agents of foreign States resident in that country.
I am informed by the Department that you will give me all the information you can on the subject.
I am now in possession of copies of all pertinent documents regarding the question, which were on tile in the Department of State up to March 12, 1880, including copy of the Department instruction to you, and of your dispatches. From those papers I gain much information, but I would thank you to give me such information as you may deem valuable regarding the practice of protecting Moorish subjects by foreign representatives who are not in the employ of such representatives, and also as to the practice of protecting persons who, having been originally Moorish subjects, are now naturalized subjects of another power. What is the advantage to such naturalized person? Is it claimed that he is not to pay taxes, or obey the laws of Morocco, in all respects, so long as such laws are honestly and impartially administered? Is it held by the foreign representatives that such person, once a Moorish subject, is entitled to return to Morocco and permanently reside there, entering into business, &c., and be exempted from the operations of Moorish laws? Is anything more claimed for such persons than the right of the representatives of the country of which they may now be naturalized citizens to see that they are not abused and harshly treated by Moorish officers, thus interfering for their protection?
I shall be very glad to hear from you at length on these questions and on any other points you may deem worthy of my attention. I am sure you can give me very much valuable information, because of your long experience and of the great attention you have given to the subject.
I am, &c.,
Mr. Mathews to Mr. Fairchild.
Tangier, April 11, 1880.
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge receipt of your dispatch of the 7th instant, relative to your being authorized by the Department of State to take part in the international conference designed to take place at Madrid at an early day, and requesting me to furnish you with any additional information besides that already in your possession that may be pertinent to the subject, and also answers to your various questions in the matter.
I beg to state that I have also received instructions from the Department of State to the same effect, and I shall endeavor to comply with these demands by first giving you a brief review of the State of Morocco and the objects of protection; also copies of the opinions of several of the foreign representatives in Tangier.
As you are aware, this country is shut in by the Mediterranean, Algeria, the Desert of Sahara, and the Atlantic Ocean, crossed by the great chain of the Atlas, bathed by many rivers opening into immense plains, with every variety of climate, endowed with inestimable riches in all the three kingdoms of nature, and destined by its commanding position to be the great commercial high road between Europe and Central Africa, so soon as the rivalries and jealousies between some of the foreign representatives in Morocco cease to exist and the Sultan is unanimously advised and made to enter into the path of progress and civilization.
This country is occupied by about seven millions of inhabitants (so calculated in the absence of any census, as such a thing, as well as statistics or the art of printing, is ignored in Morocco) composed of Arabs, Berbers, Moors, Jews, Negroes, and Europeans sprinkled over a more vast extent of country than that of the Peninsula of Spain and Portugal.
The Berbers, who form the basis of the indigenous population, are a savage, turbulent, and indomitable race, living on the inacessible mountains of the Atlas in complete independence of the Sultan’s authority.
The Arabs, the conquering race, occupy the plains, a nomadic and pastoral people, not entirely degenerated, notwithstanding their oppression, from their ancient haughty character.
The Moors, corrupted, demoralized, and crossed by Arab and, in many instances, by negro blood, are in part descended from the Moors of Spain, and, inhabiting the cities, hold in their hands the wealth, trade, and portion of the commerce of the country.
The blacks, about five hundred, originally from the Soudan, are generally slaves, servants, laborers, and soldiers.
[Page 799]The Jews, calculated in number to 200,000, descend for the most part from those who were exiled from Spain in 1492, and from Portugal in 1496, and are, except those under foreign protection, persecuted, oppressed, hated, and degraded here more than in any other part of the world; they are even compelled to walk barefooted in the Moorish section of the cities, and with a handkerchief tied over their heads and chin to prevent the Moorish boys from tossing their caps in the air. My last address to the Sultan on their behalf has done much in the way of preventing, at least for the present, unprovoked personal ill-treatment. They exercise various arts and trades and display the ingenuity, pliability, and tenacity of their race, finding in the possession of money earned from their oppressors a recompense for all their woes.
The Europeans, whom Mussulman intolerance has little by little driven from the interior of the empire towards the coast, number about three thousand in all Morocco, the greater part inhabiting Tangier and living under the complete jurisdiction of their respective ministers or consuls, and exempt by treaty from all taxes, imposts, and military service.
