Alvaro Covarrubias to Envoy Extraordinary and, April 17, 1867

Mr. Covarrubias to Mr. Kilpatrick

Sir: In conformity with the instructions which I have received from my government, I have the honor to reply to the note which your excellency was pleased to address me on the 21st of January last, transmitting me the propositions of settlement which the cabinet at Washington has judged proper to indicate to the different belligerents in the war in which Chili finds herself engaged at present.

According to those propositions, Chili and her allies on one side, and on the other Spain, should appoint plenipotentiaries in Washington authorized to meet together in conferences, presided over by the person whom the President of the United States should designate, with the object of agreeing upon terms of a permanent peace, which should be equitable, just, and honorable to all the belligerents. In case that they should not arrive in the conferences at a unanimous agreement, the same President of the United States should designate a third state or sovereign, who should decide, as arbiter, the differences which the plenipotentiaries should not succeed in arranging.

Even now it is easy to foresee that the manner of convention proposed by the government of your excellency would lead necessarily to an arbitration pure and simple, the same as occurs frequently between two nations at difficulty with one another, with the sole difference that in this case it would not be the parties themselves, but the President of the Union who would elect the arbiter.

To justify this foreknowledge, it will be sufficient for me to call to mind the extravagant and unjust pretensions which Spain has presented even before the commencement of the present war, and the tenacity with which she has adhered to them until she has involved the republics of the Pacific in a long and disastrous contest. It is not to be hoped, then, that in the conferences at Washington Spain would show herself more favorable to the voice of justice and conciliation. This is so much the less probable, since the government of Spain has not followed the course of conduct in the present war which belonged to a civilized belligerent, but rather has augmented, by her manifest violations of international right, the grievances collected by her adversaries, and which are subject to reparation.

However moderate should be the demands of Chili and her allies, they could not cease to be proportionate to the magnitude of the insults and damages which they have received, and, in consequence, they would be too painful to the pride of Spain to presume, with reason, that they would be accepted by her willingly. The object of the conference being frustrated, which would give the recourse of arbitration, and although the government of the republic has always been partial to this method of solution, it believes it would not be able to accept it without certain reservations.

These reservations are inspired as much by the irregular conduct of the enemy, to which I have just alluded, as by the basis of convention which previously other mediatory powers have made, and which she has not hesitated to reject.

First, she considers the bombardment of Valparaiso an act of hostility inexcusable and worthy of the most severe reprobation, whether it is judged in the light of the general principles of international right under the criterion of the ideas and sentiments prevailing in our epoch, or, finally, with reference to the consequences and sad precedents which it may tend to create. The opinion of the civilized world has universally execrated this deed, and after so incontestable a sanction it would not be possible to agree that it should be submitted to the judgment of one arbiter the qualification of the odious character of the bombardment.

So, therefore, my government believes that in this point it only would be able to be matter for arbitration the fixing of the kind of reparations which Spain may be obliged to make to Chili and her allies in consequence of the bombardment of Valparaiso, but in no manner a decision upon the legitimacy or illegitimacy of that vituperable abuse of power.

In the second place, I cannot fail to take into account, that in the propositions of convention which previously have been made by other mediatory states, there figured the condition that the belligerents should reciprocally return the prizes made during the course of hostilities. According to this condition, Spain would gratuitously receive the steamer of war Covadonga, captured by the Chilian corvette Esmeralda, in good and fair combat, and Chili would renounce, without compensation, that lawful as well as valuable trophy. I say without compensation, for Spain would not be able to return to the republic even the merchant ships captured by her naval forces, burned as they have been by those same forces.

It would consider necessary, also, the previous step of explaining in a precise manner the different situations which the contending parties in the present war occupy—situations which have been wont to be confounded in the propositions of settlement before alluded to.

In the present war there is only one aggressor, which is Spain, and four injured parties, which are Chili, Peru, Bolivia and Eucador, the first two in a manner direct and immediate, and the two last indirectly.

Whatever might have been the grounds of complaint which the Spanish government had against those of Chili and Peru, it is a fact, evident and incontrovertible, that, to make them of value, she did not begin by exhausting the pacific means of diplomacy, neither did she respect the laws of international right, and that the occupation of the Chincha islands on the 14th of April, 1864, and the blockade of the ports of Chili, on the 26th of September, 1865, were acts of hostility, unnecessary, irregular in their form, and unjust in their motives; consequently, those aggressions of Spain constituted, by themselves alone, an outrage as unmerited as grave against Chili and Peru, and fastened her exclusive responsibility to all the sad consequences of the war in which she has involved four republics.

Appealing to the judgment of one arbiter, Chili and her allies would not be able to renounce the reparations which their enemy owes them, nor the right of fixing by themselves the kind and magnitude of these reparations.

Such are the reservations which my government, in concurrence with its allies, has believed it indispensable to make in order to be able to lend its adhesion to the propositions of settlement of the cabinet at Washington.

It would regret that the reservations expressed should disarrange the laudable proposition of the government of the Union, and should block up the road to peace so sincerely desired on its part, but it would not be able to lessen them without forgetting its higher duties to the dignity and rights of this country.

In the mean time, whatever may be the results of the mediation of the government of your excellency, that of Chili will always look upon it with gratitude, and will have it as a new testimony of its kind interest in the republic.

Have the kindness to transmit to your government this communication, and accept the reiterated expression of the sentiments of very distinguished consideration with which I am,

Your obedient servant,