No. 397.
Mr. Biddle to Mr. Fish.
San Salvador, March 12, 1872. (Received April 2.)
Sir: Referring to my No. 27, I have now the honor to transmit to you the text of the treaty between Salvador and Guatemala, as ratified by the congress of this State and published officially. Its main features are as detailed in the dispatch referred to, but an important provision was not at that date divulged.
The twelfth article may be thus translated:
The government of Guatemala having expelled the Jesuit Fathers, it being notoriou that their remaining in the country was hurtful to the interests of the republic, and is being evident that the government of Salvador may be thwarted in like manner, and find in them an obstacle to the definitive establishment of the liberal institutions proclaimed in both republics, and knowing besides that the constituent congress of Salvador had disposed that the aforesaid fathers should not be admitted to this republic, both governments agree not to allow their existence in the future in any part of their respective territories, whether organized as a society or in any other manner.
While the minister of foreign relations in transitu to Guatemala with the treaty, President Gonzalez directed the immediate expulsion of the Jesuits, and announced that those in the capital (two) were to leave at dawn to-day. Exception was taken to the constitutionality of the measure and the aid of the judiciary invoked.
The constitution provides for the toleration of all religious worship which does not offend public peace and morality, and that none shall be expatriated without trial and condemnation. But the Jesuits are said to be most destructive to both morality and order, and it is thought that the action of the courts will be coincident with that of the executive and legislative.
Meantime the Guatemalan policy thus embraced by Salvador exasperates more and more Nicaragua and Honduras, both eminently conservative, and the former the asylum for the banished Jesuits from Guatemala. Threatening resolutions concerning Salvador are said to have been favorably received by the Honduras legislature, and a heavy pecuniary indemnity is said to be demanded by that state for aid afforded Salvador in its late revolution.
Armed bodies of Honduranians have been hovering on the borders, and growing apprehensions of hostilities are expressed.
[Page 519]Yesterday I conversed with President Gonzalez. He deprecated war most strongly, and said he, too, deeply felt every argument for peace. That the constant intrigues of the Jesuits permeating all society, made their expulsion a great necessity to the very existence of the government, but that he would avoid war until the last extremity, “until it only became a question of war or abject dishonor.”
I am yet hopeful that hostilities may be averted. Salvador sincerely craves for peace. Her growing agriculture and commerce and the vital interests of her young republic loudly demand it, while the spirits of retrogression and priestcraft hurl upon her the gauntlet.
The conference at La Union, in this State, for a Central American re-confederation has met and adjourned. Nicaragua was not represented.
The proceedings have not as yet been promulgated, but President Gonzalez did not conceal from me his disappointment at the result of their deliberations. “Their plan,” said he, “will be found impracticable; it is too full of petty detail, and will never be accepted by all the States.” “For my part,” he added, “I would sacrifice anything for union. Would that our States could read a lesson in the example of yours!”
In the past, war seems to have been the normal condition of Central America, peace the exception, and for the future, threatening as it now seems, we may hope that the liberal policy of Salvador, her system of education, and a new immigration to supply the growing wants of our own Pacific slope, may all work together for peace and progress.
I have, &c.,