Mr. Bayard to Mr. Scott.
Washington, July 24, 1885.
Sir: With reference to your dispatches No. 12, of the 3d instant, and No. 19, of the 9th instant, reporting the decree of the Venezuelan Government declaring the revolutionary steamers Justicia Nacional and El Torito to be pirates, I have to inclose herewith, for your guidance in framing an answer to the notes addressed to you by the Venezuelan minister for foreign affairs, copy of the correspondence* which has recently occurred between this Department and the legations of Colombia and Venezuela at this capital, from which you will perceive that the question of the competency of a sovereign, by municipal decree, to invest a revolted national ship in the hands of organized insurgents with the international character of piracy, recently arose in the case of a like decree promulgated by Colombia, and that our answer was that we could not recognize such competency, and that the character of the vessel and her acts, per se, could alone determine her piratical or non-piratical status under the law of nations.
I am, &c.,