No. 125.
Mr. Fish
to Señor Dardon.
Washington, January 15, 1874.
The undersigned, Secretary of State of the United States, has the honor to state that the note of Mr. Dardon, minister of Guatemala and [Page 186] Salvador, of the 22d of November last, reached here in due season, but having accidentally been mislaid, this alone has occasioned the delay of an acknowledgment of its receipt.
That paper represents that the steamer Colon, which arrived at New York on the 17th of November, brought a number of cases of arms and munitions of war, sent by Don Enrique Palacios, and that, as their consignees declined to receive them, they remain at the customhouse, subject, as is supposed, to the order of the sender. Mr. Dardon consequently requests that the articles referred to may be detained until a competent court shall determine that they are a lawful prize.
In reply, the undersigned has the honor to state that, without questioning the antecedents which Mr. Dardon mentions in regard to the articles adverted to, it is presumed they were imported into the United States in the same manner and subject to the same conditions as other merchandise of a similar character. If the requirements of the law shall have been fulfilled in regard to them, there is no executive authority which can properly interfere with the claim of the rightful owner. They cannot be detained contrary to his pleasure, except by order of a court of justice, and during the pendency of any suit which may be brought in respect to them, if such order should so require.
The undersigned avails, &c.,