Mr. Kilpatrick to Mr. Seward
No. 49.]
United States Legation,
Santiago, Chili,
May 1, 1867.
Sir: I have the honor to forward you by this
mail the long-delayed reply (A) of the government of Chili to the
generous offer on your part of the good offices of the government of the
United States in arranging for Spain and the ablied republics an
honorable adjustment of their present difficulties. I can only say that
I most deeply regret that the kind offer has not been more frankly and
less conditionally accepted. You are already well informed of the
efforts I have made from time to time, as opportunity offered, to bring
to an end a state of war so detrimental to our sister republics and the
commercial world. How nearly successful were the mutual efforts of
Commodore Rodgers and myself to arrange terms of peace before the
bombardment of Valparaiso is well known at the State Department. How we
labored to prevent that bombardment, and through whose fault we failed,
is equally known; and I need only to add that your instructions,
accompanying your kind letter approving of my conduct after that sad
affair, to let no opportunity pass to renew my efforts for a peaceful
adjustment, have been most earnestly carried out. Everything has been
done, both by official communications and personal interviews with the
cabinet at Santiago, consistent with dignity and respect for my
government, to induce an acceptance of your proposition, so fair and
honorable alike for Spain and the allied republics. As I understand the
communication of Mr. Covarrubias, it is equivalent to a rejection of the
proposed conference altogether; for, after his lengthy remarks upon the
character of the conference, he gives it as his firm opinion that it
will end in arbitration pure and simple; and after his decided
expression of want of faith that the conference will result happily for
those interested, he adds:
Although the republic of Chili has always been partial to this method of
solution, [meaning arbitration,] it believes it would not be able to
accept it without certain reservations.
[Page 267]
An examination of these reservations will, I think, convince you that the
conference can never be had. While Spain accepts the conference with the
condition that she must know what questions are to be settled by
arbitration, should arbitration be necessary, Chili accepts the
conference with the condition that certain important points shall be
admited by Spain. First, “that the bombardment of Valparaiso was an act
of inexcusable hostility, and merits the most severe reprobation.”
Second, that Chili must be allowed to explain in a precise manner the
different situations which the contending parties in the present war
occupy, namely:
That there is only one aggressor, which is Spain, and four injured
parties, Chili, Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador—the first two in a manner
direct, and the last two indirectly. Whatever might have been the
motives of complaint which the Spanish government had against those of
Chili and Peru, it is an evident and incontrovertible fact that to make
them of value she did not begin by exhausting the pacific means of
diplomacy, nor did she respect the laws of international right; and that
the occupation of the Chinchas on the 14th of April, 1864, and the
blockade of the port of Valparaiso on the 25th of September, 1865, were
acts of unnecessary hostility, irregular in their form and unjust in
their motives.
This explanation is to be made for the information of the state chosen as
arbitrator, and Spain must accept it. In the third place, the question
of the rendition of the Covadonga shall not be entertained in the
arbitration; and finally, as a last condition, Chili and her allies will
not renounce the reparations which they claim their enemy owes them, nor
the right of fixing by themselves the kind and magnitude of those
reparations.
These conditions will, I am certain, prevent a consummation of the
honorable efforts made by you and your representative here, and he must
be compelled to look helplessly on while this useless, half-waged war
continues; a war which, although inoffensive in its character,
influences with all its ruinous effects the commercial interests of the
belligerents and unoffending neutrals.
Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State, Washington, D. C.*
A.
[Translation.]
Mr. Covarrubias to Mr. Kilpatrick
Santiago,
April 17, 1867.
Sir: In conformity with the instructions
which I have received from my government, I have the honor to reply
to the note which your excellency was pleased to address me on the
21st of January last, transmitting me the propositions of settlement
which the cabinet at Washington has judged proper to indicate to the
different belligerents in the war in which Chili finds herself
engaged at present.
According to those propositions, Chili and her allies on one side,
and on the other Spain, should appoint plenipotentiaries in
Washington authorized to meet together in conferences, presided over
by the person whom the President of the United States should
designate, with the object of agreeing upon terms of a permanent
peace, which should be equitable, just, and honorable to all the
belligerents. In case that they should not arrive in the conferences
at a unanimous agreement, the same President of the United States
should designate a third state or sovereign, who should decide, as
arbiter, the differences which the plenipotentiaries should not
succeed in arranging.
Even now it is easy to foresee that the manner of convention proposed
by the government of your excellency would lead necessarily to an
arbitration pure and simple, the same as occurs frequently between
two nations at difficulty with one another, with the sole difference
that in this case it would not be the parties themselves, but the
President of the Union who would elect the arbiter.
