Cuba, I stated that your reasonable expectation of a satisfactory result from this disposition of the matter had been disappointed, since no action had been taken, and no reason had been assigned for the continued delay; and I added that some of these cases had been pending more than two years, that the embargoes in certain instances had been so improvidently ordered that the property of one party had been seized for the alleged offense of another, and that in another case the promised restitution was impeded by the refusal of one branch of the administration in Cuba to furnish evidence demanded by the bureau having the matter of these embargoed estates in charge. Under these circumstances, and in view of the vexatious character of these proceedings, I urged the prompt action of the government of the republic in releasing all property of American citizens now held by the Cuban authorities in violation of the treaty of 1795 and of the law of nations.

Mr. Castelar took notes of the essential points of my statement, and promised to inform himself of the purport of my several communications addressed to his predecessor with reference to this class of reclamations; and he added that I might assure you of his desire and purpose to remove at once any just ground of complaint on this subject.

Mr. Sorni, on his part, repeated the same assurance, and remarked that he would acquaint himself with the state of the question so far as his department was concerned, and see that no unnecessary delay should happen in the disposition of the pending cases.

I then suggested for the consideration of ministers that great abuses had been committed in the matter of embargoes; that, as a war meas ure, they had done more harm than good to the government; that the practice of seizing large properties by executive order on mere rumor, and often on the suggestion of persons inimical to the owners, had swelled the ranks and increased the resources of the insurgents, and that the proceeds of these estates had been so manipulated as to demoralize and enfeeble the administration of affairs in Cuba. In view of these, and other like reflections, I pointed out the expediency of a general measure restoring all estates confiscated by arbitrary decrees, and confining any future sequestrations that might be deemed necessary to the regular and authorized action of the established judicial tribunals.

Mr. Sorni, who is a lawyer of distinction, replied that both in a legal and administrative aspect there were serious grounds to question the justice and utility of these proceedings, and it was his intention to make this matter the subject of a special instruction to the captain-general of Cuba.

Referring to the correspondence that had taken place respecting the complaints of our shipmasters and merchants on account of the unreasonable fines and exactions imposed on American vessels in Cuba, I begged the attention of the colonial minister to this subject.

His excellency kindly promised that it should not escape his notice. I then remarked that with a radical change in the administration of Cuba and Porto Rico it would not be difficult to avoid, for the future, a repetition of the numerous questions that had arisen during the past four years between the United States and Spain; that now, more than ever, the Government and people of the United States would be disposed to cultivate the most friendly relations with this country; that it rested with the government of the republic, by means of simple justice to its American possessions, to deprive the insurrection of its hold upon public sympathy; that with the abolition of slavery, the reform of the adminis tration in Cuba and Porto Rico, and the concession to the people of a proper share in the management of their local affairs, the motives which

had incited the war of independence would disappear; that the commerce and intercourse between the United States and those islands created legitimate interests in their welfare to which no government could be indifferent, and these were the surest guarantees of the sincerity and disinterestedness of our counsels; that if we desired to acquire those possessions we would not be heard appealing to the sense of justice of the mother country for a milder and more conciliatory rule.in Cuba and Porto Rico, since it would be for our advantage if Spain continued to provoke them to hatred and sedition; that if it were true that whatever contributed to alienate the affections of the creole population from Spain must facilitate and hasten a separation, nothing could better serve the supposed desire of the United States to possess these islands than the past policy of Spain in holding a large portion of the people in absolute servitude and the remainder in a qualified condition of caste which could not increase their desire for a change of allegiance; that the large emigration which annually leaves Galicia and the Asturias for South America would naturally flow towards Cuba and Porto Rico, thus increasing their wealth and strengthening their loyalty, if emigration were not repelled from the Spanish possessions by slavery and its kindred contempt for the laboring classes; that heretofore the irreconcilable antagonism between American institutions and the system of Spanish rule in their colonies in the Gulf, had been a constant source of perturbation in the otherwise congenial relations between the two countries; that now this conflict between self-government and despotism ought to cease with the extension of free institutions to all in the Spanish Empire; that the establishment of a republican form of government seemed to afford the best, and perhaps the last, opportunity of regaining the attachment of the Cubans; that any considerable delay in putting in force the milder policy of republican rule in those parts of the island, at least where the peaceful condition of the population invited conciliatory measures, might confirm the belief of the people that all parties in Spain were disposed to treat them as an inferior race not entitled to the rights belonging to Spaniards; that nothing had contributed more to increase the sympathy felt in America for the Cuban insurgents than the fact that the Spanish revolution of 1868 brought no alleviation of the wrongs of Porto Rico nor of the eastern and western departments of Cuba, whose loyalty remained unshaken; that so soon as Cuba and Porto Rico were treated on an equal footing as an integral part of the republic, enjoying the same liberties and laws and free institutions established in the peninsula, the insurgents would no longer find encouragement in American opinion, and any attempt on the part of European powers to deprive the Spanish possessions in the Gulf of Mexico of a republican form of government might justly be regarded as an inadmissible interference with rights entitled to our consideration and respect; and that for these reasons, justice, patriotism, and self-defense commended the inauguration of a republican policy in the Spanish Antilles.

