Mr. Baker to Mr.
Gresham.
Legation of
the United States,
Managua, September 3, 1894.
(Received October 4.)
Sir: The story of the arrest and banishment of
Messrs. J. S. Lampton and G. W. Wiltbank, the two American citizens residing
and doing business at Bluefields, is briefly as follows:
On the 16th of August a messenger called upon each of these men separately,
at his place of business, and verbally informed him that the commissioner,
José Madriz, desired to see him, and politely inquired if he would be good
enough to calf at the former’s office. Of course, each gentleman answered in
the affirmative, and at once, laying aside all other duties, made the call.
They were ushered into an office, but not into the presence of the
commissioner. The officer in charge informed them that they were prisoners.
This announcement naturally caused them great surprise. They inquired upon
what charges the arrest was based. No information was given in response.
After exhausting every endeavor to gain this important information, and to
see the commissioner in person, without avail, and finding that they were
certainly to be sent to Managua without being enlightened as to the cause,
they addressed themselves to an effort to gain permission to return to their
places of business and residences for a few hours to prepare for their trip.
No argument or expostulation could gain the granting of this reasonable and
just request.
Then application was made to permit business associates or members of their
families to visit them, in order that they might give some directions about
their business and domestic affairs. This most reasonable request was
shamelessly and brutally denied to them. Neither were they permitted to have
a particle of food during the entire day, nor were they furnished with any
sort of bed to lie upon that night. At a late hour friends succeeded in
sending to them some blankets and a change of clothing before they were
taken away.
The prisoners represent that the trip, occupying the succeeding twelve days,
was in every respect as uncomfortable as can be imagined. They were herded
with a strong guard, numbering about 250, of as filthy apologies for
soldiers as ever shouldered muskets, and sometimes the stench about them was
sickening in the extreme. The eating was in keeping with the filthy and
nauseous surroundings.
Arriving on the evening of the 27th at Managua, the prisoners were marched
from the railroad station to the palace, where the President informed them
that he would look over his telegrams that night and would send for them
next morning. On their petition and that of their friends they were
permitted to spend the night in the hotel at their own expense instead of in
the prison, which latter is a wretched, filthy place, from all accounts I
have had of it.
The next morning, between 9 and 10 o’clock, the prisoners were all—for there
were fourteen, two Americans and twelve British—notified to get ready to go
to the palace. After washing and brushing up and announcing their readiness
to go, word was whispered into the ears of some of them that perhaps it
would be as well if they would take their baggage with them. This was
hastily packed up, and they were marched directly to the steamboat landing,
under armed guards, and carried, without any chance whatever to be heard in
their own behalf, out of the country.
The evening of the arrival of the prisoners in Managua the two Americans
spent at my house, and they gave me the above information.
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They also told me that the few Americans at
Bluefields who were conscious of having committed any unlawful acts against
the sovereign Government had left the country of their own accord, and they
had remained in the full consciousness of having contributed all in their
power toward the preservation of the peace.
On the following morning the little newspaper edited by Mr. José D. Gamez
contained an item intimating that a portion of the prisoners, including the
two Americans, would be banished from the country. It did not say when this
would be done. But I lost not one moment in addressing a hasty note to the
President (see inclosure in my No. 375), earnestly protesting against the
banishment of Messrs. Lampton and Wiltbank without an opportunity being
given them to return to their homes and putting their business in order, and
an impartial trial being secured to them. No attention was paid to this
protest until after the prisoners had been sent on their way.
The reply of this Government was to the effect that it would be dangerous to
the peace of the country to permit these “chief promoters of the disorders”
to return to Bluefields even for a short time, and that the prisoners had
had ample time to put their business affairs in order before leaving. (See
inclosure in my No. 377.)
On the night of the 29th I received your cable of that date, instructing me
to “demand immediate open trial of the accused, with all guarantees of
defense secured by treaty; and in default thereof, their release.”
At an early hour on the morning of the 30th I presented your demand, in the
name of the President of the United States. (See inclosure in my No.
378.)
