No. 93.
Mr. Gresham
to Mr. Guzman.
Washington, August 18, 1894.
Sir: In a recent dispatch the United States minister at Managua reports a conversation had with the minister of foreign relations, in which Senor Madriz seemed to be imbued with the idea that citizens of the United States were at the bottom of the trouble at Bluefields; and Mr. Baker adds that the assistant secretary, Señor Roman Mayorga Rivas,“announced the purpose of the Government to take down 1,000 troops and four cannon and butcher all the Americans in that territory if necessary to establish and maintain Nicaraguan rule there.”
In my frequent conferences with you concerning the state of things in the Mosquito Reservation, I have had occasion to inform you that the advices received by this Government show that the citizens of the United States in Bluefields and vicinity, acting under the wise counsel of our diplomatic, consular, and naval representatives in that quarter, have, as a class, maintained an attitude of neutrality and submission to the authorities. These advices are repeated and confirmed by the latest reports of the United States naval commanders in Nicaraguan waters, which make it clear that but a few, perhaps three, Americans at Bluefields took part in the recent uprising in behalf of the so-called Indian government, and that these were men of little or no standing in the community.
The pain the President feels on learning of the prepossessions of the minister of foreign affairs is allayed by the belief that on his present visit to the reservation as the authoritative agent of his Government, the true position of the great mass of the Americans resident there can, not fail to be apparent to him, and that the unjust impression he seems to have with regard to them will be speedily dispelled.
I can not, of course, suppose that the extraordinary utterances attributed to the assistant secretary of foreign affairs represent the sentiments of your Government, which has of late had too abundant evidence of the good will of the United States toward Nicaragua and too certain proof of our purpose to recognize and respect the sovereign rights of the Republic over all its territory, to allow of its harboring so unfriendly and biased a view as Mr. Mayorga Rivas appears to hold.
The naval force of the United States at Bluefields is charged with the duty of protecting American citizens there in the peaceable enjoyment of their legitimate rights of person and property. The commanding [Page 169] officers will doubtless counsel their absolute neutrality in the present deplorable state of affairs and due regard for the paramount sovereignty of Nicaragua over that region.
Accept, etc.,