Mr. Castelar replied that the executive duties incident to the late change of government had so engrossed the attention of ministers since the formation of the present cabinet that it had been impossible to give due consideration to the important questions to which I referred; that I would nevertheless find in the well-known views of himself and his colleagues ample guarantees of their disposition to do ample justice to Cuba and Porto Rico. A great step had been taken in the unanimity and good feeling with which the emancipation act for the latter island had been enacted; in the execution of the act of 1870, the government that very day had ordered the liberation of more than ten thousand slaves (emancipados)

in Cuba, a measure which he trusted would be regarded by the United States as a proof of the sincere purposes of this government; that the superior offices in Cuba and Porto Rico would be at once confided to eminent and able men, distinguished for their liberal opinions and enjoying the confidence of the republic; that the Cortes Constituyentes, clothed with ple nary authority and animated by the most advanced ideas of the epoch, could not fail to sweep away the remains of the traditional policy of the old monarchy; that with the abolition of slavery, the existence of which could not be prolonged, the governments of Cuba and Porto Rico must be essentially modified, since the system of servile labor had been unhappily the unavoidable basis of arbitrary rule; that meanwhile the government would do all in its power to prepare the way for the inaugu ration of republican institutions in the Antilles; and with respect to their intercourse with the United States, with whom, as a sister republic and a loyal ally, Spain desired relations of intimate confidence and friendship, I could not doubt his sincerity when he assured me that nothing would be wanting on his part to promote the most cordial and satisfactory understanding between Spain and America.

With reference to the intimation given me by his excellency of an immediate change of governors in Cuba and Porto Rico, I suggested that the matters I had brought to his notice might conveniently be made the subject of fresh instructions to the personages now to be appointed; and I expressed the hope that in addition to the particulars already pointed out these instructions would include the cases of American citizens when arrested and confined in prison, in order that they might be allowed to communicate freely with the nearest United States consul, and obtain the advice and assistance proper to their situation. And in conclusion I remarked that it might be well to furnish the captain-general of Cuba with a copy of the seventh article of the treaty of 1795 as his guide in the questions of embargces and in the treatment of citizens of the United States who might have occasion to claim the protection of the ordinary judicial tribunals for their persons and property.

Mr. Sorni, the minister of the colonies, replied that in preparing the instructions to be given to General Pieltain and Primo de Rivera, my suggestions would not be forgotten.

I am, &c.,

No. 401.

D. E. SICKLES.

No. 567.]

General Sickles to Mr. Fish.

UNITED STATES LEGATION IN SPAIN, Madrid, March 30, 1873. (Received April 23.) SIR: I have the honor to forward herewith, for your perusal, a translation of an appeal to the nation, published by the executive under date of the 25th instant. The Carlists have lately given a character to their hostilities, which is not too strongly denounced by the government. Repeated instances of cruelty to captives, barbarous acts of violence to non-combatants, from which even women and children are not always exempt, firing on railway trains with their passengers, burning depots, stations, dwellings, and even churches, are among the authenticated reports of outrages committed by the partisans of the pretender. Some

of these guerrilla bands are led, and most of them are attended by priests, who incite their adherents to all sorts of crimes by appeals to the relig ious fanaticism common to the population of the Pyrenees. It seems inevitable, in view of these occurrences, that Spain is again to suffer the scourge of a war of extermination, like that which disgraced modern civilization in the dispute between the eldest daughter of Ferdinand VII and his nephew for the succession to the throne.

It is said that, in deference to repeated remonstrances made by this government, the French authorities have promised to exercise more vigilance on the frontier in preventing the use hitherto made of their territory as a base of operations for the Carlists forces. The headquarters of the Prince have been for some time established in the French Pyrenees. It is supposed that he has about ten thousand men under arms in Spain, and if more equipments are obtained, as is probable from the proceeds of subscriptions made in Paris and London, the strength of the insurgents may be considerably increased.

1 am, &c.,

D. E. SICKLES.

[Appendix.-Translation.]

Address of the Executive Power of the Spanish Republic to the Nation.

