Casto Mendez Nunez to the diplomatic corps resident in Santiago, March 27, 1866

Manifesto to the diplomatic corps resident in Santiago.

The memorandum addressed by his late excellency General Pareja to the government of the Spanish American republics on the 24th of last September, and the circulars of later date of his excellency Don Manuel Bermudez de Castro, minister of state, must have well informed the corps, of which your excellency is the worthy dean, of the causes of the war between Spain and Chili, and doubtless must also have made manifest to it that the nature of those causes left open to Spain no other road (amends for the offences which constituted and still constitute these very causes having been refused by Chili) than that of appealing to the ultimate recourse of governments to obtain them.

While this dire necessity still existed, the government of Spain and its representative in these waters, carried away, it may be said, by the proverbial generosity of the Spanish nation, a generosity natural in a people which feels itself noble and great, desired to employ their means of coercion with all possible lenity, in the belief that the superabundant strength of these means and the generosity with which they were employed being appreciated at one and the same time by Chili, the amends which most justly she has owed and owes to Spain would be obtained; a justice ostensibly recognized by two of the first powers of Europe from the moment in which, in order to put in practice their good offices, they agreed with Spain upon certain conditions, which demonstrate, without any room for doubt whatever, that justice, and according to which an end might be put to the conflict decorously for both parties. The blockade of Chili was established and carried on with so much generosity that neither neutrals nor enemies of Spain can ever fail to recognize that it was impossible to keep it within stricter limits—within those imposed by the laws of war. There can perhaps not be found within the annals of war, up to the present date, among civilized nations, greater lenity or more tolerance. Perhaps, also, this lenity and this tolerance may have given rise to the belief in the mind of an enemy, which is so unfortunate as not to comprehend them, that she may with impunity refuse that which justice demanded and demands of her. If this be the case, as everything induces us to believe, Spain will always appear on this occasion acting in accordance with the dignity of her character;. history will ever say that she committed upon this occasion the error which elevates, more than anything else, a country in the presence of civilized nations.

And that this opinion of the manner in which the blockade has been practiced and is being practiced is in accordance with the strictest truth, is demonstrated by the unanimity on the part of the ministers and agents of neutral nations in thus recognizing it. But it was not sufficient for Spain, assisted as she was and is by justice and by force to sustain it, to carry her moderation even to the most extreme limits. From the moment in which they were presented by France and England, she accepted the good offices which both nobly tendered her, to terminate the conflict in such a manner as might leave unsullied the honor of two countries, which could only be placed in war by a blindness like that of Chili, punishable by the law of nations. Prior to the breaking out of hostilities, and after their commencement, there was not a single act which does not fully demonstrate the disinterestedness of the conduct of Spain, her constant desire to re-establish peace. Evidences as respectable as irrefutable thereof are, in America, that which the United States can give; in Europe, that which can also be given by the other two nations cited.

With such antecedents, it is impossible for Spain to carry further her forbearance. Countries which have a consciousness of the justice of their cause, and of their power to sustain it, may sacrifice upon the altar of that moderation which both things impose upon them, their legitimate desire of obtaining at once by their own hands the amends which unjustly is denied them. But they cannot by any means pass the limit beyond which their honor would be wounded, and a prestige sullied, which a history, each one of whose pages relates a glory, has conquered for them. Spain has arrived at that limit, and it is necessarily indispensable for her, consequently, to break, definitely, with the government which comprehends so badly the duties which civilization imposes upon it in its relations with others; which interprets so illy those which that same civilization prescribes to that of every country in its internal government, since it does not hesitate to cause Chili to suffer evils of a war unjust on her part; with a government, in fact, which fails to recognize that which the dignity of others claims.

Affairs being in this situation, Spain has done what honor indicated. She notified her vessels in the Pacific to seek their allied enemies; and this instruction has been complied with, two of them having compromised themselves, nautically speaking, in regions thickly strewn with all sorts of difficulties, even greater through the uncertainty of their situation, passing where others of their size had never passed—up to the extreme point of nautical temerity—to place themselves in the view of their enemies, who, situated in a point perfectly well chosen, and with obstacles which prevented touching their rigging, only received such injury as, although considerable, could be caused by a fire at long range. But yet these difficulties, or, yet to speak better, these continued dangers of the locality, nor the very frequent fogs which, it may be said, daily covered them, intimidated them. And another new expedition went in search of the enemy, who, not thinking himself sufficiently safe in the position he had occupied, had sought salvation in the numerous and narrow sinuosities which formed not only an impassable bulwark for him who hid behind them, but also rendered it impossible to attack him with the class of vessels composing the Spanish squadron in these seas. Consequently, the impossibility of getting within gunshot of vessels which shelter themselves behind the impassable barriers of locality, and the persistence of Chili in refusing the amends justly demanded of her, imposed upon Spain the painful but unavoidable duty of making her to feel all the weight of rigor to which that country exposes itself which absolutely refuses to recognize the duties imposed upon the civilized community of the universe. And in this view, and for reasons of war, the cannon of the Spanish squadron will bombard the city of Valparaiso and any other which they think proper; an act of hostility which, although terrible, is legitimized by the irrefutable reasons already enumerated; a legitimacy which will place upon the government of the republic all the responsibility of the damage which may be caused to neutral interests, for the placing of which in this port in safety four days are granted, at the expiration of which the said bombardment will take place.