Mr. Merry to Mr.
Hay.
Legation of the United States of America,
San José Costa Rica, September 7, 1899.
No. 308.]
Sir: I have the honor to inclose herewith copy
of my No. 70, dated August 14, addressed to Hon. Joaquin Sanson,
minister of foreign affairs of Nicaragua; copy of his reply, dated
August 25, and copy of my No. 76, of this date, replying to him. There
is little for me to add, as the letters are self-explanatory. There are
two points upon which Senor Sanson and myself differed radically in
connection with the Bluefields revolutionary uprising. He insisted that
President Zelaya’s proclamation closed the port to all commerce, even
though he had no force afloat or on shore during the period of the Reyes
revolt (February 3 to 25, 1899) with which to enforce the decree. I
persistently claimed that the President’s proclamation, without force
afloat or on shore to
[Page 805]
give
effect, could not close a port against peaceable commerce. He insisted
that the Reyes revolutionary government was not a de facto government;
that the merchants at Bluefields had aided a revolutionary movement by
paying to the leaders thereof any money whatever, and consequently
deserved to lose it. My argument to the contrary will be found in
inclosure No. 3.
Gen. Tiburcio Bonilla, who succeeds General Estrada, is a military
lawyer, ex-judge of the supreme court at Managua, personally known to me
as a man of good character, educated two years in the United States and
afterwards in France, and a friend to Americans. I think that with his
arrival at Bluefields and the commercial reciprocity treaty effective,
matters there will proceed peaceably, if the Managua government will
permit it. As the newly appointed governor and Judge Roman, newly
appointed district judge at Bluefields, may summon the merchants to give
evidence before his court in reference to their participation in the
Bluefields revolt, may I request that the Department will cable me on
receipt hereof, a reply to the following inquiries:
- 1.
- Does the Department consent that the merchants shall attend
the court in person and give their evidence on the
question?
- 2.
- Does the Department permit that the copies of the affidavits
now in its possession, testifying to the neutrality of the
merchants in the Bluefields revolt and such other papers
appertaining as may be selected from those sent to Washington by
Consul Sorsby, shall be presented to said court as evidence?
These inquiries are now necessary, because I am not certain that
the Department will now permit the case to go before a
Nicaraguan court. I await your instructions on the above
points.
Consul Sorsby writes me that Mr. Joaquin Sanson has been appointed
Nicaraguan consul at New Orleans, at which I am surprised, as it would
indicate that his management of foreign affairs at Managua and
Bluefields has not been satisfactory to General Zelaya.
With assurances, etc.,
William Lawrence Merry,
United States Minister.
[Inclosure 1.]
Mr. Merry to
Mr. Sanson.
Legation of the United States,
San José Costa Rica,
August 14,
1899.
Esteemed Sir: I have the honor to forward
herewith for the consideration and action of your excellency’s
Government, an official letter from the Department of State of the
United States relating to the funds now in the custody of Her
Britannic Majesty’s consul at San Juan del Norte, by agreement
between your excellency and myself, dated April 29, 1899. It will
occur to your excellency that, while under said agreement we are not
bound to reach a decision regarding the final disposition of said
funds within a stated period, we promise therein our best efforts to
settle the matter within four months, which period will expire on
29th instant. For this reason and because it is my special desire,
in which I am confident your excellency will join me, to remove all
causes of friction between our respective Governments, it is very
desirable that this matter shall be promptly decided. The facts as
stated by the honorable Secretary of State of the United States
appear conclusive as to the justice of permitting the repayment by
Consul Bingham to the parties in trust for your excellency’s
Government and that which I have the honor to represent. Its
repayment will be an evidence of justice which will have a moral
effect upon the foreign
[Page 806]
residents of the Department of Zelaya far more valuable than the
amount at stake, tending to the public prosperity and development of
that fertile section of the Republic of Nicaragua.
Confidently awaiting the favorable action of your excellency’s
Government, and with assurances, etc.
William Lawrence
Merry,
United States
Minister.
[Inclosure 2.]
Mr. Sanson to
Mr. Merry.
[Translation.]
National
Palace, Managua,
August 25,
1899.
Mr. Minister: Annexed to your communication
of the 14th instant I had the honor to receive authorized copy of
that which the honorable Mr. Secretary of State of the United States
addressed to your excellency the 26th of July last relative to the
Bluefields matters, which were the object of a long discussion
between ourselves that terminated with the agreement of the 29th of
April of this year.
Your excellency calls the attention of my Government to the opinion
of that of the United States in this respect and hopes that in
consequence the money that the American merchants deposited with the
consul of Her Brittannic Majesty in San Juan del Norte may be
returned, which act of justice will be highly appreciated by those
citizens, contributing thus to the most friendly relations between
the countries interested.
