out your taking, as was to be expected, a measure in behalf of that neutrality. The same thing was done with reference to Comayagua, the capital; and, nevertheless, I have also been informed of its occupation by forces of the same Señor Dueñas, in command of Generals Xatruch and Miranda, without respecting the declaration made by my government of leaving that city under the protection of the United States Government.

So much indifference in a matter of such gravity has made me determine the send ing of a force to recover the island for the purpose of keeping it under the sovereigntof Honduras, and placing therein the necessary war elements to protect it. In thy same manner I must make known to you that on this date I have declared the saio port to be in state of siege, and ordered general headquarters to be established therd for the operations of the war; and I take this step after having obtained a practicae conviction that the convention that I have referred to has not been fulfilled on your part, as the representative of the cabinet of Washington, upon which case I address myself to the honorable minister of foreign relations for the information of that Government.

I expect that you will hold this communication as an official protest on the part of the government of Honduras, over which I have the honor to preside, and that in your answer you will please tell me in a clear and distinct manner if you are or are not disposed to comply with the aforesaid guarantee of neutrality.

With all consideration, I am, &c.,

The Hon. MINISTER RESIDENT,

Of the United States of America in San Salvador.

J. MEDINA.

No. 33.]

No. 317.

Mr. Fish to Mr. Torbert.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, May 18, 1871. SIR: The Department has received your dispatch No. 48, of the 21st ultimo, relative to the surrender to authorities of Salvador of Señor Doctor Don Francisco Dueñas, late president of that republic, to whom you had granted an asylum. Nothing will at this time be said as to the propriety or expediency of your having granted that asylum; you are, however, referred for the general views of the Department upon the subject to instruction No. 24, of the 16th of December, 1869, addressed to Mr. Ebenezer D. Bassett, minister resident of the United States in Hayti. A copy of this instruction is herewith inclosed.

Having, however, whether for sufficient reasons or otherwise, granted a refuge to Mr. Dueñas, you thereby incurred an obligation, which, it might be said, more or less implicated the honor of this Government in its exact fulfillment.

It appears that Mr. Dueñas assented to his own surrender. This assent, however, may be regarded as so important an element in the case that it would have been preferable if it had been given in writing. This would have made it a matter of record, which might have been used, in possible contingencies, to refute a charge that the surrender was contrary to the wishes of the refugee, a charge which there may be no sufficient means of refuting.

I am, sir, &c.,

HAMILTON FISH.

No 24.]

Mr. Fish to Mr. Bassett.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE,

Washington December 16, 1869.

SIR: Your dispatch No. 20, of the 20th ultimo, has been received. It represents that in consequence of the apprehended triumph of the armed opposition to the exist

ing government in Hayti, the foreign consulates, and even the legation of the United States, had been sought as asylums for persons and property. Occasions for this have of late years frequently arisen in the independent states of this hemisphere, but the proceeding has never been sanctioned by the Department, which, however, appreciates those impulses of humanity which make it difficult to reject such appeals for refuge. The expediency of granting an asylum in such cases, especially by consuls, is more than questionable, and the obligation to take that course has no foundation in public law, however in Hayti or elsewhere it may be tolerated and customary.

While you are not required to expel those who may have sought refuge in the legation, you will give them to understand that your Government cannot, on that account, assume any responsibility for them, and especially cannot sanction any resistance by you to their arrest by the authorities for the time being.

I am, &c.,

SIR: Your dispatch, No. 49, of the 4th ultimo has been received. The communication which accompanied it, addressed to you by the president, Medina, of Honduras, is certainly of an extraordinary character. Its purpose seems to have been to hold you personally responsible for an assumed delinquency of your Government in failing to comply with the stipulation on our part to maintain the neutrality of the railway across Honduras. Supposing the obligation to exist as claimed by President Medina, it is obvious that it could not be carried into effect without the exertion of a physical force, which it was ridiculous to have supposed that you could personally wield, and unreasonable to suppose that you had at command. It is deemed unnecessary to repeat the views which have heretofore been expressed in regard to the obligation of the United States under the treaty. That may, however, be summarily stated as a bargain to protect the railway, when com pleted, against occupation or obstruction, not only by a foreign power, but of Honduras itself, and to abstain ourselves from such occupation or obstruction. This, and this only, we conceive to be the true meaning of the phrase "neutrality," used in the treaty, an expression which certainly is not so free from ambiguity as to require no explanation. Any construction which may be offered, however, must comport with reason and probability. The construction claimed by Honduras would require the United States to protect the road against all intruders from its inception to its conclusion. No such construction is warranted by the words of the instrument.

It is deemed expedient that you should ascertain what other governments may have guaranteed the railway, and on what terms, so that, if necessary, we may have an understanding with that government as to the fulfillment of our several obligations.

I am, sir, &c.,

HAMILTON FISH.