The heterogeneous, dispersed, nomadic, and irreconcilable population of Morocco is dreadfully oppressed and totally unprotected by a military government, whose officers purchase their positions for the highest bid. This system, like a monstrous leech, sucks out all the vital juices from the state. The tribes, boroughs, or suburbs obey their sheiks, who purchase their office from the basha; the cities and provinces, the cadi, caid, and pasha; and the pasha, who buys his official post from the Sultan, obeys the Emperor, who is Sultan grand shereef, high priest, and supreme judge, executor of the laws emanating from himself alone, free to change at his caprice money, taxes, weights, and measures; complete master of the possessions and the lives and properties of his subjects. Under the weight of this government, and within the inflexible circle of the Mussulman religion, unmoved by European influences (which unfortunately are constantly laboring under rivalries and jealousies), and full of a savage fanaticism, everything that in other countries moves and progresses here remains motionless or falls into ruins.
This extraordinary state of affairs, which for centuries past has existed and at the same time prevented the increase of population and the civilization of Morocco, has been the cause of the practice of extending foreign protection to the subjects of Morocco, who had to deal, in commercial transactions or otherwise, with foreign merchants, consular officers, and ministers, in order to protect from the grasp of Moorish functionaries the interests of the foreign merchants in their hands, as otherwise these officials would undoubtedly appropriate to themselves the property placed for commercial purposes in the hands of Moorish subjects, either Mohammedans or Jews.
* * * * * * *
It is pretended in the name of the Moorish Government that the protection extended by foreign representatives is a growing evil and a detriment to the Moorish treasury, which is thus deprived of the taxes, which are properly due from the protected persons to the Moorish Government. This pretension under such an excuse is absurd, for it is well known that Morocco has no system of taxation, but only the arbitrary will of the Moorish officials, who deprive their subjects of all they possess. The Jews are the only subjects of Morocco who have a regular prescribed tribute or annual tax imposed on them, which is called the “guezzia,” and indeed it is paid principally by those Jews who are naturalized citizens or protégés of foreign nations in more proportion than the non-protected Jews, as the former are better able to pay owing to their protected state than the latter unprotected.
The laws of the country are obeyed by all, irrespective of nationality, religion, or protection.
It is further stated on behalf of the Moorish Government that the system of protecting Moorish subjects is of great prejudice to the rights and independence of Morocco. Morocco has a population of seven millions inhabitants; of these, five hundred are those under foreign protection, and chiefly Israelites, who invariably pay their tribute and are the most submissive and inoffensive people.
Under these circumstances the assertion that this insignificant number of quiet, peaceable people are of prejudice to the rights and independence of Morocco is well nigh baseless.
It is further stated that there have been irregularities and even corruption in according protection. Giving for granted that such has been the case in some instances, though it cannot be proved, there is undoubtedly a remedy, to put a stop to any or all such irregularities, (and it is in the hands of the chiefs of missions and the Moorish minister of foreign affairs, to whom the lists of protected persons is furnished), to investigate each case that comes within their notice, and which cannot very well escape detection.
* * * * * * *
Limited by the instructions which I had from our honorable Secretary of State, I had nothing additional to say at the last meeting, to what I had already reported to [Page 800] have stated to the Department, and of which you have the copies. My statements almost comply with the Moorish demand, and t herewith beg to insert my words as taken from the procès verbal of the last conference at Tangier with reference to the naturalized citizens of the United States natives of Morocco:
“M. le représentant des Etats-Unis ne peut accepter cette demande parce qu’il est de son devoir de protéger toutes les citoyens américains ayant ohtenus la naturalisation selon les lois des Etats-Unis, et après en avoir rempli toutes les conditions requises. Il a consulté son gouvernement à ce sujet et il lui a répondu de protéger les sujets marocains qui out obtenu cette naturalisation en tout qu’une puissance quelconque soutienne ces droits envers les mêmes sujets naturalisés par elle; et celà en vertu du privilège de la nation plus favorisée octroyé aux Etats-Unis par la Traité de 1836.
“Il profite de cette occasion pour déclarer qu’on acceptant les demandes de Sid Mohamed Bargash tant par le passé que pour I’avenir, il entend que tout privilège reconnu par le Maroc à une puissance quelconque est considéré reconnu de même an gouvernement qu’il a l’honneur de représenter.
“M. le consul des Etats-Unis dit que puisqu’un simple consul ale droit de protéger les sujets du Sultan il est plus juste de reconaître la nationality aceordée par les gouvernements mêmes. C’est là d’après lui une anomalie inexplicable.”
I considered my course most advisable in the premises, as by the terms of our treaty of 1836 with Morocco we are entitled to adopt for our citizens the same rights and privileges accorded by the Moorish Government to the most favored nation, and as Portugal, Brazil, and France will not relinquish their protection to the naturalized Moorish subjects of their respective nations, and as neither of them will abandon their rights of protecting Moorish subjects, * * * we can always make use of those privileges should occasion require its exercising the same on behalf of our commerce.
