Mr. Dickinson to Mr. Seward.
No. 120.]
Legation of the United States,
Leon de Nicaragua, September 7,1866.
Sir: Enclosed I have the honor of handing you a
despatch received by this legation from Don Buenav’a Selva, minister of
foreign affairs ad interim of this government,
and my answer to the same.
I have the honor to be, sir, very respectfully, your obedient
servant,
Hon. William H. Seward,
Secretary of State, Washington, D. C.
[Page 544]
[Translation.]
Mr. Selva to Mr. Dickinson.
National Palace,
Managua,
August 22,
1866.
Mr. Minister: The undersigned, minister of
the interior, in charge accidentally of the office of foreign
affairs of this republic, deems proper to address himself to the
Hon. Mr. Dickinson, minister resident of the United States, to
impart to him that sundry newspapers of New York publish the notice
of a new complot of filibusters that, since a year ago, is getting
up, after what is assured, in Cleveland, Cincinnati, St. Louis, and
New Orleans, to come to some ports of Central America and occupy the
country and organize a pure Yankee republic.
It is likewise ascertained that the project has already taken a very
serious form; that the money for the expedition will be furnished by
some of the most wealthy citizens of those places; that the job of
recruiting and arming the expedition is to the care of Lieutenant
Guy Wisner, a young man of great bravery and tact, and very capable
to carry out this matter to the end; that the number of men required
to march is five thousand, and that the lists of Guy Wisner reckon
already four thousand; that the expedition is to commence in
September next; and that a party of people from New Mexico will
start from the ports of Texas at the same time.
Although the government of Nicaragua do not doubt but that of the
United States has dictated measures most efficacious to make
respectable the laws of neutrality by stopping the organization and
departure of that expedition, it wishes, nevertheless, to call the
attention of your excellency by exciting you to inform your
government on this subject, with the design that, if the expedition
has not yet verified its march, may then the government of the
United States be pleased to dictate the correspondent orders to
arrest the guilty and proceed to their judgment.
My government likewise desires that your excellency may transmit to
him all the facts and news which might have reached you regarding
this grave business.
With this opportunity I have the honor to subscribe myself your
excellency’s most attentive and obedient servant,
Hon. Sr. A. B. Dickinson,
Minister Resident of the United
States.
Mr. Dickinson to Mr. Selva.
Legation of the United
States,
Leon de Nicaragua,
August 25, 1866.
Sir: Your excellency’s despatch of the 22d
instant has just been received and the contents duly noted.
In reply thereto, I would say that the government of Nicaragua,
judging from the past, has reasons to feel alarmed on account of the
newspaper report of the filibuster movement in various cities of the
United States; yet, as I have received from my own government
nothing in relation to the matter, I am confident that the affair
has been greatly exaggerated, if in truth it has any
foundation—knowing as well as I do that it would be the first to
advise me of the fact; and the present administration watches with
so jealous an eye the neutrality laws, that even where it has felt
itself aggrieved, as, per example, the late Fenian raid upon Canada,
it does not wait for an official notice of an infraction thereof,
but, at the first intimation of an overt act being committed, it at
once crushes the attempt by the strong arm of military power.
I will, however, in accordance with your wishes, acquaint my
government with the facts, as they are reported here, by the first
mail, believing, however, should there be any foundation for the
report, which, as it appeared in the Panama Star and Herald, was
only the alleged statement of a correspondent of the Cleveland
Herald, that the government has used its usual dilligence in the
matter, and that ere this the originators, if any there were, of the
filibustering scheme have been punished according to the laws of the
country.
I am happy to inform your excellency that all the facts that have
come to my knowledge in regard to this “grave negocio” have been
derived from the Panama Star and Herald of the 8th instant.
I am pleased to say that the vigilance of the present executive in
protecting the rights the citizens of this country is very
commendable, and, in my opinion, to it the country is in debted for
the peace and prosperity which has for so long a time and so
uniformly attended his administration of public affairs.
I am, sir, your obedient servant,
Señor Don Buenaventura Selva,
Minister of Foreign Affairs ad
interim.
