No. 568.
Mr. Hurlbut to Mr. Blaine.
Legation of
the United States,
Lima,
Peru, September 13, 1881.
No. 11.]Sir: Negotiations are in progress between the
Calderon government and the military chiefs of the north and center, Montero
and Cacères, looking to a recognition of that government by these parties. I
am inclined to think they will be successful; and in that case the Piérola
faction will lose two-thirds of its strength and the whole of its
prestige.
I have been very freely consulted in the matter by the agents of both
parties, and have no doubt that the attitude assumed by me, as
representative of the United States, in urging union, has had a very
important effect.
Piérola seems to have lost his head completely, and has issued decrees of a
nature so utterly inhuman as to alienate from him many elements
[Page 929]
of strength. He has issued orders
to all his prefects to arrest and try by summary court-martial all persons
who acknowledge, aid, or support the Calderon government, and if found
guilty to shoot him at once. He has also imposed very heavy contributions on
the property of all such persons within his lines, and orders his
subordinates, in case payment shall not be made in eight days, to sell or to
destroy such property.
These decrees are published in his official paper in Ayacucho, and are in my
possession.
On the 10th day of September instant, I received a letter from Señor García y
García, secretary for Piérola, directed to me as minister, intended
evidently to convince me that Piérola was in reality the choice of Peru.
Knowing, as Mr. García did, that the United States had already recognized the
Calderon government, it was a singular procedure, and almost an
impertinence.
I took occasion to answer him at some length, and inclose a translation of
his letter, and a copy of my reply.
I communicated to Calderon the letter of García and my answer, because I
considered it a matter of good faith to do so, and I imagine he will use the
documents in his correspondence with Montero and Cacères.
Nothing further will be known, as I suppose, of the intentions of Chili until
after the 18th, when the Santa Maria government will commence.
Opinions are divided in Chili whether to withdraw their forces to Tarapacá,
or to continue an indefinitely prolonged occupation of Peru. The latter, in
my judgment, ought not to be permitted. Commercial and local interests, in
which our people are largely interested, are perishing day by day in this
abnormal state of affairs, and a stop ought to be put to it. I have in
previous dispatches given my views very fully and only await an answer from
the Department.
We are masters of the situation, if we choose so to be.
I am, sir, &c.,
[Inclosure 1 in No.
11.—Translation.]
Señor García to Mr.
Hurlbut.
General
Department of State,
Ayacucho, August 23,
1881.
Sir: The presence in Peru of an envoy of the
great American Republic is always the cause of lively pleasure to my
fellow-citizens, whose sentiments of regard and admiration for that
model nation are the natural result of deep-seated sympathies.
The national government, as the representative of such spontaneous and
delicate feelings, fulfills its official duty very agreeably in its
nature at the present time, in congratulating your excellency on your
safe arrival on the soil of our country.
Unfortunately the first views you have obtained have not shown to you
those evidences of progress or of tranquillity which the weary traveler
on his arrival to the hospitable shores of Peru could once contemplate
with pleasure.
The foreign war, to which we were challenged without notice, has spread
ruin and desolation wherever the enemy has planted his feet, and, as if
such calamities were not themselves sufficient, a petty faction of
unpatriotic Peruvians perpetuate these miseries, making of themselves in
the village of Magdalena the docile instruments of the invader, although
they are separated from all the country, in order to maintain this
appearance of anarchy.
This truth, which your excellency will have discovered by your own
examination of matters passing every day, must have formed in your mind
the persuasion that there is no longer any perplexity in determining
which is the executive power” in Peru.
[Page 930]
Guided undoubtedly by this foresight your excellency, in that republican
and thoroughly practical spirit which characterizes your countrymen,
said “the mission reserved for the sons of Peru is to give or refuse
their powerful support, as the basis of that popular force, without
which no government can long exist,” and afterward, “notwithstanding the
people of Peru are the only sovereign judges in this matter.”
Now, then, this sovereign judge in Peru, whose right your excellency
declares and recognizes, does not obey or support in the twenty
departments of Peru which compose the republic (excepting only the
cities on the coast occupied by the Chilian forces) any other government
than that of His Excellency the President Señor Colonel Nicolás de
Piérola, constitutionally proclaimed as such by the national assembly
now in actual session, which representative body was created by election
as free as ever took place in any nation.
