President Serrano, and, of course, we have no precise information as to Mr. Fish, Sec. of State, to Mr. Cushing, Feb. 6, 1874. MSS. Inst., Spain; For. "The attention of this Government has been frequently called by citizens of the United States to the wrong done them in the embargo of their property by the colonial authorities of Cuba for alleged disloyalty, in virtue of a decree of April 20, 1869. Their estates have been seized by arbitrary executive act, without judicial hearing or judgment, and in manifest violation of the provisions of the treaty of 1795. In many instances the seizure has been made with such improvidence and want of consideration, that the property of one person has been seized for the alleged offense of another. Promises were made, from time to time, to release some of these estates, which promises were evaded or deferred for insufficient reasons. In some cases, after promise had been given to disembargo the property, it was leased to strangers for a series of years, so as to render the order of disembargo ineffectual, and to continue to deprive the owner of the possession and use of his property. "Of course, no relief in the premises could be obtained by the action of the Mixed Commission sitting at Washington, and this Department continually insisted that the property itself should be restored to the owners by the same executive authority which made the seizure, leaving only the question of resulting damages to the consideration of the Commission. "You are referred to the frequent and earnest instructions to your predecessor with regard to these cases. After various repeated and urgent remonstrances, the late Government of Spain, on the 12th of July, 1873, on the recommendation of the minister of the colonies, setting forth the illegality of these acts of sequestration, their injustice to the parties interested, and their injuriousness even to the public interests, all embargoes put upon the property of alleged disloyal persons in Cuba were declared removed from the date when the decree should reach the capital; it was ordered that all property disembargoed should be forthwith delivered up to its owners or their legal representatives; and a commission was appointed to hear and decide summarily upon all such applications as might be made by the interested parties. "Notwithstanding the imperative character of this decree, no regard was paid to it in Cuba for a length of time; it was not officially pub. 401 S. Mis. 162-VOL. I-26 lished there, and the authorities at Havana even proceeded to advertise for sale embargoed property belonging to citizens of the United States. These instances led to further remonstrances on the part of the United States. "At length, contemporaneously with the official visit of Señor Soler y Pla, minister of ultramar, to Cuba, partial execution was given to the decree of July 12, 1873, in so far as it applied to several of the parties named in a list communicated to the Spanish Government by this Department. "It is now learned that in the case of some of the estates covered by that decree, and ordered by the commission to be delivered to the owners, delivery is obstructed on the allegation that the estates are subject to leases to third parties for a series of years, by which the owners are not only deprived of the actual possession of their property, and of the income which it would yield in their hands, but the property itself is undergoing waste and depreciation. "The leases which are thus interposed as a justification for continuing to disregard the decree of the home Government and the assurances given to this Government, and in continued violation of the rights of our citizens, are understood to be leases given by some pretended authority subsequent to the act of embargo. "In some cases (that of Ramon Fernandez Criado y Gomez, for instance), it appears that the authorities claim that the property was under judicial embargo and finally confiscated. "The chronological series of papers which accompany my No. 2, of even date with this, contain copies of the correspondence, telegraphic and otherwise, on this subject between this Department and its agents and the Spanish authorities. On examining it, you will find that the Spanish Government has practically admitted that the seizure and retention of these estates was a violation of the rights of the proprietors. "You will therefore make it your first duty after your credentials are presented in Madrid, to represent to the Government there, courteously but firmly, that the President expects to see the estates of American citizens which have been seized in Cuba in violation of the provisions of the treaty of 1795, whether by embargo or by confiscation, restored to them without further delay, and without any incumbrance imposed by Spanish authority in Cuba. "He does not question the willingness of the authorities at Madrid to comply with these expectations. It will be your duty, while giving assurances of our convictions of the good-will of the Spanish Government in this respect, to leave no doubt of our expectations that it will find means to compel its insubordinate agents in Cuba to carry into execution its agreements with this Government respecting these estates." Mr. Fish, Sec. of State, to Mr. Cushing, Feb. 6, 1874. MSS. Inst., Spain; For. Rel., 1874. "The deplorable strife in Cuba continues without any marked change in the relative advantages of the contending forces. The insurrection continues, but Spain has gained no superiority. Six years of strife give to the insurrection a significance which cannot be denied. Its duration and the tenacity of its adherence, together with the absence of manifested power of suppression on the part of Spain, cannot be controverted, and may make some positive steps on the part of other powers a matter of self-necessity. I had confidently hoped at this time to be able to announce the arrangement of some of the important questions between this Government and that of Spain, but the negotiations have been protracted. The unhappy intestine dissensions of Spain command our profound sympathy, and must be accepted as perhaps a cause of some delay. An early settlement, in part at least, of the questions between the Governments is hoped. In the mean time, awaiting the results of immediately pending negotiations, I defer a further and fuller communication on the subject of the relations of this country and Spain." President Grant, Sixth Annual Message, 1874. "The Government of Great Britain may possibly, of its own accord, think proper, in view of its own interests, to co-operate with the United States in this effort to arrest a cruel war of devastation. This, however, is a question to be raised by Her Majesty's Government. Humanity, its own great interests, and a regard for the preservation of the peace of the world, it is believed, will, without doubt, lead it to support the position which this Government has at length been forced to assume, and to address its representatives in Madrid to that end." Mr. Fish, Sec. of State, to Mr. Schenck, Nov. 5, 1875. MSS. Inst., Gr. Brit. "You will read this instruction, 266, or state orally the substance thereof, to the minister of foreign affairs