464 



GUATEMALA. 



GUKNEY, WILLIAM. 



(Colonel Schlessinger and Mr. Nanne) being 

 citizens of the United States. In the contract 

 which the Government signed with Mr. Nanne, 

 it is stipulated that, at various times during 

 the progress of the work, sums of money shall 

 be paid to him by the Government, such sums 

 to amount altogether to $210,000, to be paid, 

 /as understood, in seven installments. Owing 

 to various causes, the Government not being 

 (February, 1879) very well off as regards ready 

 money, and Mr. Nanne being naturally anxious 

 to arrange these payments upon a secure basis, 

 so that there might be no trouble or indecision 

 as to his receiving them when they fell due, 

 all doubt in that respect was completely set at 

 rest by the spontaneous offer of a number of 

 the largest capitalists in Guatemala City to 

 guarantee the whole amount promised by the 

 Government ; and not that alone, but also any 

 further sums which the Government might 

 contract to pay in a like manner for similar en- 

 terprises. 



Of telegraph lines (the property of the Gov- 

 ernment) there were over 1,150 miles, with 

 52 officers ; * and the Minister of Public 

 Works reports that, on February 20th, tele- 

 graphic communication was formally opened 

 with the republics of Honduras, San Salvador, 

 and Nicaragua. A treaty has lately been made 

 in New York by Mr. J. Baiz, Consul-General, 

 on the part of the Guatemala Government, 

 with the Central and South American Cable 

 Company (a branch of the Western Union Tele- 

 graph Company), to connect with the United 

 States on the Gulf coast near to the Mexican 

 frontier. The tariff will be 75 cents per word 

 for dispatches, against $2.28 per word via Pa- 

 nama. Cheapness will not be the only advan- 

 tage offered by the direct cable: there will 

 likewise be a very material economy of time, 

 since the minimum loss of time via Panama is 

 five days, as dispatches have to be transmitted 

 thence northward or vice versa by steamer. 



By the terms of a new Constitution, promul- 

 gated on December 12, 1879, with upward of 

 a hundred articles, all of a liberal and pro- 

 gressive tendency, and consequently the re- 

 verse of those of the rejected Constitutions of 

 1873 and 1874, the term of office of the Presi- 

 dent of the Republic is extended to six years, 

 from four; the duties of the executive and 

 the legislative powers are clearly defined; the 

 law of habeas corpus is introduced, and com- 

 plete liberty of conscience guaranteed ; the 

 conferring of military rank above that of colo- 

 nel is an attribute of the legislative power, the 

 promotion to be proposed by the executive; 

 the legislative power declares war and makes 

 peace ; primary instruction is compulsory, and 

 that given under the auspices of the Govern- 

 ment is secular and gratuitous ; perfect free- 

 dom in matters of religion is established, etc., 

 etc. Agreeably to one of the articles of the 

 new Constitution, the Presidential term of 



* Se " Annual Cyclopaedia " for 18T8. 



office begins on March 1, 1880 ; consequently 

 elections were to be held before that time. 

 Several candidates were already in the field, 

 but none with any apparent element of popu- 

 larity. The general desire seemed to be for 

 the reelection of General Barrios, or, if he 

 should not consent, to elect Sr. Martin Bar- 

 rundia as his successor. 



A new immigration law was promulgated in 

 February, in which liberal inducements are 

 offered to foreigners to settle in the republic, 

 with the guarantee of protection of all their 

 rights and interests. 



GUEST, JOHN, a naval officer, born in Mis- 

 souri in 1821, died at Portsmouth, New Hamp- 

 shire, January 12, 1879. He entered the navy 

 as a midshipman in 1837, and in 1843 became 

 a passed midshipman, in 1853 a lieutenant, in 

 1866 a captain, and in 1873 a commodore. He 

 served with distinction on the eastern coast of 

 Mexico in the Mexican war, and took part on 

 shore in several sharp engagements. In 1854 

 he was second in command of the seamen and 

 marines of the United States steamer Plymouth 

 in a severe and victorious fight with the Chinese 

 rebels of Shanghai, who endeavored to plunder 

 the foreign residents of that city. Captain 

 Guest commanded the Owasco, of Admiral 

 Porter's mortar flotilla, in the bombardment 

 of Forts Jackson and St. Philip prior to and 

 during the passage of Farragut's fleet by the 

 forts on its way to New Orleans, April 24, 

 1862. He also commanded the same vessel at 

 the bombardment of Vicksburg in the summer 

 of the same year, and received the highest 

 praise from his superiors. He was in com- 

 mand of the Itasca at both of the Fort Fisher 

 fights, in which engagements he added to his 

 previous enviable reputation as a gallant and 

 discreet officer. 



GUENEY, WILLIAM, an army officer, born 

 in Flushing, Long Island, August 21, 1821, 

 died in New York, February 3, 1879. He was 

 in business in New York at the outbreak of 

 the civil war, and was a lieutenant in the 

 Seventh city regiment. In April, 1861, he 

 entered the United States service with that 

 regiment for the three months' term. Keturn- 

 ing from that, he accepted a commission as 

 captain in the Sixty-fifth New York regiment 

 (the Fighting Chasseurs), and served with that 

 regiment through the early campaigns of the 

 war. In 1862 he was appointed an assistant 

 inspector-general anl examining officer on the 

 staff of Governor Morgan. In July, 1862, he 

 received authority to raise a regiment of his 

 own, and in thirty days he recruited the 127th 

 New York regiment, at the head of which he 

 returned to the field, joining the Twenty-third 

 Army Corps. He was assigned to the com- 

 mand of the Second Brigade of General Aber- 

 crombie's division in October, 1862, and in 

 1864 he went with his brigade to join General 

 Gillmore's command, on the South Carolina 

 coast. In December, 1864, he was severely 

 wounded in the arm in an engagement at De- 



