Mr. Dupuy de Lôme to
Mr. Olney.
[Translation.]
Spanish
Legation,
Washington, September 13,
1895.
Mr. Secretary: I have the honor to inform your
excellency that I have communicated to the Duke of Tetuan the abstract
of our conference at Boston, and have told him that I had notified your
excellency that the Government of His Majesty the King of Spain had
taken the necessary measures to have paid at Havana, to such person as
the United States Government may designate, $1,500,000 in Spanish gold,
in payment and complete satisfaction of the claim known under the name
of the “Mora claim.”
I also informed him that your excellency had said that payment in coin
was unnecessary, and that you wished payment to be made in bills [Page 1176] of exchange on New York or
London, as the most practical and convenient method of completing the
transaction.
The minister of state of His Majesty the King of Spain tells me in a
communication dated at San Sebastian, which I have just received, that
he authorizes me to deliver to your excellency on the 15th instant bills
payable at sight, signed by me, to the order of the Secretary of State
of the United States of America, drawn upon the delegate of Spain at
London,” for the equivalent in pounds sterling of the said sum agreed
upon, $1,500,000 in Spanish gold, the necessary steps having been
already taken to have the said bills paid on presentation.
The 15th instant being Sunday, I will deliver the bills on Saturday, if
your excellency has no objection, the rate of exchange at which the
payment is to be made being that of the day of delivery, to ascertain
which I have requested Messrs. Riggs & Co. to make the necessary
examinations, which they have done, as shown in the copy of the letter
which I handed in person to Mr. Alvey A. Adee.
I avail myself, etc.
Acknowledgment of settlement of claim.
I, Alvey A. Adee, Acting Secretary of State of the United States,
acknowledge to have received this day from the Government of Spain,
by the hand of E. Dupuy de Lôme, minister from Spain to the United
States, the sum of one million five hundred thousand dollars in
Spanish gold pesos, paid in a draft on London for two hundred and
ninety-five thousand four hundred and twelve pounds sterling sixteen
shillings eleven pence (£295,412 16s. 11d.), the equivalent at
agreed rate of exchange of said one million five hundred thousand
Spanish gold pesos, in full discharge and satisfaction, not only of
the principal sum agreed to be paid in liquidation of the Mora
claim, so called, but of any and every amount that might be claimed
to be due as interest on said principal sum, the said payment being
a complete fulfilment by the Government of Spain of the memorandum
signed in Boston August 10, 1895, and being accepted as a full
compliance with the offer made by the Government of Spain on
November 29, 1886, of the sum of one million five hundred thousand
dollars in settlement of the claim presented by the legation of the
United States to the Government of Spain in behalf of the American
citizen Antonio Maximo Mora for the embargo of his property in Cuba,
said sum including all indemnity that can be claimed for said
property, principal, as well as interest, damages, and injury.
And the said payment of one million five hundred thousand Spanish
gold pesos on this day, in accordance with the memorandum signed in
Boston on the tenth day of August, 1895, is now hereby accepted as a
full, final, and complete discharge of all demands against the
Government of Spain by the Government of the United States growing
out of the claim of Antonio Maximo Mora.
In witness whereof I have hereunto set
my hand and affixed the seal of the Department of State this fourteenth day
of September, A. D. 1895.
Alvey A. Adee,
Acting Secretary of State.
