320 AVES ISLAND. 



It is not conceivable that the republic should be styled the aggressor 

 in this case, even had she, in order to drive them away, really applied 

 force, a course which, on one side, the proceedings of those men would 

 have amply warranted, whilst it would, on the other, have been justi- 

 fied by the rights, and even the duty^ of the republic. To pretend 

 that individuals armed for war, could claim the right to approach 

 places not open to commerce, to land there with their armaments, to 

 import therein various articles, to settle on them to make use of a sub- 

 stance which is an accretion of the territory, to carry off, in reality, 

 several cargoes of that substance, and that Venezuela, the owner of 

 those places, should have been called upon for a public fore-announce- 

 ment of her title and right, before she could complain and claim back ; 

 to pretend, lastly, that she was called on to give notice thereof to them, 

 and her representative to their government^ informing them that she 

 was about to organize and dispatch an armed force there, is to attempt 

 to establish, between the Americans and the republic, a difference to ' 

 which no State, jealous of its own dignity, can never consent; for all 

 men are reciprocally held to the observance of consideration, respect, 

 and duty among themselves, and he who is the first to fail in such 

 observance, concludes himself from all right of complaint if they are 

 not maintained in his regard. 



In a passage of the note, to which this is in answer, it is said that 

 Venezuela sent out an expedition to look out for the Americans, find 

 them, drive them from the island, and discharge their vessels, at the 

 cannon's mouth, and despoil them of their houses, '^with depredation 

 on their property." Mr. Eames has not been satisfied with visiting 

 military agents of the country with most serious imputations of vio- 

 lence and fraud, hut he proceeds, in a note to the government of Vene- 

 zuela, to say to it that it has ordered "robbery." The action of the 

 United States which, in the 1849, resulted in the expulsion of Minis- 

 ter Pengrin, for indulgence in language no way respectful to American 

 functionaries, though not within the excess to which Mr. Eames has 

 allowed himself to go, holds out a salutary example, and one worthy 

 of imitation as the best corrective for outrages which a diplomatic 

 agent may take the liberty to commit, keeping sacred the bounds of 

 moderation and respect, and defining in the most efficacious way the 

 path which he ought to pursue in the prosecution of his charge. It 

 is to be hoped that the Cabinet of Washington will turn its attention 

 to the manner in which Mr. Eames treats the government of the re- 

 public to which he is accredited, and will compel him to make repara- 

 tion by a recall of the offensive language, considering that Venezuela, 

 astonished, and patient beyond the requirements of her own self-respect, 

 refrained from acting for herself, as was done in Washington in the 

 case adduced, merely to avoid complicating the question in debate with 

 a novel incident — a sacrifice offered to her desire for the unalterable 

 maintenance of the friendly relations between both countries ; other- 

 wise there could be no other answer to such a charge. 



Passing by this insult, the State is not accountable to any one for 

 its acts, provided they do not affect the rights of others. Hence it is 

 not called on to go into an investigation of the orders and instructions 

 of Colonel Dias, and the reasons which may have justified his dispatch 



