Mr. Bayard to Mr. S. L. Phelps.
Washington, May 29, 1885.
Sir: I have received your No. 238, of the 1st instant, and it gives me pleasure to commend the vigorous terms of your note of the 28th ultimo to the minister of state in the case of the assassin of the American [Page 601] citizen Owen Young, who to all appearance could have been apprehended and brought to trial many months ago if the action of the Peruvian Government had at all corresponded to the proper vigilance which you have exercised in the case. Your observation to the minister touching the jeopardy in which the lives of other American residents of Peru would be placed were this guilty person to escape was especially pertinent, and this consideration is of profound interest and importance to the Government of the United States. You can take occasion to remind his excellency that a continued failure of justice in this case cannot well fail to bring the matter to the attention of the Representatives of the United States in Congress assembled.
I am, &c.,