Mr. Sherman to Mr. Dupuy de Lôme.
Washington , July 14, 1897 .
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your two notes of the 30th ultimo and the 3d instant, the first being in acknowledgment of mine of the 26th ultimo, touching certain phases of the policy under which the contest in Cuba is conducted on the part of Spain, and the latter in answer to my representation, on the 2d instant, of the specific application of that policy reported to me in the case of the American-owned estate “Confianza,” near Matanzas, which by proclamation has been expropriated as a colonizing ground for the “reconcentrados in that vicinity.
I note your reference to the supposed “tone” of my latter communication. I can only assure you that it was as far from my purpose to give an exceptional tone to my note as it doubtless was from yours in phrasing your reply.
My note was intended to be what you state you would prefer in such cases—a simple presentation of facts showing that an injustice is being done to the rights of an American citizen, coupled with a request that you would, as in past instances, second the representations the United States consul-general had been instructed to make in setting forth the injury complained of and asking the suitable remedy. I search that note in vain for the “concealed menace in certain phrases” which you assign to it. None was intended. It was a simple and direct statement of our case.
You are quite right in your assumption that I entertained doubt as to whether the authorities of the island may not have been ignorant of the fact of the “Confianza” estate being the property of an American citizen. As they stand, the representations of this Government admit of friendly and satisfactory response on the part of yours, leading to a frank and honorable disposal of the incident, a result which could not fail to be most gratifying to both.
Recurring to the more important general matters presented in my note of June 26, it behooves me to express sincere regret and indeed no little concern, that your response should so signally fail to grasp the scope and essence of my remonstrance against the manner in which the war in Cuba is being waged to the injury of the material interests of the island, and of the United States therein, and in disregard of ordinary principles of humanity. I note with the customary reserve your controversion of certain selected details stated in my note, but I find no intimation that the just and eminently considerate remonstrances put forth in the name of the American Government and people will be heeded, or that any change is likely in the systems of repression and devastation to which the Spanish power has resorted in the effort to attain by indirect ends which the legitimate machinery of civilized war appears to be admittedly unable to reach.
Accept, etc.,