No. 399.
Mr. Biddle to Mr. Fish.
Legation of
the United States,
San
Salvador, April 10, 1872.
(Received May 4.)
No. 39]
Sir: I have the honor to transmit to you
herewith a printed copy and translation of a proclamation of the
President of Honduras, against the government of Salvador, dated the
25th of March last, with a rejoinder from President Gonzalez, of the 5th
of April instant, and also official correspondence, the basis of the
foregoing.
In an interview yesterday with the President of Salvador he thus
expressed himself:
Please send to your government the proclamations; the hare
perusal of them will he my justification. I labored for peace,
and withstood every indignity to that end, as the correspondence
published proves, when war is made inevitable by its substantial
declaration by a State with which we would fain have been
friendly.
Thus hostilities are at last imminent. Honduras declares non-intercourse
with Salvador, proscribes her people, places herself on a war-footing,
and challenges invasion, and why? Because Salvador did not authorize a
minister sent to negotiate for the reconfederation of the States of
Central America to treat also of war-claims for indemnity of Honduras;
because of the late treaty of amity, commerce, and defense between
Salvador and Guatemala, and also, that discontented citizens of Honduras
had found asylum and countenance here.
The reply of Salvador has the calmness of strength and the simplicity of
truth. It admits no claims, for Honduras has declined to specify them, and the known balance is in favor
of Salvador, as the “correspondence” attached hereto exhibits. Salvador
requested merely a bill of particulars. Honduras disdained the idea. The
objectionable treaty with a sister republic was one of amity and
commerce, and at most of defense, as by my dispatches Nos. 27 and 35.
Salvador labored for peace and for union, while Honduras declared war.
As to the refugees received, they fell under no clause of an extradition
treaty or principle of international comity. They were no culprits, but
intelligent citizens who sought asylum in Salvador from the promise of
its institutions. In a word, the impulsion to the war lurks below the
surface. The liberalism of Salvador and Guatemala is odious to the
conservatism of Honduras, wherein the Jesuitical influence predominates.
President Medina, moreover, has been spurred by angry factions, who have
more than once threatened his destruction, and in a foreign war he seeks
diversion from domestic peril. Salvador has not been the agressor. Her
material interests all cry for peace; her people are industrious, and
just as a bright vista of hope seemed dawning, Honduras shouts havoc!
and war to the knife.
I append a call for troops by President Gonzalez at the rate of two per
cent, to the population, an excess over the peace establishment
constitutionally justified by the exigency.
The Honduranean soldiers have a high character for discipline and valor,
but Salvador can levy more numerous forces, and she also has financial
advantages. A collision will probably soon occur, and through the
vicissitudes of the war I will endeavor so to act as to merit your
approval 5 sympathizing with right and progressive freedom, yet not
involving our country in unauthorized complications. The question of the
neutrality of the line of the Honduras railway is well postponed until
the date of its completion.
The map discloses what a strategic advantage a neutral cordon of
[Page 525]
such extent must be to
Honduras whenever invaded, and it theatens in some indirect way or other
to involve the nation guaranteeing in each of the continuous wars which
desolate these unhappy lands.
I have, &c.,
[Inclosure 1.—Translation.]
José Maria Medina, captain-general and President of the republic:
Considering that the unjustifiable procedure of the government of
Salvador, denying, notwithstanding its authenticity, the power given
to its minister the Señor General Licenciado Don Juan Jose Samayoa
to arrange the liquidation of pending accounts between that and this
republic, relating to the last war, it made the affairs of this with
that government indecorous and humiliating, and, consequently, all
good understanding became impossible.
Considering that, notwithstanding the pacific attitude preserved by
this government and its efforts to introduce the observance of the
rules of the laws of nations, regarding the subjects aforesaid, it
is notorious that Marshal Gonzalez, the Salvadorean President, to
the disquietude of Honduras, lends aid and comfort to political
refugees and those discontented with the administration.
Considering that a treaty, celebrated by the governments of Salvador
and Guatemala, has been made public, highly threatening to Honduras,
and to the peace and tranquillity of all Central America; and it
being a duty of the executive power to take all the preventive
measures which circumstances demand to save harmless the national
independence in all its vigor, the public order, conformably to
Article 35 of the constitution, sections 1 and 10:
I decree:
- Article 1. Official relations
between Honduras and Salvador shall be closed, and also
private relations between the respective citizens, until
friendly relations between the governments are
restored.
- Article 2. The authorities and
managers at the frontiers shall prevent the entrance of
Honduranean emigrants, and of suspected persons who come
from abroad. Within, locomotion is prohibited without
passports duly procured.
- Article 3. The republic of
Honduras places itself in a state of defensive war against
whatever invasion.
- Article 4. In the least possible
time the national army shall be raised consonantly to the
legislative decree of the 9th of the current month.
