No. 249.
Mr. Blaine
to Mr. Morton.
Washington, September 5, 1881.
Sir: I have to acknowledge the receipt of your dispatch No. 6, of date August 11, 1881, giving an account of your interview on the day previous with the President of the Republic in regard to the attitude [Page 427] and correspondent relations of France, Great Britain, and the United States with.-the South American states, Chili and Peru.
The remarks made and the suggestions offered by President Grévy concerning the situation of affairs in Peru, have received that careful and respectful consideration due to the utterances of so eminent a statesman and the Chief Magistrate of France. I hasten to say that this government agrees with him in profoundly deploring the disorders and sufferings that have already fallen upon and the others that continue to impend over the people of Peru, and fully shares the humane and enlightened sentiments which have inspired in him a personal interest in that unfortunate struggle and have induced him to suggest a concerted effort by France, Great Britain, and the United States to bring the conflict to an end.
Such interventions are frequent in European diplomatic history, and have been sometimes followed by beneficial results in preserving the equilibrium of the powers. But the United States has not belonged to that system of states, of which France and Great Britain are such important members, and has never participated in the adjustment of their contentions. Neither interest nor inclination leads this country to wish to have a voice in the discussion of those questions, but out relations to the states of the American continent are widely different, and the situation is so nearly reversed that this government, while appreciating the high and disinterested motive that inspired the suggestion, is constrained to gravely doubt the expediency of uniting with European powers to intervene, either by material pressure or by moral or political influence, in the affairs of American states. Those republics are younger sisters of this government. Their proximity of situation, similarity in origin and frame of government, unity of political interest on all questions of foreign intercourse, and their geographical remoteness from Europe have naturally given to American States close and especial relations to each other, and, in the course of time, removed them farther from the European system. The interests, commercial and political, of the United States on this continent transcend in extent and importance those of any other power, and where these immense interests are deeply involved this government must preserve a position where its influence will be most independent and efficient.
In the contest-between Peru and Chili, the United States has watched the progress of the struggle with painful interest, and endeavored, as opportunity offered, to arrange terms of peace, and you will say to the French Government that while the interest which President Grévy has manifested for the cause of peace, and his sympathy with the unhappy victims of this war find an earnest response here, both from the government and the people, the United States declines to enter into negotiations with European powers for a joint intervention in the affairs of Chili and Peru.
I have, &c.,