Mr. Koerner to Mr. Seward.
No. 97.]
Legation of the United States,
Madrid, May 28, 1864.
Sir:A few days after sending my last despatch,
No. 96, of May 15, news was received here by the government, and
published in The Journal, which made it highly probable that hostilities
between Spain and Peru were on the point of breaking out. I lost no time
in addressing a note to Mr. Pacheco, in which I again offered, as I had
done in my previous conversation with him, reported to you in my
despatch 89, the services of our government to prevent a rupture, and to
reconcile conflicting claims. I have the honor of enclosing you a copy
of my note to the minister, dated May 20, 1864.
[Page 26]
On yesterday I received Mr. Pacheco’s reply, of which I send you a
translated copy.
It will be perceived that the minister, on the strength of the events
which have come to his knowledge since my interview with him, the
refusal on the part of the Peruvian government to receive Mr. Salazar,
the Spanish envoy, and to negotiate with him, now declines the
interposition or mediation of the United States or any other friendly
power. I do not exactly see the force of his reasoning, If it was
consistent with Spanish honor for our government to use its endeavors to
make Peru listen to reasonable demands on the part of Spain, it must be
equally so if our government would try to make Peru treat with Mr.
Salazar, or to give satisfactory explanations for not having done so.
Our good offices, it strikes me, might have been exercised in the one
case as well as in the other.
I do not intend, however, to press the matter any further for the
present, for several reasons, one of which is that I consider our
government still perfectly free to use its influence with Peru, in
making that country do what may be considered right and proper.
I have the honor to be, most respectfully, your obedient servant,
Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State, &c.,
&c., &c.
Mr. Koerner to Mr. Pacheco.
Legation of the United
States, Madrid,
May 20,
1864.
Sir:Some time ago I had the honor of
communicating to your excellency, in an informal and confidential
manner, the apprehension felt by the government of the United States
of possible difficulties of a serious character between the
government of her Catholic Majesty and the republic of Peru, and the
great desire entertained on the part of the United States to prevent
hostilities from breaking out between two nations, towards both of
which they have none but the most friendly and disinterested
feeling.
I informed your excellency that the government of the United States
would be happy if it could make itself instrumental in smoothing
down these difficulties unhappily existing between the two
powers.
Your excellency expressed yourself pleased with the remarks which I
had offered, and intimated that if the circumstances should permit
of an exercise of our good offices in this complication they would
not be refused. Inasmuch, however, as you were at the time without
information as regarded the success of the mission of Señor Salazar,
her Majesty’s special envoy to Peru, and the steps which had been
taken by Admiral Pinzon, you were not, at the period of our
interview, in a position to express yourself definitively on the
proposition which I had been instructed to mention to you
informally. I have received no additional despatches on the subject
from my government since that interview; but having learned from the
public journals that the arrival of Señor Salazar at Peru, and his
proceedings, whatever they were, have failed to lead to negotiations
promising a peaceful settlement of the existing controversies, and
that, on the contrary, hostilities are imminent, if they have not
already broken out, I deem it consonant with my former instructions
to again repeat, in a confidential manner, the offer of the
government which I represent to use its best exertions for a
satisfactory settlement of the questions in dispute.
The government of the United States will cheerfully, I believe,
support any demand on the part of her Catholic Majesty’s government
founded on the
[Page 27]
principles of
justice, equity, and international law, and will use its best
efforts to persuade and induce the Peruvian government to comply
with all such demands.
I have no doubt the influence of the United States would be very
great with the Peruvian government, and that its exercise might be
beneficial to both countries which are now at disagreement.
I embrace this opportunity of repeating to your excellency the
assurance of my highest consideration, &c., &c.
His Excellency the Minister of State Of her
Catholic Majesty.
[Translation.]
Mr. Pacheco to Mr. Koerner.
First Department of State,
Aranjues, May 25, 1864.
Sir: I have had the honor to receive the
confidential note which you were pleased to address me on the 20th
instant, in which, referring to a private interview which you had
with me, you have been pleased to renew the indications which you
then addressed to me in the name of your government in respect to
the good dispositions which animate the cabinet of Washington to
contribute, by their mediation, to the arrangement of the
difficulties pending with the republic of Peru, lending their
support with pleasure to any reclamation of Spain founded on
principles of justice and equity, and endeavoring to persuade the
government of Peru to satisfy all such as may have this
character.
The report you make of what occurred in the interview referred to is
exact, and on that occasion, having in view the circumstances of the
affair—the subject of our conversation—and considering also the
state of it at that time, I could not do less than reply to the
friendly and loyal offer which you made me in the name of your
government, stating in that confidential way in which we were
proceeding that the government of her Majesty was disposed to
accept, if not the mediation, at least the good offices of the
government of Washington, so as to arrive at an end which
corresponded completely to the views of the government of her
Majesty, always desirous to avoid conflicts with the Spanish
American States.
The same disposition which I then made known to you would continue to
exist to-day if the conditions and the situation of the affair were
the same, and I should have taken pleasure in fixing in writing the
statements which on that occasion I had the honor to address to you;
but, unfortunately, it has not thus happened, and the government of
her Majesty deeply laments it. Things have advanced, and the affair
has taken a different aspect from what it then had.
Before the question of the reclamations against the Peruvian
government, there has arisen another, which must be considered as
independent and preliminary; so much the more grave, inasmuch as it
affects more the decorum and dignity of Spain. I refer to the
non-reception of the envoy Señor Salazar y Mozarredo, with whom the
government of Peru has refused to treat.
It cannot be hidden from your good judgment that by this act, whose
nature you will know how to appreciate, a state of things has been
created whose solution is no longer susceptible of being moulded to
the same conditions which appeared, and which we both considered
attainable at our said interview. The question is not now upon
principles of justice ignored, nor of material interests wounded,
but upon an act which, as it may be interpreted to signify a purpose
not to lend an ear to reason, involves an offence to Spain such as
makes it incumbent
[Page 28]
upon the
government which rules her destinies alone to demand satisfaction.
If, in order to obtain this, the mediation of another friendly
government should be accepted, that of her Majesty would furnish a
motive for attributing to impotence what in any case would be only a
desire to avoid extreme measures, and persuaded on my part that you
will recognize the force of this observation, I do not doubt you
will know how to explain to your government the special causes which
place that of her Majesty in the situation of not being able to
accept the mediation nor the good offices of any friendly power in
the question pending between Spain and Peru.
The government of the Queen feels grateful beyond measure for the
good desires of the cabinet of Washington, and certainly it would
have been most pleasing if those circumstances had not intervened
which now impede their contributing with their prudence and
recognized wisdom to the termination of the affair which is the
subject of this writing.
I avail myself of this opportunity to renew to you the assurance of
my most distinguished consideration.
The Minister Plenipotentiary of the United
States.
