No. 538.
Mr. Tracy to Mr. Evarts.
New York, November 5, 1879. (Received November 7.)
Sir: Under date of the 6th of October last, the minister of foreign affairs of Peru informs me that on the 14th of August last was signed in Paris, between the plenipotentiary of the republic, Señor Goyeneche, and the Marquis of Molins, the Spanish ambassador in France, a treaty of peace and friendship between Peru and Spain, which treaty, after being approved by the national Congress, which was voted unanimously, was ratified on the 2d October by his excellency the first vice-president in charge of the executive power.
For a long time past there had been noticed in both countries a general aspiration for a definite and perfect peace, and that result would have been attained, so far as Peru was concerned, in 1872, in the conference held in Washington on the 24th of January of that year, at the invitation and under the worthy and friendly mediation of the Government of the United States, if the plenipotentiary of Chili had not demanded of Spain “reparations for the offense and injuries inflicted on his country in the bombardment of Valparaiso.”
Since that date, and notwithstanding that on different occasions Peru might, with perfect propriety, have signed the peace, and that a collective arrangement was, as she was convinced, almost impossible; she took no action in favor of any arrangement, even sacrificing her aspirations and interest, through an excessive consideration for her former ally, the Republic of Chili. Lately, and severed as Peru now is from that republic, by reason of the perfidious and iniquitous war which she had declared against her, and after reaching an accord with the Governments of Bolivia and Ecuador, she has been able to act, as she has done, for herself alone, and in terms highly honorable for both nations.
The Government of Peru being assured that that of the United States will receive with lively satisfaction the intelligence of so fortunate an event, the minister of foreign affairs charges me to communicate it to the cabinet of Washington, through your excellency’s worthy channel, in testimony of the grateful and imperishable remembrance which the Peruvian people hold of the efforts which the government of your excellency was pleased to make in favor of peace between the republics of the Pacific and the Kingdom of Spain. In informing your excellency, therefore, that the unhappy dissensions which, for so many years, have separated Peru and Spain, are in consequence consigned to complete oblivion, as should be the case with two states united by imperishable ties of blood, religion, and customs, I comply with the orders received from the ministry of foreign affairs, and honor myself at the same time in offering anew to your excellency the assurances, &c.