Your excellency admits that although in the referred to agreement no
fixed date was stipulated for the termination of the business, we
nevertheless offered to do everything possible to bring about the
arrangement within the following four months.
With all the interest that the matter calls for and with special
instructions from the President of the Republic, I proceed to answer
your excellency with reference also to that expressed by the
Secretary of State.
The agreement at Bluefields accepted by my Government it does not
believe it just to fail in complying strictly, and if before now it
had not begun the respective judicial action it has only been
because the judge of that city had not been able to take possession
of his post since the rebellion. By this date it is certain that the
question has been placed before his authority and by whom it
corresponds. It is there, then, that the merchants interested may
present the proofs that excuse them from the unwarranted payments
that were made to the revolutionary agents of General Reyes.
I respectfully call to the remembrance of your excellency that the
question was remitted in the first place to the knowledge of the
authorities before whom it might correspond, and it could be no
other than the judiciary of Bluefields, with the power to carry it
in last resort to the attention of the respective
chancellorships.
Now, if none of these appeals has been carried out, how is it
possible that the Government of Nicaragua may order the return of
the deposit only because the American Government, on studying the
matter, has thought to find justifiable motives in the acts of the
Bluefields merchants.
The solicitude of the Secretary of State regarding the return I find
very premature since the matter has not been ventilated, and besides
with little foundation, because the attested proofs of the
interested parties can not be admitted as the only source of
investigation.
The idea of a discussion in this respect does not enter to-day into
my proposition, nor much less regarding the culpability the
Americans may have incurred that aided the revolt of General Reyes,
a circumstance that the Government of Nicaragua has desired to
forget in order not to give the matter greater proportions and as a
friendly act toward the United States of North America, but I will
not abstain from making some reflections upon the note that the
Secretary of State of that country directed to your excellency and
to which I come, referring—
- 1.
- The neutrality of the merchants far from being
demonstrated is inferred from the active participation of
their principal clerks and by the gifts which they made to
the column organized under the denomination of rough riders,
besides the public testimony of all those who witnessed the
events.
- 2.
- If it is true that no new entries of goods were made
during the time of the insurrection they nevertheless paid
the duties that they owed to a rebel agent, notwithstanding
[Page 807]
that their
consuls proclaimed the principle of neutrality and the
revolutionists exercised on them no acts of violence. There
is more—some paid and others did not, without these last
being compelled to pay by force the payment refused, and
even upon those who afterwards did not care to pay further
dues no violence was enacted.
- 3.
- The fact that Mr. A. Salter, who had been before collector
of revenue for the legitimate Government, was he who made
the collection, can not be an excuse since everybody knew
that this gentleman had become revolutionary agent no longer
obeyed the Government of Nicaragua, and the fine of 5 per
cent to which they refer could not be a motive of
compulsion, since they were not threatened with
force.
- 4.
- With regard to General Reyes being he who commanded
absolutely in the department of Zelaya between the 2d and
23d of February last because Gen. Aurelio Estrada, named
successor, could not take possession of the post, and even
took refuge in the American consulate—that is no argument
that excuses the payment of duties due to the custom-house
because the rule of Mr. Reyes was illegal, not sanctioned by
any law of right or recognized by any other foreign power.
The very captains of the American and English war vessels
were the first in denying the character of a de facto
government.
Outside of all the considerations that I have laid down, and which I
do not doubt will be duly appreciated by your excellency, permit me
to call your attention to an important point of the question.
Your excellency well knows that not only American citizens have been
included in the lists of the reluctants, but also English and
Germans. The British subjects paid without resistance or protest,
among them the vice-consul, Mr. T. A. Bellanger, doubtless because
they recognized the justice of the Government’s claim or through
express reproof from their superiors for their acts in helping in
this way General Reyes.
If to-day the Government of Nicaragua, after having made a solemn
agreement in which is concerned the honor of the nation, should
order the return of those deposits without the previous given
judgment and without having discussed the matter in the last resort
on diplomatic grounds, it would be a reason for the other foreign
subjects to claim in their favor an equal prerogative.
After all the foregoing, and by reason of the change in the person of
the first of the Government employees on that coast who has been
substituted by an old magistrate of the supreme court, I believe
that the question will soon be ended and according to the high
ruling of the law.
For the rest the Government of Nicaragua holds the conviction that
the Government of the United States will be willing to see in this
determination, not a mere capricious resistance to its demands, but
a strict fulfillment of its duty and the best public advantages,
without through this lessening its high conception that the opinions
of that illustrious Government merit.
I repeat, etc.,
[Inclosure 3.]
Mr. Merry to
Mr. Sanson.
Legation of the United States,
San José Costa Rica,
September 7,
1899.
