subsequently stated that no vessel belonging to the company which owned the Crescent City would be permitted to enter the port of Havana with Mr. Smith on board, or with any other person who made use of his position in the line to write abusive articles against the captain-general. The captain denied that Mr. Smith had written or composed any such article as he was charged with having produced. The Crescent City returned to Havana in October, again having Mr. Smith on board as purser, and was at once ordered to sea. Neither mails nor passengers were permitted to land, and the ship was obliged to leave in a gale. The government of the United States complained of the action of the Cuban authorities. The right of the captain-general to prohibit the entrance into the island of any person whose presence might be dangerous was not questioned, but it was maintained that this right ought to be exercised on reasonable grounds, and that, in refusing to permit the passengers or mails of the Crescent City to be landed because Purser Smith was on board, or even to permit the vessel to enter the harbor, the captain-general had gone far beyond the necessities of the case, and had taken a step of which the United States had a right to complain. Mr. Everett, Sec. of State, to Mr. Sharkey, consul at Havana, No. 18, Nov. For a complaint of the United States as to the unnecessary detention at As to the opening of the mails of the United States by the Cuban authori- "The affairs of Cuba formed a prominent topic in my last annual message. They remain in an uneasy condition, and a feeling of alarm and irritation on the part of the Cuban authorities appears to exist. This feeling has interfered with the regular commercial intercourse between the United Staes and the island and led to some acts of which we have a right to complain. But the captaingeneral of Cuba is clothed with no power to treat with foreign governments, nor is he in any degree under the control of the Spanish minister at Washington. Any communication which he may hold with an agent of a foreign power is informal and a matter of courtesy. Anxious to put an end to the existing inconveniences (which seemed to rest on a misconception), I directed the newly appointed minister to Mexico to visit Havana on his way to Vera Cruz. He was respectfully received by the captain-general, who conferred with him freely on the recent occurrences, but no permanent arrangement was effected. In the meantime the refusal of the captain-general to allow pas sengers and the mail to be landed in certain cases, for a reason which does not furnish, in the opinion of this government, even a good presumptive ground for such a prohibition, has been made the subject of a serious remonstrance at Madrid; and I have no reason to doubt that due respect will be paid by the government of His Catholic Majesty to the representations which our minister has been instructed to make on the subject. "It is but justice to the captain-general to add that his conduct toward the steamers employed to carry the mails of the United States to Havana has, with the exceptions above alluded to, been marked with kindness and liberality, and indicates no general purpose of interfering with the commercial correspondence and intercourse between the island and this country." President Fillmore, annual message, Dec. 6, 1852, Richardson's Messages, "Black Warrior" case. "The reply of Mr. Calderon de la Barca, Her Catholic Majesty's minister of foreign relations, to the demand for indemnity and satisfaction which you were instructed to make, is, as you must have anticipated, very unsatisfactory to the President. What further steps should be taken in respect to that case [of the Black Warrior], has been with him a matter of very serious deliberation. He has determined to make a final appeal for the adjustment of past difficulties, and for future quiet, in a way which he hopes will impress Spain with the solemn conviction that an adjustment, embracing the future as well as the past, must be made. He will not, however, recommend a resort to an extreme measure until milder means are exhausted. Satisfied with the spirited manner in which you have performed the duties of your mission, in his opinion it would give weight, and perhaps efficiency, to this final appeal he proposes to make, if he should associate with you, in presenting and enforcing it, two other of our most distinguished citizens. By a commission of this high character this country will evince, in the most emphatic manner, its deep solicitude to accomplish the objects in view without the hazard of those protracted delays which usually attend the ordinary course of diplomacy, particularly with such a court as Spain. In order to carry out this purpose of the President, the concurrence of Congress will be required, and it is proposed soon to bring this subject to its consideration. "With this despatch you will receive another, commenting upon the reply of the Spanish government to the demand you made in the case of the Black Warrior, and exposing its unsatisfactory character. Though the President does not think it advisable, in view of what I have stated as to a commission, that you should take any further steps at present in regard to that case, he has no objection, but on the contrary desires, that Her Catholic Majesty's government should know in what light he views its reply to our claim to reparation. "You are therefore at liberty to read the accompanying despatch to the Spanish minister of foreign relations and may furnish him with a copy if he desires it." Mr. Marcy, Sec. of State, to Mr. Soulé, min. to Spain (confidential), June 24, 1854, MS. Inst. Special Missions, III. GO. See also Mr. Marcy to Mr. Soulé, March 11, March 17, June 22, and Aug. 16, 1854, MS. Inst. Spain, XV. 39, 43, 69. "It was not until the 22d instant that I received your despatch, written so long ago as the 28th of July, at Barcelona, marked No. 2, separate. "The survey of the condition of Spain which you have made, while it agrees with the opinion which I have constantly entertained, at the same time presents the salient points of the subject with a distinctness that renders the paper very valuable. The deplorable condition of the finances of that great country seems to be practically incurable by any process which could be endured by the Spanish nation. In the early part of the present year I received, indirectly, information that the Spanish