354 AVES ISLAND. 



ance tliat she had committed no wrong against the claimants, made it 

 imperative upon her to maintain herself as she has done. The Presi- 

 dent of the republic cannot bring himself to believe that the President 

 of the United States, in the opinion of whose minister, according to 

 his declaration on the 31st of March last, the discussion, so far as he 

 was concerned, stood closed, can think in a manner very different from 

 Venezuela's in view of the foregoing defense and of the substantial 

 grounds upon which it rests. To entertain any other expectation 

 would be to warrant the idea that an extraordinary change has taken 

 place in the sentiments of the United States in respect to Venezuela, 

 and that every notion of good will and even of mere consideration has 

 disappeared from the relations of both countries. The republic could 

 not have had the intention of giving offense either to citizens or to the 

 government of the United States, and it deems that this declaration, 

 as spontaneous as it is sincere, will dispel even the shadow of a doubt 

 on this head. Every claimant, it cannot be denied, calls into action 

 all the influential means which he may command to reach the ends of 

 personal advantage, without much sparing of imputations, serious and 

 absurd as they may be, against the State from which he makes a de- 

 mand. But the government of the United States is far too enlight- 

 ened not to appreciate the peculiar circumstances of each individual, 

 or to adopt the swervings of personal interest. Could the government 

 have satisfied itself that it has committed an act of injustice, it would 

 not have delayed to make a due reparation. That the government 

 has acted under the control of mature deliberations and deep convic- 

 tions, and not 'in mere caprice, will be evident to any one who will 

 peruse the present document with calm reason. It can have no in- 

 terest in justifying wrong, much less in doing so, to the detriment of 

 the United States, whose esteem it labors to deserve by every possible 

 means. If it refuses to acknowledge the responsibility in question^ 

 it completely vindicates its course of proceeding. If it repels the 

 charge of dilatoriness, it shows on how slight a foundation it rests. 

 If it questions the proofs brought forth by the claimants, it opposes to 

 those better proofs and unanswerable objections. It relies as much on 

 its just rights as it does on the high equity and rectitude of the gov- 

 ernment of the United States, without which all attempts to establish 

 conviction were worse than vain. This is one of the principal reasons 

 which have moved the government directly to appeal to that of the 

 United States^ which will immediately, and for itself, inquire into 

 things with an unprejudiced mind. Venezuela has given proofs not 

 to be disregarded, some of them quite recently, of the high esteem in 

 which she holds her friendly relations with the United States. She 

 has, upon all occasions, deferred to their wishes, accepted the com- 

 pacts which were proposed to her, has done justice to their reclama- 

 tions, has strived to remove all the obstacles that might trammel her 

 purpose of drawing the two countries into closer bonds. Such are her 

 sentiments now and such will they continue to be, notwithstanding a 

 regretful difference of opinion about a pecuniary claim, which ought 

 in no event to assume such an aspect as to jeopard the peace of two 

 republics admonished by their mutual interests of the necessity of 

 living in cordial harmony. 



