COLOMBIA, UNITED STATES OF. 



1 ->:> 



; State, from all tho charges against 



let, Secretary of tho Treas- 



.mplicity in the matter of the Post- 

 I iMjueni concerning; the detention 

 Morales is accordingly 

 and be suspended 1'n'in 

 " mills ; Imt us he has now no public 

 ,. \meiit, lie is fined $10. 



INpinosa, Ex-Secretary of Hacienda and 

 - lined $8 and suspended from employ 

 ntlis for participation in the issue of tho de- 

 , <. to salt. 



larv of War and the Navy, Rude- 

 .lisolved from the charge founded 

 upn his intervention in the secret treaty entered 

 Mtli the Peruvian Minister. 



.nil Mosquera's sentence was subse- 

 quently romnmtod to a fine of $12 and two 

 e. He left the republic at once and 



:. Peru. 



The purchase of the steamer E. E. Cnyler, 

 which has already been referred to in the con- 

 flict between President and Congress, led also 

 to a complication with the United States. The 



i;i the case are stated in an officml des- 

 patch from Mr. Se\vard. which Mr. Peter J. 

 Sullivan, the American minister in Bogota, was 

 directed to lay before the Acting President of 

 the Eepnblic. Mr. Seward, after acknowledg- 

 ing the otlicial report of Mr. Sullivan on the 

 snl'ject, says: 



I'.v ih.'M- papers I perceive that the Government 

 of Colombia has ascertained that on the 28th of Au- 

 gust, 1SG6, a secret treaty was concluded at Bogota 



in Plenipotentiaries of that republic and Peru, 

 which was approved and declared to be ratified by 

 Thomas C. de Mosquera, at that time President of 

 the United States of Colombia, on the 20th of No- 

 vember, ISM; that in said treaty the republic of 

 Colombia bound itself to buy s certain vessels of war 

 which the republic of Peru had contracted for or was 

 contracting for in the United States, in order to use 

 them against Spain in the war which Peru, with cer- 

 tain allies, was then and is still engaged in ; that 

 said United States of Colombia, before concluding 

 that treaty, had neither allied nor engaged them- 

 selves in war against Spain, but became allies se- 

 cretly by the treaty ; that when the treaty was made 

 the Government of Peru had found itself embarrassed 

 by the neutrality laws of the United States, and con- 

 sequently incapable of obtaining from the fiscal offi- 

 cers of the United States the dispatch and release 

 of the vessels of war which Peru had contracted for 

 with citizens of the United States ; that in the treaty 

 it was stipulated that the vessels should become the 

 property of the republic 'of Colombia, which State, 

 nevertheless, should continue to be ostensibly neu- 

 tral after the treaty ; and that as soon as the vessels 

 had arrived within the jurisdiction of Colombia they 

 should be sold and delivered bv the United States 

 of Colombia to the republic of Peru at such prices 

 and on such terms as show clearly that the sale made 

 in the Unitjd States by Peru to Colombia was noth- 

 ing more than fictitious, and a violation of the neu- 

 trality laws of the United States; that according to 

 the treaty, Mr. Salgar, Minister Plenipotentiary of 



ioia, announced to the Government of the 

 Knifed States that the R. R. Cuyler, which had al- 



!>een libelled in New York and been refused 

 discharge and detained for, being fitted out in viola- 

 tion of the neutrality laws of the United States to 



war on account of Peru and its allies against 

 Spain, had been bought by the United States of Co- 

 lombia for their own use, and was really the property 

 not of the republic of Peru nor of any of its allies, 



but of the United States of Colombia, which were at 

 peace with Spain ; that this representation of Gen- 

 eral Salgar was accepted, and the proceedings 

 against the II. It. Cuyler were suspended; that the 

 persons who, according to the representation of Mr. 

 Salgar, had contracted the vessel for the republic of 

 Colombia, gave bonds of security to the United 

 States that she should be delivered within the waters 

 of the Colombian Government without violating the 

 aforesaid neutrality laws during her voyage, and that 

 on receipt of these securities and guarantees the R. 

 R. Cuyler was discharged and went to her destina- 

 tion, which was Santa Martha, in the United States 

 of Colombia. It also appears from the representa- 

 tions made to you by Mr. C. Martin, that when said 

 treaty and the proceedings of Mr. Salgar in the 

 United States afterwards came to the knowledge of 

 the Congress of the United States of Colombia, that 

 honorable body disapproved entirely of those pro- 

 ceedings, and that the Government of Colombia dis- 

 avows and repudiates them now as completely illegal, 

 unconstitutional, fraudulent and void. President Mos- 

 quera, who assumed the direction of those proceed- 

 ings, has been removed. The administration of that 

 country under the Presidency of Mr. Acosta has 

 been recognized. Tho latter approves and adopts 

 entirely the above ideas and policy of the Congress 

 of Colombia. It further appears that the republic 

 of Colombia finds itself embarrassed by the presence 

 of the R. R. Cuyler in the waters of the republic, 

 which presence is supposed to imply the following 

 dangers: First, complications with Peru for the 

 violation of the treaty between Peru and Colombia ; 

 secondly, complications with Spain for exposing the 

 neutrality of Colombia; and thirdly, the probable 

 loss of confidence in the good faith of the Govern- 

 ment of Colombia on the part of the United States : 

 that the Government of Colombia furthermore appre- 

 hend* that the R. R. Cuyler, if permitted to leave 

 the ports of the republic without a naval guard 

 stronger than that which the President of Colombia 

 can give her, might be converted into the scene of a 

 mutiny, and even the officers and 'crew might take 

 to piracy on the high seas; that under this suppo- 

 sition the Government of Colombia would consider 

 it as the most desirable and prudent way that the 

 R. R. Cuyler should return to the port of New York, 

 under the naval protection of the United States, in 

 order that this government might deliver her up to 

 the Government of Peru, for whom she in reality was 

 prepared as a vessel-of-war, and not for the United 

 States of Colombia, as the matter is to be under- 

 stood now. 



"With regard to the request of the Colombian 

 Government, Mr. Seward gave the following 

 reply : 



As far as the United States are concerned, the R. 

 R. Cuyler is and must be considered a foreign vessel, 

 belonging now to the United States of Colombia, or 

 which at least in no way belongs or can be recognized 

 as belonging to the mercantile fleet of the United 

 States. There is no law in the United States by 

 which the United States could exercise any restric- 

 tion over the R. R. Cuyler, either in the waters of 

 Colombia or on the high seas, or in the ports of the 

 United States, so long as she does not do or threaten 

 to do any injury to the United States. There is no 

 law by whicn she could be received in the United 

 States in any other character than as a vessel-of-war 

 of that friendly republic, nor is there any law which 

 could authorize her transfer or delivery here by the 

 Government of Colombia, by that of the United 

 States or any other, to a foreign power which is at 

 war with another foreign power with whom the 

 United States are at peace. Much less could the 

 United States undertake to receive her from the 

 Government of Colombia as neutral, and transfer her 

 or order or allow her to be transferred to any belli- 

 gerent within the waters of the United States. 



