Count Vinci to Mr. Hay.
Washington, July 25, 1899.
Mr. Secretary of State: His Majesty’s Government has learned that the grand jury of Madison Parish, acting as a court of (investigation and) accusation, has reached the conclusion, in the case of the occurrence at Tallulah, after a careful investigation, that it is wholly unable to discover the names of the perpetrators of the lynching of the 20th instant, and His Majesty’s Government has requested me to inform it whether the information received by it is true, and whether, if it is true, it means that no further criminal proceedings are to be instituted against the lynchers.
Should the facts really be as they have been reported to His Majesty’s Government, the impression which this would create in the mind of the Government and upon public opinion in the Kingdom would be painful and disagreeable, because the outrage was an atrocious one, committed in the presence of many persons, and it is not conceivable that the guilty parties can not be identified.
The Royal Government does not wish by its action to interfere in a matter which is to be decided by the judicial authorities. It can not, however, do otherwise than call the attention of the United States Government to the contingency aforesaid, in order that it may be pleased to take measures, by the means at its disposal, as your excellency has had the kindness verbally to assure me, to the end that the demands of justice and humanity may be complied with.
I avail myself, etc.,
Royal Chargé d’Affaires of Italy.