Department of State,
Washington, June 22,
1885.
[Inclosure.]
Mr. Garland to
Mr. Bayard.
Department of Justice,
Washington, June 19,
1885.
Sir: I have the honor to send you for your
information a copy of a letter of the 18th instant from Mr. Root, by
his assistant, attorney of the United States for the
[Page 278]
southern district of New York, calling
attention to discrepancies in the official information given the
attorney by the Colombian minister at Washington and the Colombian
consul at New York.
Very respectfully,
A. H. GARLAND,
Attorney-General.
[Inclosure in
inclosure.]
Mr. Clarice to
Mr. Garland.
Office of the United States Attorney for the Southern
District of New York,
New
York, June 18,
1885.
Sir: I have the honor to call your
attention to a discrepancy in the official information given the
district attorney by the Colombian minister at Washington and by the
Colombian consul here in regard to the brig Ambrose Light, captured
by the United States ship Alliance.
Your letter of 2d instant inclosed a copy of the note of the
Colombian minister to the Secretary of State, dated May 27, 1885,
wherein the minister states: “I have information whose authenticity
and reliable source authorizes me to state to the Government of the
honorable Secretary of State that the brig Ambrose Light, which was
captured on the 17th instant by the American war vessel Alliance on
the Caribbean Sea, under circumstances which gave reasons to suspect
her, was purchased at Philadelphia for the Colombian rebels by their
agent, Benjamin Gaitan, who dispatched her with some munitions of
war to the scene of the rebellion, where she was assigned to the
transportation of troops. This aforesaid agent, the purchaser of the
vessel, has just given this information to the consul of Colombia at
New York, &c.”
Upon the receipt of your letter the district attorney wrote the
Colombian consul, giving him the substance of the minister’s
statement, and asking him to call at this office with his witnesses,
to the end that it might be ascertained whether there had been a
breach of our neutrality laws.
I have now at hand the reply of the consul to the district attorney’s
letter, in which he states: “I deem it convenient to advise you that
I have said nothing in reference to Mr. Gaitan purchasing the
Ambrose Light, neither his having dispatched her with munitions of
war to the Colombian rebels. He merely informed me that the brig had
been purchased at Barranquilla by the revolutionists.”
Very respectfully,
SAM’L B. CLARKE,
Assistant United
States Attorney.
