No. 549.
General Sickles to Mr. Fish.
United
States Legation in Spain,
Madrid
,
February 3, 1874.
(Received March 20.)
No. 973.]
Sir: I have the honor to forward herewith a copy
and translation of a decree declaring the northern coast of Spain, from Cape
de Peñas to Fuenterrabia, in a state of blockade. The ports of Gijon,
Santander, and San Sebastian are excepted. The blockade includes some two
hundred and fifty miles of coast.
It will be observed that the blockade is declared effective from the
twentieth instant; that vessels bound for the open ports of Gijon,
Santander, and San Sebastian are liable to search and detention, and to
certain penalties denounced in the blockade regulations prescribed for the
Spanish Pacific squadron November 26, 1864, and that no information is given
as to what will be deemed “contraband of war.” With reference to the rules
of the Peruvian blockade of 1864, Mr. Layard informs me he applied at the
state department for a copy of them, but they could not be found.
It seems, according to Article V, that the necessary war-vessels are ordered
to the coast to make the blockade effective) but one may perhaps venture to
intimate a doubt whether, considering the resources of the Spanish navy, the
execution of these orders is practicable.
Under all the circumstances, it is not likely that the European powers will
suffer the rich commerce of the Bay of Biscay to be subjected to annoyance
and interruption by a blockade of this character.
I am, &c.,
[Inclosure.]
Decree of January 31, 1874, declaring the Biscayan ports of Spain in a state of
blockade.
[Translated from “La Gaceta de Madrid,”
February 2, 1874,]
preamble.
Among the highest duties imposed upon the present government of the
republic “by public opinion, by the spontaneous and energetic act from
which it sprung, by its own [Page 858]
nature, in short, and by its own decorum, stands principally and
preeminently the duty of closing this period of bloody although barren
strife, of profound perturbations, of unheard-of calamities, which ever
carry in their train intestine discords, and which have ingulfed our
generous and high-toned Spain in the deep ocean of sorrows and
misfortunes.
Two armed rebellions menaced our unhappy country when the government took
upon itself the rude and, now more than ever, unbearable charge of
administering and directing public affairs. In Cartagena floated the
banner of demagogy, and in the north waved the standard of numerous
hosts which, reviving, thanks to the hazard of circumstances, and
unrealizable ideal, have not shrunk from ravaging those fertile
provinces, paralyzing their commerce, giving their picturesque
homesteads to the flames, and sowing, in a word, death and desolation as
indelible foot-prints of their path, if not with the hope of triumph at
least with the aim of heaping greater calamities upon the shattered soil
of their country.
Of these two insurrections one has succumbed. The organization of the
actual government was in itself sufficient to wound it to the death. It
is now time to re-unite and concentrate the active forces of the country
to hurl them, unanimous and compact, upon the battle-fields of the
north, for we can do no less than that which our fathers did.
But the indomitable valor of our tried forces by land and sea is not
enough to accomplish this, or rather it is needful that the energy and
rapidity of their irresistible onset be vigorously complemented and
efficaciously aided by the impossibility of the enemy’s receiving
assistance from foreign shores by means of those speculators who,
setting at naught the vigilance and good faith of their respective
governments, set the bait of a miserable profit above the universal
duties of humanity and of public law. It is indispensable, in a word, if
the action of the government is to be effective and energetic, to close
for a time our Cantabrian shores to foreign commerce and prohibit access
thereto, not only to foreign vessels but also to the natives themselves
bound to the ports or navigating in the waters of that coast, without
the requisites and guarantees established for that purpose.
Nothing better satisfies this pressing necessity than the declaration of
a state of blockade of the coast in question, especially when the
government possesses the naval force sufficient to make it real and
effective, as is demanded by the present practice of the nations of
Europe and the precepts of international law; to which maybe further
added that this measure, founded upon the first of all rights—the right
of self-preservation, the synthesis of the sovereignty and the
independence of the nation—can give rise to no ulterior reclamation on
the part of those which recognize and admit these primordial principles,
adapting themselves, as Spain also will adapt herself in their
application, to the generally received international jurisprudence.
Resting upon these considerations, the undersigned minister has the honor
to present to the government the following draft of a decree.
JUAN BAUTISTA TOPETE.
Madrid
,
January 31,
1874.
Decree.
The government of the republic, in a council of ministers, decrees:
-
Article I. The coast of Cantabria,
from Cape de Penas to Fuenterrabia, is declared in a state of
blockade, with the sole exception of the ports of Gijon,
Santander, and San Sebastian.
-
Art. II. The government shall
promulgate the rules to be observed by Spanish vessels bound to
the ports of Gijon, Santander, and San Sebastian from the ports
of Spain or of foreign countries, with cargoes of lawful
commerce, in which there shall be no goods contraband of war, in
order that they be not molested by the blockading forces.
-
Art. III. Foreign vessels bound
under like conditions of lawful trade to the ports enumerated,
and observing the same rules as Spanish vessels, shall likewise
not be molested by the blockading ships if such requisites are
borne out by the search to which they are subject, (el
reconocimiento que practiquen.)
-
Art. IV. The vessels which
contravene these rules shall be detained, and shall be subject
to the penalties established by maritime law and universally
recognized in such cases, and by the blockade regulations
prescribed for the Pacific squadron November 26, 1864.
-
Art. V. In order to maintain the
effectiveness of the blockade within the limits designated in
Article I, the necessary war-vessels are hereby ordered to that
coast.
-
Art. VI. The minister of state shall
communicate the present decree to the ambassadors, ministers,
and consular agents of Spain in foreign countries, in order
that, the [Page 859] proper
publicity being given, ignorance thereof may not be alleged,
notifying them that it is to go into operation from the 20th day
of February next.
-
Art. VII. The minister of marine
shall issue the necessary orders and instructions, in order that
this decree have exact and due fulfillment.
Madrid, January 31,
1874.
The President of the executive power of the
republic.
FRANCISCO SERRANO.
The minister of marine,
Juan Bautista
Topete.
