240 



DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENCE AND FOREIGN RELATIONS. 



exercise of these rights vessels should be found rec- 

 ognized as enemies of the integrity of the territory, 

 they shall be brought into port for the corresponding 

 legal investigation and trial. 



CABALLEEO DE EODAS. 



The United States Government regarded this 

 decree as declaring the assumption of powers 

 and rights over the trade and commerce of 

 other peoples, as inconsistent with a state 

 of peace, and to which they could allow their 

 vessels to be subject only when Spain should 

 avow herself to be in a state of war, or should 

 be manifestly exercising the rights conceded 

 only to belligerents in the time of war (Mr. 

 Fish to Mr. Roberts, July 16, 1869). 



In view of this announcement, the third de- 

 cree is found to bo a modification of that of 

 the 7th instant, the sixth article being rescind- 

 ed. This modification was promulgated on 

 the 18th of July, 1869, by Captain-General de 

 Rodas. 



SpeaTcman and WyetJi. As before men- 

 tioned, by the decree of March 24, 1869, the exe- 

 cution of Speakman and Wyeth is attempted 

 to be justified. The manner in which the de- 

 mand for indemnity in these cases has been 

 met is characteristic of the Spanish Govern- 

 ment. The 14th of September, 1869, finds it 

 promising that full reparation shall be made 

 if facts are as alleged, and that investigation 

 would be ordered. The 25th of March, 1870, 

 finds Mr. Sagasta writing to Mr. Sickles that 

 indemnity in Speakman's case cannot be al- 

 lowed ; that a report in Wyeth's case had just 

 been ordered, and that Mr. Roberts has denied 

 ever having given assurance of indemnity in 

 the case of Speakman. The only rebutting 

 evidence in this claim presented by the Span- 

 ish Government is contained in an affidavit of 

 "W. E. "Welch, who claims to have been captain 

 of the Grapeshot, the schooner on board of 

 which Speakman and Wyeth were embarked. 

 This affidavit was taken without notice to the 

 Department of State and without an oppor- 

 tunity for any one representing the United 

 States to be present. 



The Secretary of State writes to Mr. Sickles 

 on the 9th of March, 1870, that " as the de- 

 ponent is regarded as an interested person, 

 having an object in disproving the dying dec- 

 larations of Speakman and Wyeth, and hav- 

 ing himself been engaged in knowingly violat- 

 ing the laws of the United States, the Depart- 

 ment is not supposed to give credence to his 

 statements, nor to modify the instructions here- 

 tofore transmitted to you upon the subject." 



The capture of the Lloyd Aspinwall was 

 the result of the arbitrary policy of Spain, in- 

 dicated in the decree just described. A short 

 account of the circumstances attending the 

 seizure of this vessel follows : 



Lloyd Aspinwall. The Lloyd Aspinwall, 

 a steamer of New York, regularly cleared 

 from Port au Prince, Hayti, for Havana, 

 and having on board dispatches from Rear- 

 Admiral Poor, addressed "To the care of the 



United States Consul-General at Havana," was 

 taken near Maternillas light-house near Nue- 

 vitas on the 21st of January, 1870, by the 

 Spanish war-steamer Herman Cortes, brought 

 into port, and detained by the Spanish author- 

 ities. 



On the 5th of March Mr. Fish addressed Mr. 

 Roberts a note on the subject. After recapitu- 

 lating the circumstances of the seizure, he 

 says: 



On the 16th day of July last, the undersigned had 

 the honor to address a note to Mr. Lopez Eoberts, 

 calling his attention to a decree then lately issued by 

 the Captain-General of Cuba, contemplating an inter- 

 ference with the commerce of the United States on 

 the high-seas. 



In that note the undersigned made use of this 

 language : 



The freedom of the ocean can nowhere and under no 

 circumstances be yielded by the United States. The high 

 seas contiguous to those of the Island of Cuba are a di- 

 rect pathway of a large part of the purely domestic trade 

 of the United States. Their vessels, trading between 

 their ports in the Gulf of Mexico and those of the At- 

 lantic coast, pass necessarily through those waters. The 

 greater part of the trade between the ports of the United 

 States on the eastern side of the continent and those on 

 the Pacific slope passes, of necessity, in sight of the 

 Island of Cuba. The United States cannot, then, be in- 

 different or silent under a decree which, by the vagueness 

 of its terms, may be construed to allow their vessels on 

 the high-seas, whatever may be their cargo, to be em- 

 barrassed or interfered with. If Spain be at war with 

 Cuba, the United States will submit to those rights which 

 public law concedes to belligerents. 



The decree to which the undersigned referred wns, 

 as the undersigned has been informed by the consul- 

 general of the United States at Havana, modified by 

 a further decree of the Captain-General on the 18m 

 of July last. 



The undersigned, cherishing the belief that there 

 would be no further attempt on the part of the 

 Spanish authorities to molest the commerce of the 

 United States, has read with surprise the statements 

 contained in the protest of the master of the Lloyd 

 Aspinwall, sustained, as they are, by the authority 

 of the acting consul-general at Havana. 



The Government of the United States, remembering 1 

 the long-established friendship between Spain and 

 the United States. airJl the prompt response of the 

 Captain-General or Cuba to tne representations made 

 by the undersigned to Mr. Lopez Eoberts in July 

 last, believe that the Spanish officials who have com- 

 mitted these affronts to the national honor of the 

 United States and these wanton injuries to its citi- 

 zens were not acting in compliance with orders. For 

 it must bo apparent that the Government of the 

 United States cannot allow such acts to pass unques- 

 tioned or without full reparation. 



The undersigned is instructed to ask Mr. Lopez 

 Eoberts to bring this subject to the attention of his 

 government at the earliest possible moment, and to 

 say that the Government of the United States trusts 

 that that government will, "when the matter shall 

 have been brought to its notice, of its own accord 

 offer to the Government of the United States a suit- 

 able apology for the indignity to the flag of the 

 United States, and to the persons of the bearers of 

 dispatches to this Government, and for the inter- 

 ference with the dispatches of the officers of this 

 Government to this Department, and to the admiral in 

 command of the squadron of the United States in 

 those waters. 



The undersigned is also directed to ask Mr. Lopez 

 Eoberts, in the exercise of the discretion which is 

 understood to have been placed in him by his gov- 

 ernment, to cause the Lloyd Aspinwall to be forth- 

 with set at liberty, and a proper compensation to 

 be made to the owners of the vessel, and to all other 



