No. 328.

Mr. Fish to General Sickles

No. 106.]

Sir: Your dispatch No. 172 is received. On the 17th instant I telegraphed, in reply to Mr. Motley—to be forwarded by him to you by mail and telegraph—that your course was approved, and that you would continue to press, firmly and vigorously, the plan of settlement of the pending claims desired by this Government, as indicated in your note to Mr. Sagasta of the 14th October. A copy of this dispatch is inclosed.

The President is not disposed to accept the offer of the Spanish government or to modify the demands of the United States. He thinks that no proposition, more just or more temperate, could be made than has been made. There may be a misapprehension in Mr. Sagasta’s mind as to one point in our offer, which you may correct in conversation. The President contemplates that every claimant will be required to make good before the commission his injury and his right to indemnity. Naturalized citizens of the United States will, if insisted on by Spain, be required to show when and where they were naturalized, and it will be open to Spain to traverse this fact, or to show that from any of the causes named in my circular of October 14, 1869, the applicant has forfeited his acquired rights; and it will be for the commission to decide whether each applicant has established his claim.

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The President desires to know the decision of the cabinet of Madrid at an early day, in order that, should the just wishes of the United States not be complied with, Congress may be advised of that fact. It is useless to prolong discussion where the right is so clearly on the side of this Government.

I have no time, in the haste of preparation for this mail, to express more fully my sense of the excellence of your note of the 14th of October to Mr. Sagasta.

I am, &c.,

HAMILTON FISH.