362 



DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENCE AND FOREIGN RELATIONS. 



Jose Augustin Arguelles before it to insure the 

 prompt liberation of those one hundred and 

 forty-one victims. Without Arguelles's pres- 

 ence it would be very difficult, or at all events 

 it would require a long time, to attain that 

 humane object. 



Mr. Thos. Savage, the U. S. Vice-Consul Gen- 

 eral at Havana, when approached on the subject 

 of the reclamation of Col. Arguelles, stated to 

 the Captain General of Cuba that, "in the ab- 

 sence of an extradition treaty between the two 

 Governments, or of any law, public or muni- 

 cipal, authorizing the rendition, our Govern- 

 ment could not grant the request," but promised 

 to lay the matter, in a confidential way, before 

 the Department of State. 



In like manner, Seiior Don Gabriel G. Tas- 

 sara, the Spanish Minister at Washington, in 

 communicating the facts of the case to our 

 Government, took care to state that he was 

 "well aware that no extradition treaty exists 

 between the United States and Spain, in virtue 

 of which the surrender of Arguelles to the 

 authorities of Cuba might be obtained ; yet, 

 considering the gross and scandalous outrage 

 which has been committed, as well as the in- 

 terests of humanity at stake in the prompt 

 resolution of this matter," it was added, " he 

 has not hesitated in submitting the case in this 

 confidential way to the consideration of the 

 United States Government, in order to ascer- 

 tain whether an incident so exceptional could 

 not be met with exceptional measures." 



Thus addressed on the subject, the President 

 ordered the " exceptional measure " of arrest- 

 ing and surrendering Col. Arguelles on his sole 

 responsibility, in the absence, as Mr. Savage 

 phrases it, " of any extradition treaty, or of any 

 law, public or municipal, authorizing the rendi- 

 tion " of the alleged fugitive from justice. 



On the other hand it was asserted that the 

 arrest was procured by the Cuban authorities 

 for the purpose of suppressing their complicity 

 in the very crime of which ArgueHes was 

 charged. That Dulce, the Captain General of 

 Cuba, while declaring his intention to stop the 

 importation of negroes, was really assisting those 

 engaged in the traffic that one Zulueta, the 

 most intimate friend of Dulce, and by him made 

 Alcalde, and who had a line of iron steamers 

 running regularly between Cuba and Congo, 

 was expecting the arrival of two expeditions 

 from Africa, applied to Dulce for assistance in 

 landing the cargoes. 



Every negro has or must have in his posses- 

 sion a ticket, or kind of passport, mentioning 

 where he comes from, who his ancestors 

 were, where he has been living of late, &c., 

 &c., so as not to be taken for a bozales or newly 

 imported negro. 



These tickets, it is said, are not given up to 

 the authorities on the decease of a negro, but 

 kept and used with the newly landed slaves. 

 The supply not being sufficient Zulueta applies 

 to Dulce, who in turn applies to Navasquez, 

 the Civil Governor of Cuba, and who was 



authorized to issue such tickets ; he refuses Ic 

 sign them, and is forced to leave Cuba secretly 

 for Spain. Arguelles becomes acquainted with 

 the facts of the case, and comes to New York, 

 where he, in letters published, distinctly charged 

 the Captain General with advancing a notori- 

 ous slave-dealer to high municipal office in 

 Havana, for the purpose of more comfortably 

 sharing with him the gains of his traffic. This 

 is the statement of those who claimed that the 

 arrest was sought for by the Cuban authorities 

 for the purpose of disposing of material testi- 

 mony and subsequent events seemed to give a 

 color of truth to the statement. It is said by a 

 correspondent from Havana, that "the whole 

 expedition are to be returned to Zulueta as 

 slaves, it being asserted that it was an illegal 

 capture (mala preset). Thirty-six men from the 

 neighborhood of Cienfuegos have come on and 

 sworn that Zulueta had nothing to do with the 

 expedition, &c. ; that he bought the negroes on 

 the beach, &c. ; and an old law or clause in 

 some treaty is raked up to show that when the 

 negroes are so many miles inland from the 

 shore they are not liable to capture. These 

 negroes will be given up to the worst task- 

 master, the most brutal of slaveholders, and 

 Arguelles will, at least, be condemned to the 

 accursed chain-gang, which is worse than 

 death." 



The action of the Government at "Washing- 

 ton in giving up Arguelles excited much com- 

 ment, independently of the facts connected 

 with the case itself, as being a violation of the 

 right of asylum and without warrant of law, 

 as no treaty of extradition had been entered 

 into between the United States and Spain. 

 Mr. Seward, in reporting the transaction to 

 Congress, is frank to avow that the " excep- 

 tional measure " was taken in obedience only 

 to general considerations of international comity. 

 To this effect he writes : 



There being no treaty of extradition between the 

 United States and Spain, nor any act of Congress 

 directing how fugitives from justice in Spanish do- 

 minions shall be delivered up, the extradition in the 

 Arguelles case is understood by the State Depart- 

 ment to have been made in virtue of the law of na- 

 tions and the Constitution of the United States. Al- 

 though there is a conflict of authorities concerning 

 the expediency of exercising comity toward a for- 

 eign Government by surrendering, at its request, one 

 of its own subjects charged with the commission of 

 crime within its territory, and although it may be 

 conceded that there is no national obligation to make 

 such a surrender upon a demand therefor, unless it 

 is acknowledged by treaty or by statute law, yet a 

 nation is never bound to furnish asylums to danger- 

 ous criminals who are offenders against the human 

 race ; and it is believed that if, in any case, tho 

 comity could with propriety be practised, the one 

 which is understood to have called forth the reso- 

 lution of inquiry of the Senate furnished a just oc- 

 casion for its exercise. 



The position here assumed by the Secretary 

 of State that the extradition had been raado 

 by virtue of the law of nations and the Consti- 

 tution of the United States was earnestly re- 

 sisted. It led to the incorporation of resolu- 



