General Reyes to Mr. Hay.
Washington, January 11, 1904.
Mr. Secretary: I have the honor to acknowledge the reception of your excellency’s notes of the 5th and 9th of the present month of January. In the first your excellency answers my statement of grievances of the 23d of December last; in the second your excellency makes a reply to my note of the 6th instant, containing various declarations.
I must state that, notwithstanding the respect that I owe to your excellency’s efforts, I find in the present case that my arguments have not been refuted by the otherwise forceful papers to which I am referring. I could abide by and even further fortify my arguments, which the very cause they support make unanswerable, but I can see no result for such a course, since, under the circumstances that surround the debate, there is, on the part of your excellency’s Government, no opinion to form, but a decision already reached.
I therefore confine myself to submitting a few remarks on your excellency’s position in regard to my request that the pending difference be referred to The Hague tribunal.
True, it lies with the several states to recognize a new member of the family of nations; but haste and circumstances may always involve a disregard of international law while profession is made to maintain it.
The recognition of a new state separated from a friendly nation would be a legitimate act on the part of foreign nations, in so far as they observe strict neutrality between the contesting parties; but it is a violation of the principles that govern the relations of the international community when one of the belligerents is hindered from the exercise of his rights and the use of his forces, and much more so when a public treaty is infringed. The treaty of 1846 being in force between the Governments of the United States and of Colombia, the dilemma that confronted the former when the movement occurred at Panama may not have been that which your excellency contemplates, but rather the following: Either to recognize that Panama was an integral part of Colombia or invest it with the character of a separate entity.
[Page 312]In the first case, whatever be the position of your excellency’s Government touching neutrality in intestine strifes, it had no cause for preventing Colombia from subduing the rebellion; in the other case the Government of the United States was obligated to enforce the respect of Colombian sovereignty, and, in either event, it is as untenable a proposition in law to hold obligations toward a nation as fulfilled in one of its rebellions or separated provinces as, in mathematics, to insist that the part and the whole are equivalent. And it is fit here to observe that the reason why I asserted to your excellency that if I had not been prevented from landing the forces under any command on the 19th of November, fifteen days after the rebellion had broken out, it would have been immediately smothered, is that the garrison bought off in Panama did not exceed 200 men.
At the close of the first of the notes hereby answered, your excellency, referring to my proposal to refer to the arbitration of The Hague tribunal the claims that my country desires to have settled in an amicable and decorous manner, states that the questions presented in my statement of grievances “are of a political nature such as nations of even the most advanced ideas as to international arbitration have not proposed to deal with by that process.” I must point out to your excellency that the infringement of the treaty of 1816 has resulted in civil consequences of the greatest import which do come within the scope of the jurisdiction of courts. Colombia, for instance, has no claim against Germany, France, England, etc., by reason of the recognition of Panama as an independent State, little as the proceeding may be a friendly act, because she had and has no treaty with those countries that made them guarantors of her sovereignty and ownership; but with your excellency’s Government the case is very different, for reasons that may be ignored but which will live as long as the sense of justice, slow but sure, shall endure in this world.
The injuries that Colombia has already suffered and will continue to suffer in consequence of the infringement of the treaty are manifest and actual, and the refusal to entertain her claims as well as her lacking the strength to secure redress put her under the painful necessity of asking of the mighty Government and people of the United States that the tribunal called upon to decide her case be one of unquestionable standing and impartiality. I have such a high opinion of your excellency’s sound judgment that I still permit myself to hope that it will bring about a reconsideration of your decision or a suggestion to my Government of some other means of doing Colombia justice in a manner compatible with her honor.
I see from the second paragraph of your excellency’s note of the 9th instant that the American Government does not and can not consider as a declaration of war on the part of Colombia the fact that the army of my country should enter Colombian territory, as is that of Panama, for the purpose of subduing the rebellion. This makes me confident that there will be no conflict between the Colombian and American forces when the former take the field on the Isthmus. And I have to point out here that, contrary to the statement made in official documents, Panama never was independent or belonged to any nation other than Colombia since the latter gained her independence. All of the royal letters patent issued from 1533 to 1803 incorporated the provinces of Darien, Portobelo, and Veragues, which embraced the whole territory of the Isthmus, into the viceroyalty of the new kingdom of [Page 313] Granada. The declaration of 1821, made by those provinces when New Granada had already cleared the country of the enemy that held the former viceroyalty under its yoke, was nothing more, in fact, than the sanction of the uti possidetis of 1810, the main foundation of the rights of all Spanish-American countries.
I profoundly regret, on the failure of the mission which was intrusted to me, that my well-meant efforts to reach a fair and honorable settlement with your excellency’s Government have thus far been in vain, and compelled, as I am thereby, to depart, I once more confirm the contents of my previous notes and, in the name of Colombia, enter a solemn protest against the denial of justice inflicted on my country by one of the most powerful governments in the world, bound by its very power to be equitable, and put on your excellency’s Government the responsibility for all evils to come.
Being unable, under existing circumstances, to take personal leave of the most excellent President and of your excellency, I beg you will accept this excuse and the expression of my thanks for the personal attentions I have received at the hands of all the members of the Administration.
I am, with sentiments of the highest consideration,
Your excellency’s obedient servant,