No. 51.
Mr. Trescot
to Mr. Frelinghuysen.
Viña del Mar, Chili, February 24, 1882. (Received April 4.)
Sir: I inclose herewith translation of the cipher dispatch received by telegraph on February 22, and the answer in cipher which I sent today.
1 would have cabled earlier, but that I have been endeavoring from the date of your cipher instruction of February 4 to obtain some modification of the terms which I sent you in telegram of January 23, as those which Chili would accept as the basis of an offer of good offices from the United States.
You may assure the President that I have urged upon the Government of Chili the wisdom of moderation in the terms which it demanded. But Chili is determined to have Arica and Tacna, as well as the territory south of the Quebrada of Camarones (Tarapacá). The indemnity of twenty millions, with this region of country as a pledge, was only an indirect mode of securing the country itself.
Peru has not, that I can see, any capacity of resistance in herself, and Chili will not yield to any merely friendly persuasion.
I ought to inform you that when, upon the receipt of your telegram of the 22d instant, I asked the secretary for foreign affairs for a positive answer whether his government would modify the terms of peace, he said that the government was very much embarrassed by the publication of my cipher dispatch to you of 23d January, of which he had learned by telegram. He said he considered (as I must admit he had a right to consider) that this was a confidential communication to the Government of the United States of the terms which Chili proposed to offer, and that however he might feel disposed to listen to the suggestion of modification, the publication committed his government to their proposals; that they could not now be changed without admitting that they were originally exorbitant, and had been modified under pressure from the United States.
Of the sincerity or force of the argument I shall say nothing now, as it will be my duty to furnish you with the history of this negotiation. But throughout the secretary has assumed to be in possession of fuller and more accurate knowledge of the wishes and intentions of my government than I have received.
The communication to the Government of Chili of the resolution of the Government of the United States that it will not take part in any negotiation based upon the conditions proposed, and the reply of the Government of Chili that it is not prepared to modify these conditions, practically closes this mission. The formal reply to my communication I will receive to-morrow, but I shall not answer it until I have received an answer to my telegram of to-day. I do not feel at liberty, under recent instructions from the Department, to carry out instruction No. 2, [Page 79] and prefer that the President should instruct me what language I shall use under the circumstances.
I trust that these instructions will also convey my recall and direct me whether on my way home I shall stop at La Paz and Lima, in order to communicate to the Governments of Bolivia and Peru that the Government of the United States has been forced to withdraw its good offices. Under the instructions with which I was originally furnished, I would feel it to be my duty to do so.
I have, &c.,