834 



UNITED STATES. 



police be sent to prevent a massacre, the 

 Governor said that he could not act without the 

 Mayor. The massacre then occurred, and the 

 consul and his secretary, who hurried to the 

 prison, were mobbed and assaulted. Baron 

 Fava, on March 21, in a note to Secretary Elaine, 

 who was sick at the time, insisted that the 

 assassins of the Italians should be indicted and 

 that reparation be made to the families of the , 

 victims. On March 24 he received a telegram 

 from the Marquis di Rudini saying that public 

 opinion in Italy was impatient; that there 

 could be no question regarding the right of the 

 Italian Government to ask for an indemnity 

 for the murdered men's families and to " ask and 

 obtain the punishment" of the men that had 

 assassinated three Italian subjects who had been 

 declared innocent and discharged by an Ameri- 

 can magistrate ; and that, should a definite 

 decision be delayed, he would be under the 

 painful necessity of openly demonstrating the 

 dissatisfaction of the Italian Government by 

 recalling the minister. On March 25, after re- 

 ceiving a dispatch saying that no further delay 

 could be admitted after the direct and legitimate 

 demands of the Italian Government, he obtained 

 an interview with Secretary Elaine, who said that 

 it was absolutely impossible for the Federal 

 Government to interfere with the administra- 

 tion of justice. Early in the controversy Mr. 

 Elaine pointed out the unreasonableness of the 

 Italian Government in demanding the punish- 

 ment of the lynchers, since in no civilized 

 government can the executive authority go fur- 

 ther than institute judicial proceedings against 

 suspected criminals. This was the function of 

 the municipal authorities of Louisiana, where 

 the courts were open to Italians and Ameri- 

 cans alike. This fulfills the conditions of the 

 treaty of commerce and navigation concluded 

 with Italy in 1871, which provides that " the 

 citizens of each of the high contracting parties 

 shall receive in the States and Territories of the 

 other the most constant protection and security 

 for their persons and property, and shall enjoy 

 in this respect the same rights and privileges as 

 are or shall be granted to the natives, on their 

 submitting themselves to the conditions imposed 

 on the natives." In one of his notes he took the 

 ground that " the foreign resident must be con- 

 tent in such cases to share the same redress that 

 is offered by the law to the citizen, and has no 

 just cause of complaint, or right to ask the inter- 

 position of his country, if the courts are equally 

 open to him for the redress of his injuries." 



In the course of the controversy he treated the 

 subject of indemnification of the families of the 

 murdered Italians by the Federal Government 

 not as a right established by international law, 

 but as a matter open to discussion or the subject 

 .of a friendly understanding. In the interview 

 of March 25 he asked if the Italian Government 

 expected the Federal authorities to interfere with 

 the States, expressing astonishment, that Baron 

 Fava, who knew the nature of the United States 

 Constitution, should be the bearer of such a 

 demand. The Italian minister said that they 

 hoped that the President and Gov. Nichols would 

 combine in bringing the culprits to justice. The 

 Secretary answered that it was impossible for the 

 Federal Government to act in the matter, where- 



upon the Italian minister exhibited a dispatch 

 from the Marquis di Rudini recalling him in 

 case he failed to obtain redress. On the follow- 

 ing day another dispatch was received by him 

 authorizing him, in the event of the refusal of 

 the Federal Government to give the assurance 

 that indemnity would be granted and judicial 

 proceedings instituted, to " affirm the inutility 

 of his presence near a government that has no 

 power to guarantee such justice as with us is 

 administered equally in favor of citizens of all 

 nationalities." After consulting with the Presi- 

 dent, Mr. Elaine saw Baron Fava on March 26, 

 and complained that the Marquis di Rudini was 

 hurrying him in a manner contrary to diplomatic 

 usage, and that he could announce no decision 

 until he had investigated the cases of the Italian 

 subjects who were alleged to have been massacred. 

 He said that the Federal Government could not 

 give the assurances demanded. " I do not recog- 

 nize the right of any government," he said, " to 

 tell the United States what it shall do ; we have 

 never received orders from any foreign power, and 

 shall not begin now." He declared that it was " a 

 matter of indifference what persons in Italy may 

 think of our institutions," adding, "I can not 

 change them, still less violate them." He af- 

 firmed that the treaty guarantees to Italian sub- 

 jects the same protection enjoyed by American 

 citizens, and asked if the Italian minister de- 

 sired that they should have more protection ; to 

 which Baron Fava replied that his Government 

 was entitled to demand for Italians in America 

 the same degree of protection that is guaranteed 

 to Americans in Italy. On March 27 the Mar- 

 quis di Rudini sent an ultimatum announcing 

 the departure of the Italian minister in the 

 event of his failing to obtain a guarantee from 

 the Federal Government that an indemnity 

 would be paid and the culprits tried. He ob- 

 tained from Mr. Elaine a written declaration 

 acknowledging " the full obligation of the United 

 States as regards full reparation for any violation 

 of the treaty between the two countries which 

 may have occurred," to which was added the ex- 

 planatory statement, that " no full examination 

 of the case had been made, and the law officers 

 of the Federal Government have not arrived at 

 any decision." Deeming this insufficient, he an- 

 nounced his departure on March 31, and took 

 leave of President Harrison, who expressed grief 

 at the incident in New Orleans, and a hope that 

 the guilty parties would be punished. 



The Seal Question. In March, 1891, Mr. 

 Elaine proposed, as a modus vivendi that would 

 prevent the destruction of the fur seals of the 

 Prybiloff Islands by Canadian poachers before an 

 agreement could be reached regarding the right 

 claimed by the United States to police Bering 

 Sea and suppress pelagic sealing, that a close 

 season should be declared for the summer of 

 1891. Pending the decision of the British Gov- 

 ernment on the subject of a modus vivendi the 

 Secretary of the Treasury issued orders to restrict 

 the-number of seals to be killed by the lessees of 

 the islands the North American Commercial 

 Company to the maximum of 60,000, subject 

 to the discretion of an agent of the Treasury to 

 limit the killing to as small a number as the 

 condition of the herd might demand. Lord 

 Salisbury declined to accept the proposition at 



