Baron Fava to Mr. Olney.
My Dear Mr. Olney:
In our conversation of the 18th of September last I had the honor to inform you that my Government, whom I had duly acquainted of your oral invitation to formulate a demand for indemnity in behalf of [Page 954] the families of the Italians lynched in Colorado, had authorized me to formulate the said demand, and specified all the amount of this indemnity while transmitting to me to that purpose the certificates showing the situation of the families of the victims.
I thought it suitable to declare on that occasion, that personally preferring, as far as the amount of the indemnity was concerned, to apply to the benevolent appreciation of the United States Government itself, I desired you should suggest to me the said amount, and that in the meantime I stood ready to submit to you the list of the Italians who had been lynched, together with the official documents showing the situation of their families.
As you expressed the wish to receive from me a written communication, I felt it my duty to address to you on the 16th of October a private letter, couched in the terms agreed between us. To this letter, however, Mr. Uhl replied on the 23d of the same month, “that the matter had been referred to the governor of Colorado for his consideration.”
Having subsequently secured to myself the honor of another interview with your excellency on the 26th of October, I pointed out that Mr. Uhl’s communication did not answer to the contents of my letter of October 16; that the arrangements which the Department of State might deem it proper to enter into with the governor of Colorado do not concern me; and that the question of the indemnity could only be treated by me with the United States Government.
You have been then so kind as to explain to me that Mr. Uhl’s reply had no other meaning but to merely inform me that the Department of State had taken the matter in hand and that you naturally wished, as a preliminary step, to come to an understanding with the governor of Colorado about the amount and the payment of the indemnity.
As a considerable period of time has elapsed since my private communication of the 16th October, I have the honor to apply once more to your courtesy, earnestly requesting you to let me kindly know the amount of the indemnity which, in its high sense of equity and justice, the United States Government would feel inclined to grant to the families of the victims of the Walsenburg outrage. The more so as these destitute families are in great need of relief, and my Government urges me to inform it on the subject.
Believe me, etc.,