No. 570.
Mr. Cushing to Mr. Fish.
Madrid, August 14, 1874. (Received September 3.)
Sir: I beg to be permitted, in the light of the action of the several European powers in the matter of the recognition of the present Spanish [Page 905] government, to say a few words in review of the action of the United States in this respect.
When, upon the abdication of King Amadeo, the Cortes of Spain proclaimed the republic, that act was the signal and the occasion of the withdrawal of all the European powers, except Switzerland, from official recognition of the new government. To the United States, on the other hand, in common with Switzerland, this event was the inducement of specific recognition of the same new government.
It may be assumed that monarchical sympathies influenced this suspension of official relations on the part of most of the European powers, while republican sympathies influenced the United States and Switzerland in the opposite direction.
The United States continued their official relations with the new-government, even after that, under the administration of Mr. Castelar, it had become a mere dictatorship.
It followed, as logical consequence, that the United States would continue such recognition, notwithstanding the substitution of the dictatorship of General Serrano for that of Mr. Castelar.
Moreover, to do so was in accordance with the established practice of the United States, as well in Europe as in America; that is, to recognize foreign governments by reason of the fact of their existence as such, and not merely by reason of any considerations of legitimacy or other political theory.
It gratifies me to perceive that the great European powers have at length come to perceive the wisdom of the rule of action in this respect so long and steadily observed by the United States; for the government of President Serrano is now identically what it was at the time my credentials were presented, and, in so far as any diplomatic question is involved, identically what it was when those credentials were signed by the President of the United States.
I think it is perceptible, also, if one may judge from the tone of recent discussions on the subject, that the general opinion of Europe now confirms the rule of action adopted by the United States.
If, on the other hand, the President of the United States had not addressed my credentials to the actual existing government of Spain, that is, if he had suspended recognition because of question of its legitimacy, we should have been placed in the predicament of now being called upon to follow the precedent of the governments of Europe, instead of acting on a sound theory of our own, long practiced and thoroughly congenial with the principles of our own Government.
The same considerations lead me to think that it was right on my part to wait for the return of General Serrano to Madrid, strengthened by the success of his operations in Biscay, instead of either committing myself prematurely at Santander, or hastening here to remain waiting for him in a condition still more anomalous than that of the half-representatives of the European powers.
I have, &c,