Mr. Egan to Mr. Wharton.
Santiago, June 26, 1892. (Received August 1.)
Sir: Remembering the French proverb that qui s’excuse s’accuse, and feeling that my whole course of conduct from the moment of my appointment to the charge of this legation was so well understood and so favorably appreciated by his excellency the President and by the Department of State that it needed neither explanation nor apology, I have abstained from taking any notice of personal attacks made upon me through the press by the pro-English element here or by their allies in the United States, however vile and virulent they may have been. I perceive, however, by the newspapers that have arrived by the last mail that two persons here, a Señor Ricardo L. Trumbull, of Santiago, and his first cousin, a Dr. Juan Trumbull, of Valparaiso, have addressed certain communications conveying imputations against this legation, against the United States consulate in Valparaiso, and against the commanders and officers of the U. S. Navy, to a member of Congress, and although the Department has not considered it necessary to communicate with me or ask for any explanation in reference to those statements, I feel that in justice to myself and to the other officers of the United States so unscrupulously assailed, I should not permit the matter to pass unnoticed.
[Page 55]In the first place, in order that the Department maybe able to more fully appreciate the source from which those charges or imputations emanate and the value to be placed upon the claim of these men to credence on account of the patriotism and eminent respectability of their family, I deem it right to inform you that Dr. Juan Trumbull was born in Valparaiso, and that his father, Rev. David Trumbull, on the 9th of December, 1885, solemnly renounced his citizenship of the United States, and in accordance with section 3 of article 6 of the Chilean constitution was naturalized a citizen of Chile. I inclose a translation of the decree of naturalization. His son has always been more Chilean than the Chileans themselves, and throughout the late unfortunate difference between the United States and Chile, in company with some three others of the same class, has shown the most bitter hostility against everyone who dared to stand up for the honor of the United States flag or Government. His cousin, Señor Ricardo L. Trumbull, whose name is so well known to the Department in connection with the Itata matter, is son of Dr. James H. Trumbull, during whose term as United States consul at Talcahuano from 1862 to 1867 there occurred, in connection with that consulate, such disgraceful monetary scandals. Gen. Judson Kilpatrick, then United States minister, in reporting upon this matter in his dispatch to the Department dated 15th February, 1867, No. 41, says:
On the 23d of January I proceeded to Talcahuano in the U. S. S. Dacotah, and immediately upon reaching that place notified the consul of the object of my visit and took possession of the books and papers of the consulate for my examination of the consular accounts and inspection of the hospital. I found numerous evidences of improper conduct on the part of the consul and, as the investigation progressed, discovered a regular system of fraud upon the Government practiced in administering relief to seamen.
Gen. Kilpatrick then proceeds to give details of a system of fictitious vouchers on the part of Dr. Trumbull and his partner and brother-in-law, Dr. Burton, which charges were practically admitted by Dr. Trumbull on his defense, and the result was the removal of Dr. Trumbull from the position of United States consul conveyed in the dispatch of Mr. Secretary Seward to Dr. Trumbull, dated 17th May, 1867. This Señor Ricardo L. Trumbull is now in very considerable discredit with this Government and with a large section of the people on account of what they consider his gross want of discretion and mismanagement in the matter of the Itata, and he and his cousin endeavor to divert public attention from this fact by fomenting attacks against the United States representatives—a course which, I am assured by the minister of foreign relations, is very much opposed to the feelings and wishes of the present Government, which strongly desires to cultivate good relations with the Government of the United States and with its actual representatives in Chile.
The imputations contained in the letter of Señor Juan Trumbull, whose veracity is vouched for by his cousin, amount to five in number:
- First. That Consul McCreery dealt in exchange upon the strength of important diplomatic information supplied to him by me, and that he and I were jointly interested in such dealings.
- Second. That my son had certain interests in supporting the Balmaceda Government—referring to a slander freely circulated by this same Trumbull that my son, Francis W. Egan, had held large contracts from the Balmaceda Government.
- Third. That I had “sought to give Balmaceda a cable line to Callao to further his ends.”
- Fourth. That I had cabled “an urgent request for the sale of a cruiser.”
- Fifth. That, referring to the visit of the United States flagship San Francisco to Quinteros, “the 1,400 men killed at Placillas directly owe their death to the interference of the U. S. Navy.”
The other matters referred to in the rambling communication of Señor Trumbull are too ridiculous and absurd to deserve notice.
In reply I have to say—
- First. I never have given to Consul McCreery or to anyone else any confidential diplomatic or other information connected with or obtained through this legation, and I never have had with Consul McCreery or with anybody else a single cent’s worth of speculation or dealings in exchange outside the sale of the drafts on the Department for salary and expenses which I have been in the habit of requesting Consul McCreery to sell for me. Hence the admission in the letter of Señor Juan Trumbull: “There are other things which tend to implicate Mr. Egan in these exchange deals, though I frankly own that his shrewdness has made it impossible for me to get any proof against him.” Upon this and all other matters connected with this legation I court the fullest investigation.
- Second. My son never has had any contract or dealing of any kind or nature whatsoever in which the Government of Chile was directly or indirectly interested, with the exception of a contract for laying track on some 20 miles of railroad at Huasco, which he obtained in 1890, not from the Chilean Government, but from the representative of the North and South American Construction Company; and upon this contract, owing to the hostility of the Government engineers who supervised the work, and during the period of the Balmaceda Government, he lost $1,500.
- Third. As will be seen by my dispatch No. 174 of 25th June, 1891, I was instructed by the Government to use good offices to obtain for the Central and South American Telegraph Company permission to construct a line from Valparaiso to Santiago and on to the Argentine frontier. The Balmaceda Government met this application by saying: “Yes, we will grant the permission asked if this company will open direct communication between Callao or Iquique and Valparaiso.” This arrangement I endeavored to carry into effect, not in the interest of the Balmaceda Government, but of the Central and South American Telegraph Company, whose headquarters are in New York.
- Fourth. I refer to my telegram of 21st April, 1891, which, as a matter of courtesy to the Government to which I was accredited, conveyed its request that the proposition of the Chilean minister at Washington for the purchase of a war ship might be considered, but which does not contain one word of recommendation from me and nothing that could justify the color sought to it by this Señor Trumbull.
- Fifth. The frank, manly, and clear letter addressed to me on 8th September, 1891, by Admiral Brown, containing an account of his visit to Quinteros in the United States flagship San Francisco, which was widely published here in Spanish and English, copy of which I sent on 17th of September, 1891, to the minister of foreign relations here, and in my dispatch of same date (No. 203) to the Department, contains a full and complete answer to this miserably slanderous accusation.
In conclusion, I may state for the information of the Department, that the greater part of the bad feeling displayed in a section of the Chilean press, particularly in Valparaiso, during the past nine months towards this legation, towards Consul McCreery, Admiral Brown, Capt. Schley, Capt. Evans, Lieut. Harlow, and in fact towards everyone holding any representative position from the United States, has been fomented and encouraged by a little clique in Valparaiso consisting of this Señor Juan [Page 57] Trumbull, a Mr. Plotner, and a Mr. Shrigley, both dentists, and a Mr. Spencer, a photographer, aided by the correspondent of the New York Herald, whose main object is to utilize for their personal gain the anti-American feeling created by the Itata and other questions.
I have, etc.,