646 



PUBLIC DOCUMENTS. 



for which special appropriations have been made by 

 Congress, amounted to $22,730,592, showing an excess 

 of expenditures of $6,437,991. Deducting from the 

 expenditures the sum of $1,896,525, the amount of 

 appropriations for ocean steamship and other special 

 service, the excess of expenditures was 4,541,466. By 

 using an unexpended balance in the Treasury of 

 $3,800,000, the actual sum for which a special appropri- 

 ation is required to meet the deficiency is $741,466. The 

 causes which produced this large excess of expen- 

 diture over revenue were the restoration of service in 

 the late insurgent States, and the putting into opera- 

 tion of new service established by acts of Congress, 

 which amounted within the last two years and a half to 

 about 48,700 miles equal to more than one-third of 

 the whole amount of the service at the close of the 

 war. New postal conventions with Great Britain, 

 North Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzer- 

 land, and Italy, respectively, have been carried into 

 effect. Under their provisions important improve- 

 ments have resulted in reduced rates of international 

 postage, and enlarged mail facilities with European 

 countries. The cost of the United States transatlantic 

 ocean mail service since January 1, 1868, has been 

 largely lessened under the operation of these new 

 conventions, a reduction of over one-half having been 

 effected under the new arrangements for ocean mail 

 steamship service which went into effect on that date. 

 The attention of Congress is invited to the practical 

 suggestions and recommendations made in his report 

 by the Postmaster-General. 



No important question has occurred during the last 

 year in our accustomed cordial and friendly inter- 

 course with Costa Eica, Guatemala, Honduras, San 

 Salvador, France, Austria, Belgium, Switzerland, Por- 

 tugal, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden and Nor- 

 way, Eome, Greece, Turkey, Persia, Egypt, Liberia, 

 Morocco, Tripoli, Tunis, Muscat, Siam, Borneo, and 

 Madagascar. 



Cordial relations have also been maintained with 

 the Argentine and the Oriental Eepublics. The ex- 

 pressed wish of Congress, that our national good 

 offices might be tendered to those republics, and also 

 to Brazil and Paraguay, for bringing to an end the 

 calamitous war which has so long t>een raging in the 

 valley of the La Plata, has been assiduously complied 

 with, and kindly acknowledged by all the belligerents. 

 That important negotiation, however, has thus far 

 been without result. 



Charles A. Washburn, late United States minister 

 to Paraguay, having resigned, and being desirous to 

 return to the United States, the rear-admiral com- 

 manding the South Atlantic squadron was early di- 

 rected to send a ship-of-war to Asuncion, the capital 

 of Paraguay, to receive Mr. Washburn and his family, 

 and remove them from a situation which was repre- 

 sented to be endangered by faction and foreign war. 

 The Brazilian commander of the allied invading forces 

 refused permission to the Wasp to pass through the 

 blockading forces, and that vessel returned to its 

 accustomed anchorage. Eemonstrance having been 

 made against this refusal, it was promptly overruled, 

 and the Wasp therefore resumed Jber errand, received 

 Mr. Washburn and his family, and conveyed them to 

 a safe and convenient seaport. In the mean time an 

 excited controversy had arisen between the President 

 of Paraguay and the late United States minister, 

 which, it is understood, grew out of his proceedings in 

 giving asylum in the United States legation to 

 alleged enemies of that republic. The question of 

 the right to give asylum is one always difficult, and 

 often productive of great embarrassment. In States 

 well organized and established, foreign powers refuse 

 either to concede or exercise that right, except as to 



opposed to Mr. Washb urn's proceedings the injuri- 

 ous and very improbable charge of personal com- 

 plicity in insurrection and treason. The correspond- 

 ence, however, has not yet reached the United States. 

 Mr. Washburn, in connection with this controversy, 

 represents that two United States citizens attached to 

 the legation were arbitrarily seized at his side, when 

 leaving the capital of Paraguay, committed to prison, 

 and tliere subjected to torture for the purpose of pro- 



nations is not fully acknowledged, respected, and 

 obeyed. 

 The President of Paraguay is understood to have 



viy- 



appointed minister to Paraguay, having reached the 

 La Plata, has been instructed to proceed without de- 

 lay to Asuncion, there to investigate the whole sub- 

 ject. The rear admiral commanding the United 

 States South Atlantic squadron has been directed to 

 attend the new minister with a proper naval force to 

 sustain such just demands as the occasion may re- 

 quire, and to vindicate the rights of the United States 

 citizens referred to, and of any others who may be ex- 

 posed to danger in the theatre of war. With these 

 exceptions, friendly relations have been maintained 

 between the United States and Brazil and Paraguay. 



Our relations during the past year with Bolivia, 

 Ecuador, Peru, and Chili, have become especially 

 friendly and cordial. Spain and the Eepublics of 

 Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador, have expressed their will- 

 ingness to accept the mediation of the United States 

 for terminating 

 Chili has not 

 the mean time 

 itself, since no belligerent or liostile moVement has 

 been made by either party during the last two years, 

 and there are no indications of a present purpose to 

 resume hostilities on either side. Great Britain and 

 France have cordially seconded our proposition of 

 mediation, and I do not forego the hope that it may 

 soon be accepted by all the belligerents, and lead to 

 a secure establishment of peace and friendly relations 

 between the Spanish- American Eepublics of the 

 Pacific and Spain a result which would be attended 

 with common benefits to the belligerents, and much 

 advantage to all commercial nations. I communicate, 

 for the consideration of Congress, a correspondence 

 which shows that the Bolivian Eepublic has estab- 

 lished the extremely liberal principle of receiving 

 into its citizenship any citizen of the United States, 

 or of any other of the American Eepublics, upon the 

 simple condition of voluntary registry. 



The correspondence herewith submitted will be 

 found painfully replete with accounts of the ruin and 

 wretchedness produced by recent earthquakes, of un- 

 paralleled severity, in the Eepublics of Peru, Ecua- 

 dor, and Bolivia. The diplomatic agents and naval 

 officers of the United States who were present in those 

 countries at the time of those disasters furnished 

 all the relief in their power to the sufferers, and 

 were promptly rewarded with grateful and touching 

 acknowledgments by the Congress of Peru. An 

 appeal to the charity of our fellow-citizens has been 

 answered by much liberality. In this connection I 

 submit an appeal which has been made by the Swiss 

 Republic, whose government and institutions are 

 kindred to our own, in behalf of its inhabitants, who 

 are suffering extreme destitution, produced by recent 

 devastating inundations. 



Our relations with Mexico during the year have 

 been marked by an increasing growth of mutual con- 

 fidence. The Mexican Government has not yet acted 

 upon the three treaties celebrated here last summer, 

 for establishing the rights of naturalized citizens 

 upon a liberal and just basis, for regulating consular 

 powers, and for the adjustment of mutual claims. 



All commercial nations, as well as all friends of re- 

 publican institutions, have occasion to regret the fre- 

 quent local disturbances which occur in some of the 

 constituent States of Colombia. Nothing has oc- 

 curred, however, to affect the harmony and cordial 

 friendship which have for several years existed be- 