government was then applying for a loan in Paris upon the hypothecation of the government chest of Cuba. Without asking for any explanation I took pains immediately to make it known to the Spanish government that while the United States will remain entirely content with the present relations of the island of Cuba to Spain, they would nevertheless claim a right to be informed of any proceeding in regard to the island which would involve, either directly or indirectly, its resignation by the Spanish Crown. I expressly stated on that occasion that I solicited no reply, but was content to leave the question with the simple but direct intimation which I now recite. "Since that intimation was given, nothing has been heard or read by me on the subject of a transfer or hypothecation of the Spanish possessions in America. The situation in Spain, as you have described, is sufficiently grave to justify constant vigilance on the part of this government. "I shall endeavor to practice it." Mr. Seward, Sec. of State, to Mr. Bancroft, min. to Prussia, No. 22, Oct. 28, 1867, MS. Inst. Prussia, XIV. 486. (2) TEN YEARS' WAR, 1868-1878. § 907. message, 1869. "As the United States is the freest of all nations, so, too, its people sympathize with all peoples struggling for liberty President's annual and self-government. But while so sympathizing, it is due to our honor that we should abstain from enforcing our views upon unwilling nations, and from taking an interested part, without invitation, in the quarrels between different nations or between governments and their subjects. Our course should always be in conformity with strict justice and law, international and local. Such has been the policy of the administration in dealing with these questions. For more than a year a valuable province of Spain, and a near neighbor of ours, in whom all our people can not but feel a deep interest, has been struggling for independence and freedom. The people and government of the United States entertain the same warm feelings and sympathies for the people of Cuba in their pending struggle that they manifested throughout the previous struggles between Spain and her former colonies in behalf of the latter. But the contest has at no time assumed the conditions which amount to a war in the sense of international law, or which would show the existence of a de facto political organization of the insurgents sufficient to justify a recognition of belligerency. "The principle is maintained, however, that this nation is its own judge when to accord the rights of belligerency, either to a people struggling to free themselves from a government they believe to be oppressive or to independent nations at war with each other. "The United States has no disposition to interfere with the existing relations of Spain to her colonial possessions on this continent. They believe that in due time Spain and other European powers will find their interest in terminating those relations and establishing their present dependencies as independent powers-members of the family of nations. These dependencies are no longer regarded as subject to transfer from one European power to another. When the present relation of colonies ceases, they are to become independent powers, exercising the right of choice and of self-control in the determination of their future condition and relations with other powers. "The United States, in order to put a stop to bloodshed in Cuba, and in the interest of a neighboring people, proposed their good offices to bring the existing contest to a termination. The offer, not being accepted by Spain on a basis which we believed could be received by Cuba, was withdrawn. It is hoped that the good offices of the United States may yet prove advantageous for the settlement of this unhappy strife. Meanwhile a number of illegal expeditions against Cuba have been broken up. It has been the endeavor of the Administration to execute the neutrality laws in good faith, no matter how unpleasant the task, made so by the sufferings we have endured from lack of like good faith towards us by other nations." President Grant, annual message, Dec. 6, 1869, Richardson's Messages, "On the 26th of March last the United States schooner Lizzie Major was arrested on the high seas by a Spanish frigate, and two passengers taken from it and carried as prisoners to Cuba. Representations of these facts were made to the Spanish government as soon as official information of them reached Washington. The two passengers were set at liberty, and the Spanish Government assured the United States that the captain of the frigate in making the capture had acted without law, that he had been reprimanded for the irregularity of his conduct, and that the Spanish authorities in Cuba would not sanction any act that could violate the rights or treat with disrespect the sovereignty of this nation." President Grant, annual message, Dec. 6, 1869, Richardson's Messages, "Your despatch of the 13th ultimo, No. 55, in which you announce the definite postponement, in the Cortes, of the consideration of the subject of the proposed reforms in the government of Porto Rico has been received. "As we have a material and moral interest in those reforms and have made representations on the subject to the Spanish government which have not only been received without objection but have led to a promise on their part that the reforms should be adopted, we necessarily feel pained at the hesitation and delay on this subject. Indeed, these may be regarded as so much having the aspect of bad faith, that you will firmly but with due consideration of national sensibilities protest against the delay which has already taken place in the matter and the seeming purpose indefinitely to postpone it." Mr. Fish, Sec. of State, to Gen. Sickles, min. to Spain, No. 36, March 11, 1870, MS. Inst. Spain, XVI. 92. June 13, 1870. "In my annual message to Congress, at the beginning of its present session, I referred to the contest which had then for Special message, more than a year existed in the island of Cuba between a portion of its inhabitants and the government of Spain, and the feelings and sympathies of the people and government of the United States for the people of Cuba, as for all peoples struggling for liberty and self-government, and said that the contest has at no time assumed the conditions which amount to war in the sense of international law, or which would show the existence |