SPAIN.

CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN THE DEPARTMENT OF STATE AND THE LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES AT MADRID.

No. 66.]

No. 319.

Mr. Fish to General Sickles.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE,

Washington, June 24, 1870. GENERAL: Inclosed you will find a copy of a note addressed to Mr. Lopez Roberts on the 9th instant, relative to the claims of citizens of the United States against Spain, growing out of summary arrests and impris onments, military executions, arbitrary embargoes of property, and other acts done by the Spanish authorities in Cuba to the persons and properties of citizens of the United States, in violation of the provisions of the treaty of 1795 between the Government of the United States and the government of Spain. You will also find a further communication on the same subject in regard to a claim which was presented to the Department subsequent to the transmission of the note of the 9th instant. Each of the cases mentioned in the former of these notes had previously been the subject of instruction to the consul general of the United States in Havana, to be brought to the attention of the authorities in the island of Cuba, and of demand for redress. You will observe that these notes were sent to Mr. Lopez Roberts, under the supposition that the extraordinary powers as to Cuba which were conferred upon him by his government last year were still vested in him, and that they were broad enough to authorize him to arrest these infractions of the rights secured by the treaty, and to obtain the restoration of their properties to the citizens of the United States. I am informed, however, by Mr. Roberts that those powers are no longer efficient, and that he can do nothing in the premises.

I have therefore to instruct you to bring this whole subject to the notice of the Spanish government, and to say that the President hopes that immediate steps will be taken for the release of all the citizens of the United States who may be held in custody in Cuba in violation of the provisions of the treaty of 1795, or for their immediate trial under the guarantees and with the rights secured by that treaty. You are also instructed to ask for the restoration to the citizens of the United States of their properties and estates, so far as the same have been arbitrarily embargoed in violation of the provisions of that treaty. You will also endeavor to secure some mode for the early and equitable indemnification and satisfaction to the several parties, whose rights have been violated, of the amounts which should rightfully come to each claimant for the illegal detention of his property or his person. You will say that this suggestion is made in the interest of peace, of justice, and of good will, in order to secure a measure of damages in each case which shall be just as between the two governments. You will also say that it is extremely desirable to have the investigation conducted in this country. It cannot be done in Spain without subjecting the claimants to unnecessary expense. It cannot be done in Cuba, at present, without subjecting many of them to personal danger. In this connection I must again, on behalf of this Government, express, in the interest of good will and of the continued good understanding which we desire to maintain with Spain, the strong desire of the Presi

dent that the government at Madrid will confer fresh powers upon Mr. Lopez Roberts (or upon such other person on this side of the Atlantie as may be selected for that purpose) to arrange all such questions with this Government.

The Spanish authorities in Cuba seem to be clothed with absolute power for the commission of such acts as are now complained of, but when redress is sought, we are referred to the distant cabinet of Madrid, where it is often found necessary to refer again to Cuba for information, and the case is thus suspended and delayed, to the grievous injury of the parties and at the hazard of irritation from the delay of which the necessity is not apparent to the impatient sufferers or to the public.

The President has respected the Spanish claim of sovereignty over the island of Cuba during the present contest against a strong sympathetic pressure from without. Spain owes it to the United States as well as to her own traditional honor and sense of justice that her sovereignty shall not be used for the oppression and injury of the citizens of this republic.

You will urge this point in every way that your good judgment may suggest.

I am, &c.,

The undersigned is directed by the President to invite the earnest attention of Don Mauricio Lopez Roberts, envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of Spain, to the irregular and arbitrary manner in which the persons and properties of citizens of the United States are taken and held by the Spanish authorities in the island of Cuba. When Count Valmaseda, in April of last year, issued a proclamation declaring that every man, from the age of fifteen years upward, found away from his habitation and not proving a sufficient motive therefor, would be shot; that every habitation unoccupied would be burned; and that every house not flying a white flag should be reduced to ashes, it became the duty of the undersigned to convey to Mr. Lopez Roberts the protest of the President against such a mode of warfare, and his request that the anthorities in Cuba would take steps that no person having the right to claim the protection of the Government of the United States should be sacrificed or injured in the conduct of hostilities on that basis.

When again, about the same time, it came to the knowledge of this Government that the captain general of Cuba had, on the 1st day of April, 1869, issued a proclamation which virtually forbade the alienation of property in the island, except with the revis ion and assent of certain officials named in the decree, and which declared null and void all sales made without such revision and assent, the President again directed the undersigned to say that he viewed with regret such sweeping interference with the rights of individuals to alienate or dispose of their property, and that he hoped that steps would be speedily taken to modify that decree so that it should not be applicable to the property of citizens of the United States, and so that disputes and complaints that could not fail to arise if its execution should be attempted as to such property, might be prevented.

