No. 364.
Mr. Valera to Mr. Frelinghuysen.
Washington, March 17, 1884. (Received March 17.)
The undersigned, envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of His Majesty the King of Spain, has the honor to address the honorable Secretary of State of the United States for the purpose of bringing some matters to his notice for which this Government is doubtless not responsible, and which it is, perhaps, disposed to prevent, as far as possible, in order to show that it fully reciprocates the sincere friendship which is entertained for it by both my Government and my nation.
Owing to the noble hospitality which is offered to all men by this great Republic, and to the great degree of freedom that is here enjoyed, a certain turbulent minority of Spaniards, born in Cuba, take refuge in this country for the purpose of conspiring, without molestation; they insult their mother country and its most venerable institutions, and they proclaim war to the knife against Spain in public meetings and printed papers of all kinds.
They now call the war which they propose to wage a scientific war, that is, a war in which dynamite is to be used, together with other inventions for blowing up barracks, destroying vessels, and demolishing whole cities with their inhabitants. Any one taking a charitable view of these projects would be inclined to regard such talk and such threats as ridiculous bluster; yet the encomiums passed on wholesale murder, accomplished through treachery, and the open incitements thereto which are uttered so freely, are repugnant to the moral sense of all right-minded persons.
The Cuban revolutionists assert, in their newspapers, that they already have in their possession all the means that they require for the prosecution of this scientific war, and that they are preparing to use them; they have a Russian professor of that science, who is known as Dr.—, and who, it appears, gives them public instructions; they, in their turn, feeling grateful for his services, regard him as a public benefactor, and place him in the same category with Gutenberg and Washington.
They say that a single Cuban revolutionist, having been properly instructed by the learned Russian, can blow up one or two thousand Spanish soldiers quite conveniently and cheaply, and almost without danger.
The undersigned takes the liberty to send the honorable Secretary of State two newspapers, published at Key West, in which he will find stated at length what is here summarized.
This conduct of the Cuban refugees would be the more odious (if it were not so grotesque) inasmuch as recently, on the occasion of Agüero’s discharge from custody, the mayor, the lieutenant-governor of the state, and the collector of customs took part in the triumph, during which the grossest insults and the most savage threats were uttered, both in speeches and in yells, against my country and my Government.
[Page 503]The undersigned, who has come to this glorious and flourishing confederation full of sympathy with the well-concerted organism that constitutes its greatness, and of admiration for its growing and extraordinary prosperity, is ashamed of his degenerate countrymen who find refuge here, perhaps doing us some material injury, but abusing the freedom which they meet with among a noble people, and showing themselves to be unworthy of that freedom upon which they are trying to cast a dark blot; to which condition of things it is to be hoped that the honorable Secretary of State, with the means which are at the disposal of the Attorney-General, will apply a remedy.
The undersigned avails, &c.,