confidentially (but will not give a copy thereof), and will assure him of the sincere and earnest desire of the President for a termination of the disastrous conflict in Cuba by the spontaneous action of Spain, or by the agreement of the parties thereto. "You will further state that the President is of opinion that should the Government to which you are accredited find it consistent with its views to urge upon Spain the importance and necessity of either ter minating or abandoning this contest, which now after a continuance of seven years has not advanced toward a prospect of success on either side, but which is characterized by cruelties, by violations of the rules of civilized modern warfare, by pillage, desolation, and wanton incendiarism, threatening the industry, capacity, and production of an extended and fertile country, the friendly expression of such views to Spain might lead that Government to a dispassionate consideration of the hopelessness of the contest, and tend to the earlier restoration of peace and prosperity to Cuba, if not to the preservation of the peace of the world. "Such a course on the part of the Government to which you are accredited would be exceedingly satisfactory to the United States, and, in the opinion of the President, conducive to the interests of every com mercial nation and of humanity itself." Mr. Fish, Sec. of State, to Mr. Orth, Nov. 15, 1875. MSS. Inst., Austria. "Read inclosure to 805 as soon as opportunity will admit. You will explain that intervention is not contemplated as an immediate resort, but as a contingent necessity in case the contest be prosecuted and satisfactory adjustment of existing griefs be not reached, and that we sincerely desire to avoid any rupture, and are anxious to maintain peace and establish our relations with Spain on a permanent basis of friendship. I now state, further, for your own information and for your guid ance in your interview with minister, that message will discountenance recognition of belligerency or independence; will allude to intervention as a possible necessity, but will not advise its present adoption. Cushing is instructed to communicate to minister without waiting result of your interview, but you will communicate with him, in cipher, after your interview." Mr. Fish, Sec. of State, to Mr. Schenck, Nov. 27, 1875. (Telegram), MSS. Inst., "The past year bas furnished no evidence of an approaching termination of the ruinous conflict which has been raging for seven years in the neighboring Island of Cuba. The same disregard of the laws of civilized warfare and of the just demands of humanity which has heretofore called forth expressions of condemnation from the nations of Christendom has continued to blacken the sad scene. Desolation, ruin, and pillage are pervading the rich fields of one of the most fertile and productive regions of the earth, and the incendiary's torch, firing plantations and valuable factories and buildings, is the agent marking the alternate advance or retreat of contending parties. "The protracted continuance of this strife seriously affects the interests of all commercial nations, but those of the United States more than others, by reason of close proximity, its larger trade and intercourse with Cuba, and the frequent and intimate personal and social relations which have grown up between its citizens and those of the island. Moreover, the property of our citizens in Cuba is large, and is rendered insecure and depreciated in value and in capacity of produc tion by the continuance of the strife and the unnatural mode of its conduct. The same is true, differing only in degree, with respect to the interests and people of other nations; and the absence of any reasonable assurance of a near termination of the conflict must, of necessity, soon compel the states thus suffering to consider what the interests of their own people and their duty toward themselves may demand. "I have hoped that Spain would be enabled to establish peace in her colony, to afford security to the property and the interests of our citizens, and allow legitimate scope to trade and commerce and the natural productions of the island. Because of this hope, and of an extreme reluctance to interfere in the most remote manner in the affairs of another and friendly nation, especially of one whose sympathy and friendship in the struggling infancy of our own existence must ever be remembered with gratitude, I have patiently and anxiously waited the progress of events. Our own civil conflict is too recent for us not to consider the difficulties which surround a Government distracted by a dynastic rebellion at home, at the same time that it has to cope with a separate insurrection in a distant colony. But whatever causes may have produced the situation which so grievously affects our interests, it exists, with all its attendant evils operating directly upon this country and its people. Thus far all the efforts of Spain have proved abortive, and time has marked no improvement in the situation. The armed bands of either side now occupy nearly the same ground as in the past, with the difference, from time to time, of more lives sacrificed, more property destroyed, and wider extents of fertile and productive fields and more and more of valuable property constantly wantonly sacrificed to the incendiary's torch. "In contests of this nature, where a considerable body of people, who have attempted to free themselves of the control of the superior Government, have reached such point in occupation of territory, in power, and in general organization as to constitute in fact a body-politic, having a government in substance as well as in name, possessed of the elements of stability, and equipped with the machinery for the administration of internal policy and the execution of its laws, prepared and able to administer justice at home, as well as in its dealings with other powers, it is within the province of those other powers to recognize its existence as a new and independent nation. In such cases other nations simply deal with an actually existing condition of things, and recog nize as one of the powers of the earth that body-politic which, possessing the necessary elements, has, in fact, become a new power. In a word the creation of a new state is a fact. "To establish the condition of things essential to the recognition of this fact, there must be a people occupying a known territory, united under some known and defined form of government, acknowledged by those subject thereto, in which the functions of government are administered by usual methods, competent to mete out justice to citizens and strangers, to afford remedies for public and for private wrongs, and able to assume the correlative international obligations, and capable of performing the corresponding international duties resulting from its acquisition of the rights of sovereignty. A power should exist complete in its organization, ready to take and able to maintain its place among the nations of the earth. "While conscious that the insurrection in Cuba has shown a strength and endurance which make it at least doubtful whether it be in the power of Spain to subdue it, it seems unquestionable that no such civil |