When, seventeen days later, a decree was issued creating an administrative council for the custody and management of embargoed property; and when, three days afterward, the captain general issued a circular extending the previous embargo to the property of all persons, either within or without the island, who might take part in the insurrection, whether with arms in their hands or aiding it with arms, munitions, money, or articles of subsistence, this Government confidently expected that the cabinet of Madrid, and the authorities of Spain in the island of Cuba, would regard the then recent expressions of its wishes, and would not willingly permit the rights of cit izens of the United States to be interfered with or their properties to be sequestrated without the forms of law to which they were entitled.

When the President directed the undersigned to invite attention to the possibility that the laws and decrees which had been promulgated in Cuba might lead to an infrac tion of the treaties between Spain and the United States, he was not unmindful of the disorganized condition of society in parts of that island, nor of the difficulties which

attended the enforcement of the authority of Spain. On the contrary, he was induced to make such representation by a desire to avoid increasing those difficulties, and to prevent further complications so far as the act of this Government could do so.

The seventh article of the treaty of 1795, between the United States and Spain, provides

"That the subjects or citizens of each of the contracting parties, their vessels or effects, shall not be liable to any embargo or detention on the part of the other for any military expedition or other public or private purpose whatever; and in all cases of seizure, detention, or arrest for debts contracted, or offenses committed, by any citizen or subject of the one party within the jurisdiction of the other, the same shall be made and prosecuted by order and authority of law only, and according to the regular course of proceedings usual in such cases. The citizens and subjects of both parties shall be allowed to employ such advocates, solicitors, notaries, agents, and factors as they may judge proper, in all their affairs, and in all their trials at law in which they may be concerned, before the tribunals of the other party, and such agents shall have free access to be present at the proceedings in such causes, and at the takings of all examinations and evidence which may be exhibited in the said trials."

It is with great regret that the Government of the United States feels itself forced to say that it is informed that the provisions of this article of the treaty of 1795 have not been kept in mind by the authorities in Cuba during the present struggle. It appears to the President that the sweeping decrees of April, 1869, have been put in operation against the properties of citizens of the United States in violation of the treaty agreement that such property should not be subject to embargo or detention for any public or private purpose whatever.

Inclosed is a list of the citizens of the United States who, up to this date, have presented to this Government complaints of such embargo or detention of their property. The decrce of embargo is of itself an extraordinary exercise of supreme power, outside of the ordinary and regular course of legal or judicial proceedings, and even if properly exercised with respect to the subjects of Spain and their properties, appear to be in contravention of the rights secured by treaty to the citizens of the United States, and the proceedings under the decree against the properties of citizens of the United States have not, as is understood, been prosecuted by order or authority of laws only, but in the exercise of the extraordinary functions vested in or exercised for the occasion by the supreme political authority of the island, and have been arbitrary and unusual, and without the safeguards to personal rights and rights of property which ordinarily accompany legal proceedings, which the seventh article of the treaty guarantees.

It is understood that the citizens of the United States whose properties have been thus taken forcibly from them have not been allowed to employ such advocates, solicitors, notaries, agents, and factors as they might judge proper; on the contrary, as this Government is informed, their properties have been taken from them without notice, and advocates, solicitors, notaries, agents, or factors have not been allowed to interpose in their behalf. It is further understood that the names of parties whose properties are thus embargoed are from time to time published and their properties thereafter immediately seized, without opportunity to them or their agents to be present at any proceedings in regard thereto, or at the taking of examination or evidence. In many instances these proceedings have been taken against the properties of citizens of the United States who were not at the time, and who have not during the continuance of the disturbances, on the island of Cuba, been within the jurisdiction of Spain, and it is notorious that by going to the island of Cuba, after the official denunciation of their alleged conduct, they would subject themselves to arbitrary arrest and possible summary military trial, if not to the uncontrolled violence of popular prejudice.

The undersigned has also received representations from several citizens of the United States complaining of arbitrary arrest and of close incarceration without permission to communicate with their friends, or with advocates, solicitors, notaries, agents, and factors, as they might judge proper. In some of these cases the parties have been released; in others, they are understood to be still held in custody.

The undersigned has the honor to inclose a list of the citizens of the United States who, up to this date, have presented to this Government complaints of such arrest and detention.

In some cases, also, such arrests have been followed by military trial, without the opportunity of access to advocates or solicitors, or of communication with witnesses, and without those personal rights and legal protections which the accused should have enjoyed; and such summary trials, when ending in conviction, have been followed by summary execution. Such cases, so far as they have come to the knowledge of the undersigned, are included in the list herewith transmitted.

What has been already done in this respect is, unhappily, past recall, and leaves to the United States a claim against Spain for the amount of the injuries that their citizens have suffered by reason of these several violations of the treaty of 1795-a claim which the undersigned presents on behalf of his Government with the confident hope that the government of Spain, recognizing its justice, and making some proper and suitable