So long as Morocco refuses to establish mixed tribunals for the fair administration of equal law to its subjects irrespective of religious persuasion, it will be imprudent to abandon the only way of protecting the interests of our citizens or merchants having to deal in Barbary; we cannot depend on Moorish promises, for we have the very recent cases of Amar, the Jew, from whom Spanish protection was withdrawn, and immediately he was seized and imprisoned under a false accusation with the only object of extorting from him all his money—the assassination of Jews and the burning alive of another. All this took place immediately after the rumors spread that the foreign representatives had withdrawn their protection from the Jews.
Hadje Nassar, a naturalized citizen of the United States, but of Moorish birth, who came from New York to invest in Moorish goods, gave a Moor $800 in the presence of witnesses and notaries; the Moor went to the interior, where, on the governor knowing of his having money, he at once put him in prison and robbed him of all he had, and up to this day the victim is still in prison, and I expect I shall have some difficulty in causing the restoration of the money to our citizen. Another instance is that of Captain Cobb, a native-born American citizen of Clinton, Conn., who placed some cattle he bought in the hands of a Moor for pasture, and on the governor having knowledge of the fact of that poor man having cattle in his possession, he seized him, put him in jail with chains on his neck, and carried away all the cattle. Captain Cobb has been complaining to the authorities about it, and though they have promised; to do him justice, they have done nothing yet.
Only the mere supposition that the foreign protections have been abandoned, has induced the Moorish officials all through Morocco to come down on all who were even suspected of having had the slightest degree of protection; therefore, unless the Moorish Government moderates its morals and effects a complete change in the administration of justice, establishing mixed tribunals, equalization of taxes, and payment of its officials with a regular salary, there will be no security for their persons and property.
In conclusion, I may add, that the so-called Moorish law is based on the Koran,, which admits of no evidence whatever but from those professing the Mohammedan religion; hence the practice of consuls exercising their jurisdiction over their subjects, citizens, or protégés, as otherwise a Christian or an Israelite, having only Christians or Jews for witnesses, who are not admitted in the Moorish tribunals, could never substantiate his case.
The foreign naturalized citizens, natives of Morocco, as well as those of Moorish subjects under foreign protection, are most willing to pay any regular tax imposed on them by the Moorish Government, notwithstanding that the Spanish treaty exempts them from the payment of any tax; but the Moorish Government have no system of taxation but the arbitrary will of governors and officials who have bought their appointment from the Sultan, and must make up from those subjects under their jurisdiction for the sum disbursed to obtain the position; hence the practice of almost all Moors to bury their money and conceal their property, always pleading poverty in order to escape being taken up under an imaginary pretence and divested of all their savings.
[Page 801]All persons in Morocco engaged in agricultural pursuits have to pay tithes.
This immoral and corrupted state of affairs is the real cause of the anxiety of the Moorish subjects in retaining or obtaining foreign protection, but not to evade their payment of regular taxes. I beg to inclose the translation of an exposition which, through the prime minister of the King of Spain, will be presented to the members of your congress, which proves that the Israelites are the only community directly taxed, and who, whether protected or not, always pay the tax imposed on them, and are still willing to pay any additional tax that may be consented to by the foreign representatives, provided their lives and property are secure, which is all they desire.
The Moorish Kabyles of Riff, who sent delegates to Spain with a view to annex themselves to that kingdom, were all willing to pay the tax to Spain regularly, and knowing it would be higher than that which the Sultan himself claims from them. This fact proves that their aim was not to escape taxation, but to prevent imposition and extortion from the unpaid Moorish officials, who always take for themselves the lion’s share.
I shall forward to you copies of my last dispatches to the Department of State pertinent to the subject of protection in addition to those transmitted to you by the Department.
I have, &c.,
Exposition of the Grand Rabbi, the elders, and several Israelites of high standing in the city of Tangier to Don Antonio Cánovas del Castillo, prime minister of His Majesty the King of Spain.
Most Excellent Sir: Convinced of the high degree of humanity, impartiality, and justice which distinguish your excellency, we have the honor to expose through your excellency’s worthy channel to the illustrious representatives which will form the diplomatic congress which is to take place in that court, that the object of the Hebrews of this empire in soliciting so earnestly the foreign protection has never been, nor is, to exempt themselves from the payment of taxes, as some of the newspapers have wished to conceive, but only to secure their lives and properties. Moreover, even the tax of capitation (Guezzia) imposed exclusively to the Hebrews is religiously paid by those who are protected as well as by those who are not, and they would equally submit themselves to pay any other tax imposed on them by the Sultan’s Government, should it be sanctioned by the representatives of foreign nations.
May God preserve your excellency for many years.
Tangier, April 12, 1880.
Most excellent sir, yours, &c.,