Mr. Bayard to Mr. Preston.
Washington , January 28, 1889.
Sir: I have given the fullest consideration to the statements contained in your communication of the 25th instant, the receipt of which on the 26th instant I have the honor to acknowledge.
Without reviewing the assertions you therein make on the sundry citations of judicial and other opinions and expressions relating to the international duties of neutral States, or the statutes of the United States defining the remedies and the procedure by parties having interest thereunder, I find nothing in the cases so suggested which would change the declarations made in my note to you of October 29 last, the extract from which constitutes the closing paragraph of the note to which I now have the honor to reply.
The citation which you give should not, however, be dissociated from the immediately subsequent context, and the whole passage reads as follows:
As to any movement in the United States for the sending of vessels to Hayti, armed for the purpose of participating in an insurrection in that island, the Department will take prompt measures, whenever information is laid before it, to advise the proper authorities to inquire into the alleged movement. It would insure more prompt action, however, for Haytian agents at any place within the United States where such an expedition is supposed to be preparing, to apply directly and immediately to the United States district attorney, and present to him full information as to such illegal action.
In accordance with my expressed readiness to advise the proper authorities to inquire into the alleged movement, I have sent to Messrs, Mark D. Wilber, of Brooklyn, and Stephen A. Walker, of New York City, the attorneys of the United States for the eastern and southern districts of New York, respectively, copies of your communication of the 25th instant, with a request to inquire promptly into the movements therein alleged to be in progress. In order to enable these gentlemen to set the machinery of the courts in motion it will be necessary for them to be furnished with the proof of which you state your assertions are susceptible.
Accept, etc.