Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, With the Annual Message of the President Transmitted to Congress December 5, 1899

Mr. Hay to Mr. Sampson.

Department of State,
Washington, February 27, 1899.

No. 72.]

Sir: I have to acknowledge the receipt of your No. 89 B, of the 16th ultimo, stating that, on the request of the minister of foreign relations, you had promised asylum in case of need to the Vice-President of Ecuador, now acting President at Guayaquil, the members of the cabinet, with their families, and the chiefs of the army.

The reported withdrawal of the revolutionary forces renders improbable that the asylum will be asked, but your attention is called to paragraph 51 of the Printed Personal Instructions, and to the uniform series of precedents cited in Wharton’s Digest, volume 1, section 104, in discouragement of the practice of granting the so-called “asylum.” You are also referred to Foreign Relations, 1895, page 245.

I am, etc.,

John Hay.