Mr. Adee to Mr. Taylor.
Washington, September 22, 1893.
Sir: I have to acknowledge the receipt of your No. 33, of the 19th ultimo, in relation to the Caroline incident.
[Page 587]This Government has patiently awaited the fulfillment in this case of the assurances given six years ago, that the rights and operations of the American citizens established in the Caroline Islands would be respected. A satisfactory conclusion seemed about to be reached at the time of Mr. Snowden’s departure, but the dispatches of the legagation at and since that date show that the awaited settlement remained unaccomplished in its most vital particulars, namely, the return of the Americans and the reenjoyment of the property and other rights acquired by them during some half a century of civilizing and beneficial endeavor among the islanders.
This settlement, for which Mr. Snowden, like his predecessors, earnestly labored, is to be dealt with as a whole. The modest imdemnity asked and tendered for direct injury to property of Americans at Ponapé can not be dissociated from the question of their restoration to their rights, and can most evidently, not be taken as a just measure of the value of the sum total of their large and ramified interests in those islands, from the peaceable enjoyment of which the Spanish authorities appear to seek to indefinitely exclude them. You will press this matter to a settlement in all proper ways, by correspondence or interviews, or by both together, as may seem most expedient, expressing the profound disappointment of the President that the business has not before now reached the satisfactory adjustment that but recently seemed to be so near. The ample instructions on file in your legation suffice to show the earnestness of this Government in pressing for a just remedy of this conspicuous grievance and the firm reliance here felt in the merits of our case.
I am, etc.,
Acting Secretary.