Mr. Baker to Mr.
Gresham.
Legation of
the United States,
Managua, August 30, 1894.
(Received September 14.)
Sir: In my dispatch of the date of August 28 I
informed you of the probable expulsion from Nicaragua, without trial or
opportunity to be heard and without time to arrange their business affairs,
of two citizens of the United States, lately residents of Bluefields, viz,
J. S. Lampton and George B. Wiltbank. I inclosed in that dispatch a copy of
a protest which I hastily addressed to the President (as dictatorial powers
had been conferred upon him, and the decree of the expulsion had been issued
by him).
At 11 o’clock on the same morning the prisoners named in my dispatch were
sent to Corinto and placed upon a ship the same evening. It was understood
that they would be landed at Punta Arenas, Costa Rica. Their purpose, I
understand, was to go from there to Port Limon, and later to the States.
About two hours after the prisoners were sent away I received from the state
department here the inclosed answer to my protest.
If Messrs. Lampton and Wiltbank were “chief promoters of the disturbances,”
and “disturbers” and “revolters,” as therein characterized, I have been
misinformed. But if this was true, as charged, it was easily susceptible of
proof; and proof rather than unsupported assertion would be more
desirable.
I have, etc.,
[Inclosure.—Translation.]
Mr. Matus to Mr
Baker.
Ministry of
Foreign Affairs of Nicaragua,
National
Palace, Managua,
August 28, 1894.
Sir: The President of the Republic has honored
me with the duty of answering your excellency’s communication of this
date, which has just been received.
[Page 337]
The article contained in a newspaper of this morning is correct in saying
that Messrs. J. S. Lampton, George B. Wiltbank, and other foreigners who
resided in Bluefields will be expelled from the territory of the
Republic it having resulted from the investigations that they were very
much compromised in the crimes of rebellion and sedition perpetrated in
the Mosquito Reserve during the first part of July last.
The President is pained at not being able to grant your excellency’s
request that sufficient time be allowed the said persons to arrange
their business affairs, because they are only in this city en route, and
it would not be possible to permit them to return to Bluefields, where
they have established their business, because there they are the cause
of disturbance and constant intranquility, for which reasons they have
been forced to leave that place.
The constitution of the Republic, Mr. Minister, does not guarantee to
foreigners a fixed time in which to arrange their private affairs when
they are expelled from the country; such regulations are left to the
statute laws, which have not yet been promulgated; and the measure of
which we treat being purely one of police, to prevent further uprisings
against the public order on the Atlantic Coast, is of an urgent
character and does not admit of delay.
Permit me to call your excellency’s attention to the inconvenience and
danger that would be caused by allowing the chief promoters of the
disorders which occurred to return to Bluefields even for a short time,
as they had sufficient time to arrange their business before leaving the
Mosquito Reserve.
The Government, Mr. Minister, is unavoidably in duty bound to procure the
interior secure [security?] of the State and to have its sovereignty
respected; and notwithstanding that the full rigor of the military law
could have been applied to the disturbers for their acts, out of
consideration and sentiments of humanity toward the nations to which the
revolters belong, the Government limited itself to dictate a preventive
measure of a political character in use of extraordinary faculties.
With expressions of consideration of my particular esteem for Your
excellency, I have the honor to subscribe myself your very obedient
servant,
