Letter

Cornelius A. Logan to Manuel Herrera, December 19, 1879

Author
Cornelius A. Logan
Recipient
Manuel Herrera
Date
December 19, 1879
Type
Letter
Language
English
[Inclosure 1 in No. 45.]

Mr. Logan to Señor Heirrera.

Legation or the United States in Central America, Guatemala, December 19, 1879.

Sir: The undersigned has to acknowledge the receipt of Your Excellency’s note of the 17th instant, inclosing six copies of the constitution recently adopted by the National Constituent Assembly of Guatemala, and now officially promulgated as operative from the first day of March next.

Having carefully perused the printed copy, he has noticed certain articles of the constitution which seriously affect the plainest rights of his countrymen as well as his own faculties and prerogatives as a foreign representative. In view of the instructions of his government, he has therefore to declare that he will continue in the future as in the past to protect the person and interests of his countrymen, to cause their just rights to be respected, to sustain their proper claims, and to demand redress in all cases in which diplomatic intervention may be justified by the law of nations. With sentiments of respect, I have the honor to subscribe myself,

Yours, &c.,

C. A. LOGAN.

Hon. Manuel Herrera, Minister in charge of the Department of Foreign Relations of Guatemala.

Topics
19th CenturyDiplomacyReconstruction
Sources
FRUS u2014 Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, Transmitted to Congress, With the Annual Message of the P View original source ↗
U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian. Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, Transmitted to Congress, With the Annual Message of the P.
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Cornelius A. Logan to addendum. * * * * * * * It is a singular thing that the fifth article relating to natural citizenship, should have been copied from the Spanish constitution of 1812, by nearly all of the Spanish-American republics, without the subsequent modification which Spain was compelled to adopt. While the writer was representing our government in Chili, this same article was incorporated into the new constitution of that country, though he used his strongest efforts to prevent it. The history of the article is so well given in a French work issued during the present year, that I must ask your permission to make a few extracts therefrom; and in order that there may be no loss through translation, I give them in the original text. The work is upon the “ Droit des Gens,” and is entitled “ La Nationalité, au point de vue des rapports internationaux, par George Cogordan, docteur en droit attaché au ministère des affaires Mrangères, Paris , 1879.” (Page 50.) La constitution du 30 Juin, 1876, qui régit aujourd’hui l’Espagne, porte dans son article l er la disposition suivante: Sont Espaguols: 1° ceux qui sont nés sur le territoire espagnol. (Page 51.) L’article l er 1° de la constitution de 1876 a êté reproduit de toutes les constitutions qui se sont succédées en Espagne depuis celle de 1812, où il-figure pour la première fois. Insérée dans le projet de constitution sounds aux cortés de 1837, par le gouvernement de la Reine Régente, cette disposition attira l’attention du gouvernement Français qui avait eu l’occasion d’en reconnâitre plusieurs fois les inconvénients. Sur les représentations de l’ambassadeur du roi français, le ministère Calatrava se détermina, tout en gardant l’article, à faire aux córtès une déclaration de nature à en limiter la portée. Dans la séance du 11 Mai, 1837, M. Olózaga président de la commission chargée d’élaborer le projet, exposa solennellement l’interprétation à donner au texte constitutional: “Quelques députés ont cru,” a-t-il dit, “et il paraît qu’on a cru aussi en dehors de cette enceinte, que concéder la qualité d’ espagnol aux étrangers nés fortuitement en Espagne était la même chose que leur imposer l’obligation d’être espagnols. Ceux qui parlent ainsi n’ont pas compris le laconisme et la précision avec l, December 6, 1879
Cornelius A. Logan to Manuel Herrera, December 20, 1879
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