No. 277.
Mr. Frelinghuysen to Mr. Hamlin.

No. 33.]

Sir: In Mr. Blaine’s instruction to you of the 23d of November last, concerning the long pending and still unsettled claim of the owners of the bark Masonic, some general observations were submitted in regard to the arbitrary and unjust surveillance exercised toward American merchant vessels in Spanish colonial ports. These suggestions of my predecessor were made in the mutual interest of American and Spanish commerce, and in promotion of the friendly relations which have so long subsisted between the two nations. Since that instruction was forwarded three other cases of less pecuniary magnitude, but of scarcely less hardship, have been brought to the attention of the Department. In regard to each of these, instructions have also been forwarded to your legation, but as pertinent to the subject of this instruction it seems proper to advert briefly to the facts upon which they rest.

The American brig George W. Chase was fined fifty dollars in November last by the customs authorities at Sagua the sole ground for the fine being an omission of certain words in a manifest. The clause of the document being “900 bundles of hoops forty feet long [40 hoops in each bundle],” the words inclosed in brackets were inadvertently omitted by the Spanish consul at Philadelphia, who transcribed the document; and although the officer in question certified as to the mistake, the imposition of the fine was nevertheless adhered to. The second case [brought to attention by No. 1090 of Vice-Consul-General Williams] is that of the steamer Ellie Knight, which entered the port of Havana with a Cargo of cattle from Mobile and Key West, on the 27th December last, having on board 60,000 feet of lumber destined for Key West, but which was kept on board as ballast while crossing the Gulf. As a cattle-carrying boat the steamer was chargeable, under the Spanish laws and revenue regulations governing the ports of Cuba, to a tonnage duty of five cents per ton, which would have made the charge $14.90, but, instead of this, the customs officers, on account of the 60,000 feet of lumber, assessed a duty of $1.30 per ton, making the amount on, the vessel’s tonnage $387.40, an excess of $372.50.

Still another and more recent case was that of the steamer Santiago, of New York, a vessel regularly engaged in the trade between New York and the ports of Santiago de Cuba and Cienfuegos, on the south side of the island of Cuba. Under circumstances of great apparent hardship, a fine of nineteen hundred dollars was imposed on the vessel, and the master, Captain Phillips, was obliged to execute a bond, with sureties for the amount, in order to secure a clearance for his vessel.

In each of these cases instructions have been forwarded to you, and they are adverted to here only as being pertinent to the general subject of this instruction.

They are examples of many similar occurrences to American vessels in the colonial ports of Spain. Hitherto the consul-general of the United States at Havana has been able to secure an adjustment of such cases by prosecuting the complaints to the superior authorities at that port, and efforts looking toward the same end were made by that officer in each of the cases referred to. He was met, however, with the announcement that under an existing ordinance, the strict observance of which has been re-enjoined by a royal order recently promulgated in [Page 461] Cuba, the local authorities can no longer deal with such questions, but that they must be remitted for settlement to the government at Madrid. The adoption of this course of procedure by Spain has very much aggravated this general grievance to American commerce. Complaints of such instances have of late become so frequent from owners and masters of American vessels that the question demands the most serious attention of this government. The President therefore directs me to instruct you to bring the question to the attention of his Catholic Majesty’s government and in doing so you will request that authority shall be given, either to the captain-general in Cuba or to his majesty’s minister at this capital, to consider such cases and grant redress when necessary. The arbitrary conduct of subordinate officials in Cuba cannot be submitted to without retaliation on Spanish vessels and commerce, unless there is secured a more speedy remedy than is afforded by resort to Madrid.

I am, &c.,

FRED’K T. FRELINGHUYSEN.