Mr. Seward to Mr. Yrisarri.
The undersigned, Secretary of State of the United States, has the honor to acknowledge the receipt of a note under date of the 26th of August last, from his excellency Mr. Yrisarri, minister plenipotentiary of the republics of Guatemala and Salvador.
[Page 884]In that communication Mr. Yrisarri refers to what is published in certain newspapers as a report of a speech which is said to have been made at the executive mansion on the 14th of the same month by the President of the United States, to some unofficial persons in attendance there, on the subject of a proposed colonization of Americans of African derivation in some part of Central America.
After presenting a portion of the said supposed report, Mr. Yrisarri remarks that Central America includes the two states which he represents, and, therefore, he proceeds to inform the Secretary of State that in those two republics no kind of colonization of foreigners, whether white or black, or of any other color, is allowed without a special permission from the respective states, the colonists being held to the fulfilment of such conditions as it may be thought proper to impose on them.
The undersigned has the honor to state, in reply, that the note of Mr. Yrisarri has excited some surprise on the part of this government, because, first, it is thought unusual to base diplomatic communications upon informal conversations of the executive head of the government as reported in public journals, and, secondly, it is not perceived that the remarks attributed to the President imply any purpose or desire on his part to colonize any class of persons in the states represented by Mr. Yrisarri, or in any other Central American state, without first obtaining by peaceful and friendly negotiation the consent of the government of such state to that proceeding.
Nevertheless, to remove all apprehension of such a purpose, the undersigned has great pleasure in stating that he is authorized to assure Mr. Yrisarri that, if this government should at any time hereafter find it desirable to effect such a colonization in any foreign country, the first proceeding to that end which will be taken will be a frank and literal application to the government of that country for its consent, and if such consent shall not at once be cheerfully accorded, the purpose will be promptly and unreservedly relinquished.
The undersigned avails himself of this occasion to offer to Mr. Yrisarri renewed assurances of his high consideration.
Señor Don Antonio Jose De Yrisarri, &c., &c., &c.