At 6 o’clock on the evening of September 1, three days having elapsed, the
answer was delivered at the legation. In this the Nicaraguan Government
takes the altogether untenable position that neither the treaty of 1867 nor
their own laws require them to give trial to the accused. They point to the
fact that they do not give trial to their own citizens, and argue that
American citizens can not claim better treatment at the hands of the
Government than they give to their own. This communication I did not
answer.
So the matter stands to-day.
I have, etc.,
[Inclosure.—Translation.]
Mr. Matus to Mr.
Baker.
Ministry of
Foreign Affairs of Nicaragua,
National
Palace, Managua,
August 31, 1894.
(Received 6 p.m.,
September 1.)
Mr. Minister: I have had the honor of receiving
your excellency’s communication of yesterday, in which you remind me
that on the 28th instant your excellency entered a protest against the
proceedings of my Government in the arbitrary arrest and expulsion from
this country, without previous notice or trial, of American citizens who
were engaged in business at Bluefields. Tour excellency states that on
the same day you received my reply in which I informed you that the
Government adopted such proceedings against those parties because they
had been implicated in the uprisings which occurred in the Mosquito
Reserve, and you say that if such is the case, it is susceptible of
proof. Your
[Page 340]
excellency also
reminds me of having called my attention to the protection guaranteed to
foreigners by our constitution (ley fundamental), and add that you must
now respectfully protest against the expulsion already effected, which
you characterize as an act of hostility, and hold to be in direct
violation of our treaty with the United States of 1867.
In continuing, your excellency transmits to me your instructions from the
President of the United States. In them it is affirmed that he has been
pained to learn that American citizens residing at Blue-fields were
suddenly and arbitrarily arrested without permitting them to see their
families’ and friends, and were forcibly taken to Managua to answer
charges; that in spite of the protests of the American naval agents, the
proceedings were continued, ignoring the motives which occasioned them;
that this arrest is in violation of the treaty of 1867, and is far from
being a generous response to the friendly disposition recently
manifested by the United States Government respecting the sovereignty of
Nicaragua over the Mosquito territory; and in conclusion the President
demands (pide) that the accused be tried with all guarantees of defense
secured by the treaty existing between the two countries, and in default
of this, their immediate release.
The measure, Mr. Minister, which my Government dictated on the 28th
instant, is purely political and of high police, adopted to maintain
public security, by expelling from the country certain disturbing
elements, pernicious in the present circumstances of the Republic.
According to that measure a previous trial, with all the formalities of
the law, is not required, but certain investigations to prove the
responsibility of the persons suspected are enough to justify the
proceeding. This is based upon the laws of July 21 and the 18th of
August, passed by the National Assembly, with the object of effecting
our sovereignty over the Atlantic Coast, of maintaining it throughout
the country, and of assuring the public tranquillity.
In the second article of the former law the Executive is authorized to
adopt such measures as he may judge convenient, with the said object,
and in article 3 the mode of procedure is set forth. The law of the 18th
instant provides that in case of crimes against the peace and public
security the Executive shall proceed administratively
(guber-nativamente); and, as in matters of legal proceedings the laws
are retroactive, so this latter law could have been applied to the
parties implicated in the Bluefields rebellion.
My Government does not think that the resolution of the 28th instant is
in violation of the treaty of 1867, existing between Nicaragua and the
United States of America. An equality of guarantees and proceedings is
insured by said convention to Nicaraguans and Americans, and that
equality has been maintained in this case; in fact, on the 1st instant,
that same law was applied to certain citizens of this Republic, among
whom were some high ecclesiastical dignitaries, in exactly the same
manner as was applied nine days later to the sons of the great American
Republic. These persons have, therefore, been treated the same as
Nicaraguans under equal circumstances.
I must call your excellency’s attention to the fact that the prisoners
were treated with the greatest consideration, having enjoyed all of the
commodities offered by our country; en route they were in comparative
liberty, having had no other escort than the aides-de-camp of the
general in chief; they were lodged at the principal hotels; their
first-class passage was paid on the railroads and steamers. In this
capital the President gave them an audience, during which they were
unable to
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refute the charges
brought against them, because the part they took in these affairs is
undeniable.