The nature of this communication compels me to omit all commentary. I
have only desired to present facts, and as these are themselves
convincing in their nature, I ask that you will give them the attention
which they deserve.
These facts, also, will be the subject of study on the part of the
Secretary of State of the United States, to whose impartial and careful
judgment they will have been submitted by the plenipotentiary in
Washington of our ally, the Republic of Bolivia, in the absence of the
chargé d’affaires accredited by us in that capital.
The moral support which the factionists of Magdalena have sought to
obtain by cultivating official relations with your excellency, compels
me, in the love of peace, to direct to you this letter, which otherwise
would seem contrary to diplomatic usages and to the ordinary
practice.
I avail, &c.,
[Inclosure 2 in No. 11.]
Mr. Hurlbut to
Señor García.
Legation of the United States,
Lima, Peru, September 12,
1881.
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the
receipt of your communication of date of August 23, 1881.
In reply, permit me to say that it would not be proper for me to enter
into any discussion as to the internal affairs of Peru unless in answer
to some invitation to do so.
Inasmuch as you have, by your letter, opened the way, I propose to give
you my opinion very frankly, yet with all possible kindness.
Peru is supposed to be a republic under a constitution, which ought to be
the supreme law.
The seizure of supreme power by Señor Piérola and his assumption of an
office not known to the constitution were revolutionary acts, and
destructive of proper reverence for law.
The violent and forcible manner in which this revolution was accomplished
gave to the undertaking the nature of a crime against liberty.
The dictatorial office was a simple tyranny, autocratic and despotic in
its plans, in its titles, and in its acts. During its existence, the
constitution of Peru was destroyed, and the mere will of one man was
substituted for the laws and the constitution.
The people of Peru, suffering under a war of invasion, submitted to this
autocracy because they believed it would lead them to victory. Foreign
nations recognized it as a government de facto,
but did not approve its creation nor its methods. Instead of victory,
the dictatorship led to fatal defeats, and the dictator fled from the
capital.
The people of Peru have had no opportunity, since that time, to have any
free and fair expression of their wishes and their preferences.
The “national assembly” had no right, under the constitution, to exist,
and its decrees have no more legal value than the expressed opinion of
any equal number of private citizens. Their confirmation, therefore, of
the vast and autocratic powers of the late dictator, under his new title
of president, gives no greater validity, in law, to his authority or his
pretensions.
It is with very great regret that I am compelled to say to you, that the
recent decrees issued at Ayacucho, as to the persons and property of
those who do not recognize Señor Piérola, are inhuman and barbarous, and
of themselves stamp the government that uses such means, as being beyond
the pale of law. Such violent edicts are to my mind conclusive proofs
that the government with which you are connected depends solely upon
force and not on public sentiment.
A strong government, secure in the affections of its people, would never
have recourse to such means of cruelty and destruction.
[Page 931]
Such measures compel all civilized governments to look with disfavor upon
the authority which makes use of them.
So much I feel it my duty to say to you as to the government presided
over by Señor Piérola.
The government presided over by Señor Calderon does not assume to possess
perfect regularity. It is “provisional,” that is to say, a temporary
means of carrying on the functions of government, until the nation can
act freely and fairly. It is supported by the national Congress, a body
known to the constitution, and is an effort toward the re-establishment
in this country of regular and constitutional government.
You are mistaken when you state that they are in sympathy with the
Chilians. They are not. They want peace, as the whole country wants it,
but they will not sacrifice the national honor nor cede the national
territory to obtain it.
The Chilian authorities are in communication with both parties in Peru,
and you yourself have written to Admiral Lynch. Chili wants and demands
the territory of Tarapacá, and will recognize any one who will cede it.
The Calderon cabinet will not; it remains to be seen whether the Piérola
cabinet will. Meanwhile, under the system inaugurated at Ayacucho and
carried out by the prefects, Peruvians are to-day worse enemies of
Peruvians than the Chilians can be, and the efforts of the friends of
Peru are paralyzed by your intestine dissensions.
When the United States ask of Chili why peace cannot be made, the answer
is, that there is no government in Peru to make peace with. Is it not
better to make an end to this state of things, and for all true sons of
Peru to unite on some head of the nation, to whom all parties and all
factions should yield for the purpose of saving the country from
hopeless ruin, of restoring peace, and the orderly and quiet reign of
the constitution and the laws?
I have, &c.,