- Article 5. Authorities and
private individuals, neglectful in the service of the
republic, shall be treated as enemies.
- Article 6. Those who conspire
against the interior or exterior security, aiding the
enemies of the government, and having relations with them,
shall be judged by military law.
- Article 7. So soon as an
invasion commences, and for its duration, a state of siege
shall exist, and the invaders be opposed in every possible
manner.
- Article 8. Whoever gives aid and
comfort to the enemy shall be shot by any military chief,
with the previous testimony of two witnesses at least, and
the hearing of the accused. The property of those
compromitted with the invasion shall be applied to the
expenses of the national defense.
- Article 9. All the
responsibility of the war, in case of the invasion of the
Hondu-Tanean territory by forces or parties proceeding from
Salvador, shall fall with all its consequences upon the
government of that republic.
- Article 10. The ministers of
state are charged with the publication and enforcement of
this decree.
Given in Comayagua in the government house
the 25th March,
1872.
- JOSE MARIA MEDINA.
- The Minister of Interior and of
Foreign Relations,
Manuel Colindres. - The Minister of the Treasury and of
War,
Rafael
Padilla.
[Inclosure No. 2.—Translation.]
[From the Boletin
Oficial of Salvador, of
6th of April, 1872.]
The President of the republic of Salvador:
Considering that the government of Honduras has revealed its
reactionary and hostile efforts against the liberal institutions
which are implanted in Salvador, and
[Page 526]
that, in search of some pretext, has stamped
in its blindness as antagonistic to the independence of Central
America the treaty lately celebrated with Guatemala, when it is
nothing less than the confirmation of republican principles, and the
germ of prosperity and hope for these countries.
Considering that, equally, it has served as a pretext for the
inexplicable conduct of that government, the having been rejected as
informal, unjust, and groundless the claims for imaginary
indebtedness, which, perhaps dissemblingly, that government presents
as justifiable.
Considering that by such specious pretexts it has closed its
political relations with this government, has prohibited private
transactions between individuals of the two-republics, and has
called the people to arms, which conduct places this government
under the imperious necessity of dictating convenient measures for
guaranteeing the interests, the liberty, and independence of the
nation, in conformity with article 78 and sections 1 and 2 of the
47th article of the constitution, I have thought fit to decree, a-nd
it is decreed:
- Article 1. Every Salvadorian,
saving the legal exceptions, is obliged to take up arms,
whenever required, to defend the independence of the
republic and its territorial integrity. Consequently the
nation places itself on a war-footing, from this date being
severed the political relations with the government of
Honduras, and such other as may give the enemy news of the
interior condition of the republic of whatsoever
nature.
- Article 2. The infraction of the
final clause of the preceding article, the dissemination of
false or terrifying rumors, and every action which tends to
lessen the efforts of the authorities, shall be punished as
the crime of treason, conformably to the existing
laws.
- Article 3. No person can travel
from one department to another without a passport given by
the governors or alcaldes of the district, under the penalty
of being suspected, and committed to prison until proof of
innocence.
- Article 4. Governors, &c.,
to be responsible for the enforcement of this decree, which
is to be enforced from the date of its promulgation.
Given in San Salvador, at the national palace, the 5th of April of
1872.
- SANTIAGO GONZALEZ.
- The Minister of the Treasury and of
War,
Borja
Bustamente. - In the absence of the Minister of
Foreign Relations, the Chief of Bureau,
Rafael Reyes. - The Chief of Bureau of the Ministry
of the Interior,
Francisco E. Palindo.
[Inclosure No. 3.—Translation.]
[From the Boletin
Oficial, April 6,
1872.]
The President of the republic of Salvador:
Considering that the basis established by the eightieth article of
the constitution for the national militia is insufficient, under the
circumstances which now threaten the sovereignty and independence of
the republic by an armed invasion of the government of Honduras, at
the same time that insensate attempts of domestic rebellious
reactionaries are apprehended; and considering, moreover, that the
eleventh section of the article 47 of the same constitution,
providing for this contingency, empowers the government to raise the
greatest force which it may consider necessary, and in order to save
the community the inconvenience from irregular enlistments, as it is
best to organize at once the national militia upon a proper and
regular system, he has thought fit to decree, and decrees:
- Article 1. The militia of the
republic shall be organized with the utmost celerity, at the
rate of 2 per cent, to the population, and consonantly to
existing laws upon the subject.
- Article 2. This temporary
arrangement shall have effect from the date of its
promulgation, and shall become inoperative with the
cessation of the reasons for compelling it, the militia then
being reduced to the veteran force.
Given in San Salvador, at the national palace, the 2d of April,
1872.
- SANTIAGO GONZALEZ.
- The Minister of the Treasury, War,
and of the Navy,
Borja
Bustemente.