To justify this foreknowledge, it will be sufficient for me to call
to mind the extravagant and unjust pretensions which Spain has
presented even before the commencement of the present war, and the
tenacity with which she has adhered to them until she has involved
the
[Page 268]
republics of the
Pacific in a long and disastrous contest. It is not to be hoped,
then, that in the conferences at Washington Spain would show herself
more favorable to the voice of justice and conciliation. This is so
much the less probable, since the government of Spain has not
followed the course of conduct in the present war which belonged to
a civilized belligerent, but rather has augmented, by her manifest
violations of international right, the grievances collected by her
adversaries, and which are subject to reparation.
However moderate should be the demands of Chili and her allies, they
could not cease to be proportionate to the magnitude of the insults
and damages which they have received, and, in consequence, they
would be too painful to the pride of Spain to presume, with reason,
that they would be accepted by her willingly. The object of the
conference being frustrated, which would give the recourse of
arbitration, and although the government of the republic has always
been partial to this method of solution, it believes it would not be
able to accept it without certain reservations.
These reservations are inspired as much by the irregular conduct of
the enemy, to which I have just alluded, as by the basis of
convention which previously other mediatory powers have made, and
which she has not hesitated to reject.
First, she considers the bombardment of Valparaiso an act of
hostility inexcusable and worthy of the most severe reprobation,
whether it is judged in the light of the general principles of
international right under the criterion of the ideas and sentiments
prevailing in our epoch, or, finally, with reference to the
consequences and sad precedents which it may tend to create. The
opinion of the civilized world has universally execrated this deed,
and after so incontestable a sanction it would not be possible to
agree that it should be submitted to the judgment of one arbiter the
qualification of the odious character of the bombardment.
So, therefore, my government believes that in this point it only
would be able to be matter for arbitration the fixing of the kind of
reparations which Spain may be obliged to make to Chili and her
allies in consequence of the bombardment of Valparaiso, but in no
manner a decision upon the legitimacy or illegitimacy of that
vituperable abuse of power.
In the second place, I cannot fail to take into account, that in the
propositions of convention which previously have been made by other
mediatory states, there figured the condition that the belligerents
should reciprocally return the prizes made during the course of
hostilities. According to this condition, Spain would gratuitously
receive the steamer of war Covadonga, captured by the Chilian
corvette Esmeralda, in good and fair combat, and Chili would
renounce, without compensation, that lawful as well as valuable
trophy. I say without compensation, for Spain would not be able to
return to the republic even the merchant ships captured by her naval
forces, burned as they have been by those same forces.
It would consider necessary, also, the previous step of explaining in
a precise manner the different situations which the contending
parties in the present war occupy—situations which have been wont to
be confounded in the propositions of settlement before alluded
to.
In the present war there is only one aggressor, which is Spain, and
four injured parties, which are Chili, Peru, Bolivia and Eucador,
the first two in a manner direct and immediate, and the two last
indirectly.
Whatever might have been the grounds of complaint which the Spanish
government had against those of Chili and Peru, it is a fact,
evident and incontrovertible, that, to make them of value, she did
not begin by exhausting the pacific means of diplomacy, neither did
she respect the laws of international right, and that the occupation
of the Chincha islands on the 14th of April, 1864, and the blockade
of the ports of Chili, on the 26th of September, 1865, were acts of
hostility, unnecessary, irregular in their form, and unjust in their
motives; consequently, those aggressions of Spain constituted, by
themselves alone, an outrage as unmerited as grave against Chili and
Peru, and fastened her exclusive responsibility to all the sad
consequences of the war in which she has involved four
republics.
Appealing to the judgment of one arbiter, Chili and her allies would
not be able to renounce the reparations which their enemy owes them,
nor the right of fixing by themselves the kind and magnitude of
these reparations.
Such are the reservations which my government, in concurrence with
its allies, has believed it indispensable to make in order to be
able to lend its adhesion to the propositions of settlement of the
cabinet at Washington.
It would regret that the reservations expressed should disarrange the
laudable proposition of the government of the Union, and should
block up the road to peace so sincerely desired on its part, but it
would not be able to lessen them without forgetting its higher
duties to the dignity and rights of this country.
In the mean time, whatever may be the results of the mediation of the
government of your excellency, that of Chili will always look upon
it with gratitude, and will have it as a new testimony of its kind
interest in the republic.
Have the kindness to transmit to your government this communication,
and accept the reiterated expression of the sentiments of very
distinguished consideration with which I am,
Your obedient servant,
Envoy Extraordinary and Minister
Plenipotentiary
of the United States of North America.