THE EXECUTIVE POWER TO THE NATION.

SPANIARDS: The government elected by the vote of the Cortes, whose choice has received the assent of the nation, would deem itself unworthy of its high charge and unfit for the responsibility it assumes if it disguised the truth, however bitter the truth may be, with palliatives only fit to deceive communities worn with debility or sunk in hopeless impotence.

And this truth, this fact, is that the partisans of absolutism, who took arms, as their proclamations averred, to overthrow a foreign king, have still persisted in their stubborn rebellion even after the nation, by the proclamation of the republic, has entered upon the full exercise of its own rights and has thereby asserted its sovereignty, to which all parties are bound to yield.

In vain is the fullest liberty accorded to ideas of every stamp; in vain is the ballotbox open to the free vote of every citizen; in vain does the approaching electoral verdict of the people secure the government of the nation to a majority of its citizens. The royalists, well knowing that the younger generations, nurtured and brought up in the ideas of the age, will never voluntarily accept their rule through the channels of freedom and of law, now seek to subjugate them forcibly by fire and steel.

To do this they are destroying the means of communication, cutting the telegraphs, laying waste the fields, imposing forced tribute upon the villages, burning the town archives, committing highway robbery, immolating helpless and defenseless creatures, shooting those who surrender after heroically resisting their bands, and amidst the smoke of their burnings they respond to the birth of a republic of reconciliation and peace with the awful spectacle of a restoration of the eras of war and vengeance. The time has come for the Spanish nation to realize with ripe judgment the vast extent of the evil, and to apply, with its traditional heroism, a prompt and powerful remedy. The holy war of liberty should respond to the barbarous war of tyranny. The government, though weighed down by the gravity of passing events, will not cease in its efforts to ward off the dangers that menace public order, to restore discipline in the army, and to arm the volunteers of the republic. The soldiers of Catalonia are already in the field attacking the enemies of freedom. The brave and welldisciplined army of the north has sealed with its blood, on heroic fields of battle, its loyalty to the republic. The troops in Valencia know no repose. The roving bands in Andalusia are disheartened and are surrendering under the formidable attacks that meet them on every side. And wherever the rebellion has sought to effect a rising in the remaining provinces, it has been combated and annihilated by the people and the troops in happy unison.

Fully appreciating this gallant conduct, the government is untiring in its efforts to unite all possible means and forces. The resources voted by the Cortes for the nationa armament are being made effective as rapidly as the laws will allow. The advantage

inuring to the army by the recent reforms are being realized with all the zeal and dispatch permitted by the poverty of the treasury. The free corps now being formed will be put in the field as rapidly as circumstances will permit. The military and civil authorities of the province most severely ravaged, fully realize the gravity of the situation, and are resolved to meet open warfare with open warfare, without truce and without quarter.

But republican governments need the co-operation of all their citizens, without exception, if the social structure is to be in reality self-governing. Each citizen should be brought to know that in defending the republic he defends his own moral diguity and his own inalienable rights. The liberal parties should remember that their highlyprized liberty-that liberty for which they have made so many sacrifices—is indissolubly united to the forms of republicanism. Let no means of warfare be spared, even as none were spared in our civil war. Let the citizen militia be put on a war footing; let the free corps be armed; let our citizens arm to maintain public order and protect their hearths and homes, in order that our soldiers may be free to fall with force and vigor upon the rebellion bands. Thus alone can we show our title to the liberty held in store for the nations who redeem and save themselves by their own strength. Thus only, and by most heroic efforts, can we save the republic, and, with the republic, our liberties and our country.

MADRID, March 25, 1873.

No. 569.]

General Sickles to Mr. Fish.

UNITED STATES LEGATION IN SPAIN,

Madrid, April 5, 1873. (Received April 29.) SIR: I have the honor to inclose herewith a translation of a note from the minister of state, dated 27th ultimo, acquainting me with the action of the government of the republic in liberating a considerable number of slaves in Cuba not duly registered when the last census was taken. I have also the pleasure to add a translation of the official communica tion on this subject from the colonial minister, Mr. Sorni, to the captaingeneral of Cuba, which was kindly placed in my hands to-day at the legation by the minister. The question presented depended on the true construction of section 19 of the act of July 4, 1870, which is as follows: "Article 19. All those (slaves) shall be declared free who do not ap pear registered in the census made in the island of Porto Rico December 31, 1869, and in that ordered to be completed in the island of Cuba on the 31st of December in the present year 1870."

It is estimated that more than ten thousand persons heretofore illegally held as slaves in Cuba will be emancipated by this decree; although in part classified as "emancipados,” there is not much reason to doubt that