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the
receipt of your No. 579, dated August 25, in reply to my No. 70, of
August 14, inclosing dispatch from my Government in relation to the
funds now held subject to the joint action of our respective
Governments by the British consul at San Juan del Norte. It is
proper that I should hesitate to again discuss this question which
occupied so much of your excellency’s attention and mine at
Bluefields. There is little that I can add to the arguments I then
presented verbally, and, as the matter was then referred by us to
the Governments at Managua and Washington, I do not feel at liberty
to commence a discussion “de novo.” But, inasmuch as I am jointly
responsible for the agreement, I feel at liberty to discuss my
action in accepting it in order, as I hoped, to settle a
disagreeable contention, which at one time threatened to create
serious difficulty.
First, permit me to express my surprise that your excellency deems
the action of the honorable Secretary of State at Washington “very
premature.” His dispatch, which I inclosed to you with mine of
August 14, was dated July 26, nearly three
[Page 808]
months after we had signed a joint agreement,
dated April 29, requesting our respective Governments to “the end
that it maybe decided within four months.” I do not think it
possible that your excellency will, upon mature consideration, deem
his action premature, and that a written agreement making a
specified promise has no value. To comply with the agreement it is
obvious that the subject was by no means taken up prematurely. The
section of the agreement which you rely upon to delay action reads
as follows:
“3. The difficulty overcome, once that it has been discussed by whom
it may appertain and, as a last resort, by the secretary of foreign
relations of Nicaragua and the Department of State of the United
States, the deposit shall be paid,” etc. This clause, as all the
others, received my careful attention, and I found no fault
therewith then, any more than to-day. Its terms are plainly an
admission that the question could be further discussed before being
submitted to the respective Governments, limited by the language in
clause 5 conveying the request for a settlement within four months.
I accepted it for the special reason that a friendly settlement
appeared possible between General Estrada and the merchants after
Colonel Torres had completed his court-martial, your excellency
having, as you must recollect, assured me that he would leave
Bluefields for Managua on May 10, six days after our departure,
although he remained there until May 24. Your excellency is well
aware that a second submission to a court was never mentioned
verbally and no such idea is expressed or understood in the
agreement. In fact, the agreement withdrew the case from Colonel
Torres’s “court-martial;” why, then, should it even indirectly
stipulate to refer it to another court? Who are the parties to “whom
it may appertain,” as specified in clause 3 quoted above? Obviously
and necessarily the Nicaraguan Government, the Bluefield merchants,
and the United States Government as an intervener. The Nicaraguan
executive Government, through a coordinate branch, exercises its
right to investigate the question, obtaining all valid information
possible before presenting the matter to the Washington Government.
It has already, through an executive delegate, held a prolonged
“court-martial” with closed doors for this purpose. That the United
States Government shall submit itself to the decision of a
Nicaraguan court not named in the agreement is a proposition so
indefensible that it does not merit discussion.
Having, under the agreement with your excellency, referred the matter
to my Government after prolonged verbal discussion with yourself, I
deem it proper to leave the case in the hands of my superiors, and
shall only further briefly allude to the gist of the whole question.
Your excellency has repeatedly asserted that the Reyes government
was not at any time a government “de facto.” I contend that between
February 3 and 25 it was a “de facto” government and the only
effective government at Bluefields; there was most positively no
other. True, it was revolutionary in character, and established
“protern.” by the faithlessness of your highest official on the
Atlantic coast. During the period stated it had absolute and
uncontested possession of the port and city of Bluefields, of the
Government treasury, arms and war munitions, post-office,
custom-house, police force, army, gunboat, executive mansion, and
all public buildings. It exercised all governmental functions and
even obliged your highest officer to obtain asylum in the United
States consular office. These facts you do not contest, and they
fully prove beyond question the “de facto” character of the Reyes
government during the period above stated. The consular
proclamations of neutrality have not the slightest bearing upon the
case, the neutrality of foreigners being a duty in all cases of
local political and military conflict. The action of the commanders
of the English and American war vessels was also a proof of the
existing of a “de facto” government, under the revolutionary leader
Reyes, since those officers found no other existent government with
which they could deal, in aiding the security of life and property,
the return of peace and restoration of the Nicaraguan Government,
enabling your highest officer to leave his asylum and assume his
official duties, after three weeks. It was, I am free to admit, a
revolutionary government, successful in maintaing its authority for
about three weeks only, but its “de facto” character during that
period, especially in its relations to foreign residents, can not be
successfully refuted.
I am pleased to be informed by your excellency of the appointment of
Gen. Tiburcio Bonilla as governor of the department of Zelaya. The
gentleman is known to me as bearing the reputation of being just,
honest, patriotic, and able. This I may state without detracting
from the merits of his predecessor.
A copy of this correspondence goes forward to the Government at
Washington by mail of 9th instant.
With assurance, etc.,
William Lawrence
Merry,
United States
Minister.