No. 240.
Mr. Frelinghuysen to Mr. Morgan.
Washington, November 15, 1883.
Sir: Your dispatch No. 690, of the 21st September, in relation to the claim of Capt. Fred. L. Blair, of the American schooner Daylight, has been received.
The note of the 18th of September addressed to you by Mr. Fernandez, a copy of which accompanies your dispatch, has been carefully considered; I regret to find that the inquiry made in my instruction of the 24th of March last (No. 382), and which it is perceived you submitted to Mr. Fernandez, has not, as I conceive, been explicitly answered by the minister. The gunboat Independencia is a war vessel of the Mexican Government; if liability to the party injured attaches as a result of the Independencia’s action in running down the American schooner, such liability is imputable, not to the commander of the gunboat, but to the Mexican Government; if Mr. Fernandez is to be understood as saying that an American citizen may, in such a case, maintain legal proceedings for the recovery of the damages thus claimed directly against the Government of Mexico in the courts of that Republic, I have only to observe that I have not heretofore understood that under the laws of Mexico the Government of that country might be sued in its own courts either by a citizen of the Republic or a foreigner, without special permission having first been given for that purpose, and before I could consent to submit the claimant in the present case to the expense and delay of such a proceeding it is desirable that I should be exactly informed on that point.
In Mr. Mariscal’s note to you of the 3d of March last, that minister, amongst other observations in regard to the claim, says: “If Captain Blair considered that the Mexican Government is responsible for tile disaster which his vessel suffered, he should apply directly to the department [Page 344] of war and marine, under whose jurisdiction the Independencia is. If that department admits the responsibility of the Government in the matter, all difficulties will at once disappear,” and the same sentiment is reiterated by Mr. Fernandez in his note to you of the 15th ultimo. With reference to these suggestions I have only to remark that the claim in question is presented by this Government in behalf of its injured citizen through the ordinary and only recognized channels of communication between it and that of Mexico, and if by the laws or administrative regulations of that Republic it is made essential that the facts should be first investigated by the ministry of war and marine, it is conceived that the subject should be referred to that department by the minister of foreign affairs. Such would be the course pursued by this Government were a similar demand to be made on it by that of Mexico. You will at as early a day as may be convenient bring these suggestions to the attention of the Mexican minister of foreign affairs, and you will say at the same time that, upon a careful examination of the facts, this department reached the conclusion that the Mexican Government was properly responsible for the damages resulting from the disaster in question, and that the hope is entertained that the minister will see the propriety and equity of an early adjustment of the claim.
I am, &c.,