No. 355.
Mr. Stevens to Mr. Fish.
Montevideo, August 8, 1872. (Received September 20.)
Sir: By your dispatch No. 3, March 8, 1871, relating to Paraguay, I was directed, if not incompatible with the public service, to bear the communication of President Grant to Asuncion, and deliver it in person to the President of Paraguay. At the date of the reception of your communication, the interests of the public service would not permit [Page 466] me to leave Montevideo, as indicated by my dispatch No. 4, dated May 8, 1871, in which I stated that I had safely forwarded the President’s communication to Asudcion, accompanied with the promise to visit Paraguay as soon as my presence could be spared from this legation. The exigency of the public service permitting it, July 5, I left Montevideo in the United States steamer Wasp, and, after a passage of nineteen days, arrived at Asuncion. On our upward transit we stopped at Colonia, Uruguay, where citizens of the United States have valuable property interests, at Nueva Palmira, Rosario, Parana, Rincoa Loto, and Corrientes, it being the opinion of the commander of the South Atlantic fleet and myself that due regard to the interests of the United States requires an occasional visit by a United States naval vessel at the important commercial points on the Rio de la Plata, the Parana, and the Paraguay.
Our reception at Asuncion was most cordial, even highly enthusiastic, as creditable to the people and authorities of Paraguay as honorable to the Government of the United States. Calling on President Rivarola, I asked him to consider the reception of the communication of President Grant, forwarded by me from Montevideo, by mail, some weeks previously, as though borne by me in person. To this he signified his assent in a manner alike appropriate and emphatic. The next day after our arrival, the President, accompanied by his cabinet, all the members of the supreme court, the presiding officers and the leading members of the two houses of congress, and other officials, visited me on board the Wasp, and received the customary naval salute. On the following day the President provided a special train and he and other members of the government earnestly solicited me to take a trip into the country, to the extent of the Paraguay Railroad, forty-five miles. This invitation being tendered to me as an agent of the United States, it was accepted, and the day was consumed in viewing the rich and varied natural resources of the country to the extent that our transit would allow.
The evening before our departure from Asuncion the President wished to express his special regard to the United States Government by giving its humble representative an “official ball,” which, in its appointments and methods, was as surprising to me and the officers of the Wasp as it was unusually attractive to intelligent gentlemen of other countries who chanced to be in Asuncion. The flags of the United States and Paraguay were intertwined in the central positions of the President’s parlors, between those of Brazil and the Argentine Republic. During our stay in Asuncion everything possible was done by the Paraguay authorities to show their appreciation of the sympathy of the United States in first recognizing them by a diplomatic agent under the new form of government, adopted after the fall of Lopez. Words of mine are inadequate to express the intensity of the national gratitude and hope which the government and people of this sadly-afflicted land now cherish toward the Government and people of the United States, whose encouraging voice and example are so valuable to them. Within the past ten months very perceptible improvement has been made in Paraguay a flairs. Of the startling piece of history which transpired between 1865 and 1870 I need not speak, in that terrible struggle it is supposed that nearly four hundred thousand of the inhabitants of Paraguay perished, and the country was stripped and desolated to an extent that nothing in the century bears a parallel. But the soil and climate are so favorable, that one year’s productions have supplied a large proportion of the necessities of food. It is expected that the [Page 467] present year will double the products of 1870, and thus fully supply the immediate wants of the population.
The national feeling is still strong, though emphatically adverse to its former methods of government. It has adapted a constitution highly liberal and republican, drawn largely from that of the United States, and from several of our State constitutions. Its leading men are comparatively young, a fair proportion of them intelligent, and quite a number of them of European education, though natives of Paraguay. They have cast aside the showy forms and gilt emblems which too much prevail in South American countries, and are earnestly solicitous to adopt the methods and simple governmental forms of the United States. They have established the Massachusetts school-system, with a compulsory law for the attendance at school of all children between the ages of five and twelve years.
But one fear heavily weighs upon them, and makes their future cloudy—the fear that the engagements and policy of the allies are hostile to Paraguayan nationality. The allies made war with the avowed purpose of overthrowing Lopez, and not for the destruction of the Paraguayan people and nationality. Their avowed object has been accomplished. The Lopez despotism is no more. Its military armament is totally destroyed; its fleet and arsenals seized or blown up; its fortifications have been demolished; its eight hundred pieces of cannon have been entirely taken from the country, leaving Paraguay not even enough to fire a national salute, its towns were sacked, and nearly all movable property taken. Paraguay is powerless for attack or defense. In her new constitution it is expressly stipulated that its rivers shall hereafter be free, thus putting an end to the controversy which was one of the ostensible reasons of the war on the part of the allies.
The allies have still on its territory a force of about four thousand troops, and Brazil has a fleet of ten or twelve war-vessels in its harbors. So completely was government and society disrupted by the war, that it was doubtless wise that for a time the allies should retain a military force in the country. But the period is not distant when this foreign occupancy should cease. The final treaty of peace has not been signed, nor does Paraguay yet know to what terms she is to be asked to submit. But in addition to what she has suffered from the cruel despotism of Lopez and the overwhelming force of his enemies, she fears that her territory is to be curtailed, and the war-debt of the allies, nearly four hundred millions of gold dollars—far more than the en tire country is worth—to be saddled upon her. Perhaps some of her fears are groundless. But the people and government of Paraguay think they have just reasons for their apprehensions. In two confidential interviews with me, the President expressed his fears, and asserted the great value of the moral support of the United States Government, and, through me, solicited the friendly offices of President Grant in behalf of the republic of Paraguay. Carefully avoiding the expression of opinions and remarks which could in any way be construed as at variance with the long-established policy of the United States in respect to the affairs of other countries, I so far responded to his wishes as to agree to communicate his request to President Grant, for his friendly offices with the Brazil and the Argentine governments. I assured President Rivarola that I would confidentially bear his request to the President of the United States, so much as is contained in the following terms:
The President of the republic of Paraguay asks the President of the United States to solicit the governments of Brazil and the Argentine Republic to be liberal in its treaties and policy in respect to the nationality and territory of the republic of Paraguay.
I consented to be the medium of no request other than expressed in the above general terms. Indeed, the Paraguayan President expects none other than this moral encouragement from the United States, and he believes that it will be effective if given in the above form without delay.
Brazil has already far more territory and resources than she is likely to improve for several centuries to come, and the Argentine Republic is likely to have enough within its present boundaries to employ its energies for a long period in the future. It cannot be inimical to the welfare of those nations to allow the Paraguay survivors their own territory as the field for the reconstruction of Paraguayan nationality.
I may be allowed to express the opinion that now is a very auspicious time for President Grant to perform the friendly office for Paraguay which she solicits. Señor Parahos, reputed to be the ablest statesman of Brazil, is now at the head of foreign affairs, having recently returned to that position which he occupied when Brazil gracefully changed its position in respect to the passage of a United States war-vessel and minister through the “allied lines,” his predecessor having maintained an unfriendly attitude, while Paranhos assented to the views of Secretary Seward. There are reasons to believe that Paranhos is more wisely disposed toward Paraguay than other of the monarchical statesmen of Brazil, and there are equally strong reasons for the opinion that the present executive of the Argentine Republic, who looks to the United States as his model in all things, would favorably receive a solicitation from President Grant in behalf of Paraguay. Whatever is to be done in the premises, if anything, must be done at once, or it may be too late.
Believing that an earnest word from the President in behalf of a weak and struggling people will be courteously received by the Brazilian and Argentine governments, and perhaps proof effective to the end desired, I hope not to have gone beyond the limits of propriety in the expression of views in the terms of this communication.
I have, &c.,