Your excellency says that if the responsibilities incurred by Messrs. J.
S. Lampton and George B. Wiltbank are true, it is susceptible of proof.
Nothing is more evident, Mr. Minister. It will suffice for me to tell
your excellency that the former served on the council born of the
Bluefields rebellion, and the latter acted as magistrate of the same,
thus assuming all the responsibilities incurred by the rebels against
the Government of Nicaragua for the attempts against its sovereignty on
the 5th, 6th, and 7th of last July, and for all other acts of the
rebellion. On the 5th of the said month the rebels attacked the
commissioner’s palace, on the 6th they dragged our flag through the
streets of the city, and on the 7th they assaulted with perfidy our
small garrison on the bluff, taking possession of its arms and killing
in an unjustifiable manner several of our soldiers. At Corn Island,
also, they fired on the Nicaraguan authorities, wounding the secretary
of the chief of police and burning the police building.
And the responsibility for all these acts rests upon Messrs. Lampton and
Wiltbank, as they were members of the rebels, as well as upon the other
participants of the rebellion. Those acts are public and notorious; they
were withessed by the city of Bluefields, they happened in sight of the
American ship Marblehead, and the press
universally has published accounts of them, and they have been verified
by Dr. José Madriz, special commissioner of the Government to the
Mosquito Reserve, in his investigations, which resulted in his obtaining
evidence so clear and truthful that my Government will not hesitate to
present it to the Government of the United States, that it may judge for
itself and acknowledge the soundness of the motives for this
Government’s actions. To that end it will send a copy of the evidence
directly to the Cabinet at Washington through our minister Dr.
Guzman.
As an eloquent testimony of the moderation with which this Government has
acted in dealing with the rebels against the peace of the Republic, I
must call your excellency’s attention to the fact that if they had been
tried according to the ordinary laws the tribunals would have applied to
them the most vigorous penalties of the military ordinances; but that
was avoided by resorting to the law of August 18 and dictating a more
benignant measure and one of a purely political character, and the
Government has carried its impartiality so far that the persons against
whom less serious charges were brought have only been confined in the
interior of the country.
Mr. Minister, the Government of Nicaragua does not think that in acting
in conformity with the laws as it has done, and in treating the American
citizens as Nicaraguans according to the manner in which they have been
treated, the Government of the United States can complain that mine has
not reciprocated the friendly feeling which the former has always shown
in upholding our sovereignty over Mosquitia; on the contrary it is the
belief of my Government that the United States Government is obliged, in
this case more than in any other, to do Nicaragua justice, because it
has never doubted our rights on the Atlantic coast, but has protected
them by the Monroe doctrine, which is the protection of the American
nations; has supported them in memorable treaties, and has defended our
rights in bright pleadings of its Cabinet; and consequently it can not
but now acknowledge the sovereign act exercised by Nicaragua in having
ordered the expulsion from its territory of those who disturbed the
peace of the Republic by pretending
[Page 342]
to deny its sovereignty over a very important
portion of our soil.
My Government would have acted with remarkable injustice if in expelling
from the country the English subjects who were the promoters and leaders
of the Mosquito rebellion it had not done likewise to some of their
accomplices, on the ground that they were the sons of a friendly
republic, as is the United States of America, to which we are united,
not only by the fraternal ties of sympathy, but by the common interest
of the continent and those created by the grand enterprise of the
inter-oceanic canal.
My Government is confident, Mr. Minister, that these explanations will be
sufficient to justify its proceedings against Messrs. Lampton and
Wiltbank, and to dispel whatever bad impression such proceedings may
have created; and, above all, this is no case to be taken as an act of
hostility toward the great American nation which you represent among us,
and with which we are happily united by the ties of friendship,
interest, and family.
With all consideration and my highest expression of esteem for your
excellency, I have the honor to subscribe myself, your very obedient
servant,
