Mr. Blaine to Mr.
Palmer.
Department
of State,
Washington, March 13,
1890.
No. 72.]
Sir: With further reference to your No. 50, of the
3d ultimo, relative to the case of Mr. Doane in the Caroline Islands, I have
to inclose herewith a copy of a letter of the 7th instant, from the Rev.
Judson Smith, foreign secretary of the American Board of Commissioners for
Foreign Missions, in reply to a letter of the Department with which was
inclosed a copy of the note of the Marquis de la Vega de Armijo. In this
note it was held that, as it had not been shown that Mr. Doane had suffered
any loss in his property interests during his imprisonment on board the
Spanish man-of-war at Ponapé and his temporary removal thence to Manila, the
Spanish Government was under no obligation to grant any pecuniary
indemnity.
When the case of Mr. Doane was presented to the Spanish Government two
grounds of claim were set forth: First, that of injury to property, and,
second, that of unjust imprisonment and deportation. The report of the
Spanish authorities, so far as it has been carried, leads the minister of
state to the conclusion that nothing is due to Mr. Doane on account of
losses to property, since none was suffered. In regard to the second ground,
he says: “As to moral injuries which Mr. Doane may have suffered, your
excellency will agree with me that his dignity ought to be completely
satisfied with the disapprobation of the conduct of the governor of the
Caroline Islands, with his free restoration to his place of residence, with
the attentions of which he was constantly the object, and with the
declarations made by Mr. Elduanya and Mr. Moret, and the confirmation by the
latter of the assurances given by the authorities of the Archipelago, both
to Mr. Doane and the American consul, that the mission could freely continue
its labors in behalf of the propagation of the gospel, and all the property
legally acquired in the Carolines by the American mission would be
respected.”
In reply to these observations it is proper to state that Mr. Doane’s
imprisonment involved not merely a question of personal dignity, but a
deprivation of a substantial right, viz, that of personal liberty. It is
admitted that the imprisonment and deportation of Mr. Doane were wholly
unjustifiable. This being so, it necessarily follows that he was subjected
to a wrong for which substantial reparation should be made. The
disapprobation by the Spanish Government of the conduct of the governor and
the subsequent restoration of Mr. Doane to his place of residence were acts
due by that Government to its own sense of justice; but they afforded no
compensation to Mr. Doane for his loss of liberty as the consequence of his
unjust imprisonment. In respect to the losses of property, the Department
for the present suspends judgment.
You are instructed to bring these views to the attention of the Spanish
Government.
I am, etc.,
[Inclosure in No. 72.]
Mr. Smith to Mr.
Blaine.
Dear Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge your
favor of the 1st instant, in closing a translation of a note from the
Marquis de la Vega de Armijo to the United States minister at Madrid,
and inclosing a report in the case of the Rev. Mr. Doane. [Page 434] I have read this report with
care and observe its scope. I understand it to touch simply upon the
question whether Mr. Doane suffered in his property interests during his
temporary imprisonment on board the Spanish man-of-war at Ponapé and his
temporary removal thence to Manila.
The further question whether indemnity for a wrong thus done Mr. Doane,
an American citizen, is justly claimed, I do not understand these
communications from Spanish authorities to have any bearing upon; and I
infer from your own letter that the scope of these communications is
understood by the Department of State at Washington to be strictly
limited to the question of any material injury to Mr. Doane’s property
interests. It would be astonishing and quite beyond belief that for such
an act as the arrest and imprisonment and deportation of Mr. Doane upon
charges that have never been sustained, and which have been virtually
dismissed as without cause by Mr. Doane’s return to his residence and
work on Ponapé, should go without some definite act of reparation on the
part of the Government so offending. I feel assured that our Government
will not suffer the matter in hand to rest at the present stage, but
will insist with dignity and firmness upon the reparation which is so
obviously due to our Government itself and to Mr. Doane personally for
this outrage upon personal liberty and national rights. The relations of
the Spanish Government in the Caroline Islands to Mr. Doane and the
other Americans resident in these islands can never be one of just
security if this act of the past shall be suffered to go without proper
and ample atonement. Upon this point I do not feel that I need to
enlarge. I am very well assured that our Government is too sensible of
what is due to itself and to its subjects, in whatever part of the world
they dwell, to permit this serious violation of right and national
comity to go unredressed.
There is a further question of no little interest as connected with all
our missionary interests in the Caroline Islands, which needs attention.
I refer to the titles to missionary lands which the Spanish Government
seems disposed to ignore. In view of the high probability that the
United States will presently be represented on Ponape by a consul, under
whose care these matters may be more satisfactorily adjusted, it may not
be needful that more should be attempted at present. I mention the
matter because it has been mentioned in previous correspondence, and I
am unwilling that it should pass out of thought as though previous
complaints and suggestions had been without sufficient ground.
I am pleased to say that for the most part the relations between the
American missionaries of this Board in the Caroline Islands and the
Spanish authorities there have of late been friendly and without
friction. The presence of the Spanish troops is demoralizing in a high
degree; but this is inevitable, and is probably something which the
Spanish Government, however well intentioned, could not easily
control.
Renewing former expressions of confidence in the purpose of our
Government to retain its own dignity and the rights of its citizens in
every part of the globe, and calling your attention again specially to
the situation as described above,
I remain, etc.,
Judson Smith,
Foreign Secretary American Board of Commissioners
for Foreign Missions.
