Cushing to Evarts, March 30, 1877

No. 291. Mr. Cushing to Mr. Evarts.

Sir: My telegram of the 28th instant will have advised you of the payment to me by the Spanish Government of the one-half of the amount awards thus far made by the claims commission constituted by invention of February 12, 1871, between the United States and Spain.

I now proceed to communicate to you a succinct account of this negotiation.

Mr. Fish’s instructions to present the awards for payment, dated December 12, 1876, reached me on the 27th of that month. But telegraphic and other instructions had peremptorily presented to me the duty of £ up and disposing of the question of criminal procedure in Cuba immediately after the conclusion of the negotiation for a treaty of extradition, which, of course, was done to the exclusion of any other matter of is controversy.

The treaty of extradition was signed and sent off on the 5th of January. On the next day the consideration of the criminal-procedure question was taken up by the then minister of state (Mr. Calderon y Collantes) and myself, and we arrived at a substantial conclusion on the but the precise form of redaction proposed remained to be considered by the State Department, and the interchange of telegrams on this point between the Department and the legation protracted the negotiation until the 4th of February, when the protocol disposing of the subject was at length concluded, as the Department was advised by my No. 1161 of February 4, 1877.

Thereupon I took up the subject of the awards, and addressed to the minister of state (Mr. Silvela, who had meanwhile taken the place of Mr. Calderon y Collantes) my note of the 6th of February, 1877, transmitted to the Department with my No. 1170 of February 9. I delivered that note in person to Mr. Silvela, and urged him, with pertinent reasons, to give to it early attention.

But meanwhile the preparations for the King’s voyage of inspection of the ports of the Mediterranean were going on, and at last he departed from Madrid, with arrangement that one after another of the ministers should accompany and follow him; and, on its being announced that the minister of state was to leave Madrid, I became uneasy, and made such representations to him on the subject that, admitting unreservedly the obligation of Spain in the premises, he referred me to the minister of ultramar as having received authority to act in the premises in his behalf. This was on the 24th of February.

I immediately sought and obtained an interview with the minister of ultramar, Mr. Martin de Herrera, who also informed me that the Spanish Government fully admitted the obligation, but desired indulgence as to the time of payment, proposing to give to the United States transferable international engagements, payable in a series of years. I received this proposition, of course, only ad referendum, without affording any encouragement that it would be acceptable.

We had now arrived at the 1st of March. On that day I communicated the proposition of Mr. Martin de Herrera to the Department by telegram. Well aware, however, that it could not be accepted by the Department, as it was not, I concluded, in the absence of the minister of state, to confer on the subject with the president of the council, Mr. Cánovas del Castillo, who corresponds in function to the prime minister of Great Britain.

The result of this interview was telegraphed to Secretary Fish on the 2d, and was responded to by him on the 3d, to the conclusion that half of the amount of the awards should be paid in cash and half months.

I communicated this conclusion orally to Mr. Cánovas del Castillo with suggestion that it would be creditable to the Spanish Government that it should make the proposition, rather than to have the arrangement seem to be imposed on that government.

In consequence, a note was addressed by me to Mr. Cánovas del Castillo on the evening of the 3d of March, to which he replied on the 5th receiving my response on the 6th, the three notes together constituting a confidential agreement, in accordance with the terms prescribed Secretary Fish. Translation of each of these notes is-affixed.

Some delay in the official consummation of this agreement was produced by the perpetual va et-vient of the ministers between Madrid the several sea-ports at which the King successively touched, and especially the absence of the minister of state, and the necessity of an official note from him in response to mine of February 26, to constitute formal authentication of the provisional agreement made between Mr. Cánovas del Castillo and myself. Copy and translation of that note, which came to me on the 10th of March, are annexed.

Meanwhile the minister of ultramar, to whom the task of raising the money had been committed, was busy in that matter and in verifying the calculation of the sum die, which had been made in the legation and delivered to him as the basis of payment. At length, on the 27th, Mr. Martin de Herrera notified me that on the next day he would-be ready to make payment, as he in fact did, on the 28th. The payment consisted, as my telegram has informed you, in a sterling bill on the London Banking Association, limited, at fifteen days’ sight, drawn by the Bank of Castile.

Translation of the estado or statement on which payment was made, copy and translation of the bill and its indorsement, and copy and translation of the receipt given by me, are annexed on all which the following explanatory observations are submitted:

• The figures of the estado are an exact copy of those of the statement prepared in the legation.
• It represents the one-half of the capital of the awards, with the interest on that half, leaving the payment of the other half, with its interest, for September.
• I assumed that the awards are made payable in the gold coin of the United States carried out in sterling pounds at our standard rate of $4.86.65 per pound, in conformity with the latest instructions of the Department in that respect.
• Interest is only calculated where it is designated in the awards.
• In two cases, Nos. 66 and 108, interest is awarded, but the rate is not mentioned. In these, cases 6 per cent, is assumed, with right of correction, if necessary, reserved in my receipt.
• As the statement was drawn up on the 16th and payment was made by a bill of the 27th, the accrued interest is to be reckoned in the final payment.

On receiving payment, I sent to the minister of state a reply to his note of the 8th, copy of which is annexed.

You will observe in his note reference to unadjusted claims of Spanish subjects against the United States on account of incidents occurring during the war of secession, as to which, knowing nothing myself and having no instructions, it was impossible for me to go further in reply than to assume that, when duly presented, the subject would have consideration on the part of our government.

The bill of exchange will be dispatched to London immediately by express messenger, indorsed to Messrs Morton, Rose & Co., as instructed by your telegram of the 29th.

I felt much apprehension, on first calling the attention of the Spanish Government to the subject, lest it should be objected that the awards me of them payable until the final winding up of the commission, especially as in some cases a year, and in others even two years, had elapsed since the awards were made without payment having been demanded, which might have seemed to imply that the United States did not consider it rightful to make such demand. To be sure, I was prepared to argue this point, but the argument, with response and counter response, might have occupied considerable time and involved delay at of uncertain duration. However, neither the minister of state nor the minister of ultramar, nor the president of the council has raised this or any other technical question during the whole course of the negotiation, which seems to me to deserve to be taken into account cumulative evidence of the honorable spirit and conduct of the Spanish Government in the premises.

Nothing further now seems to me as needful to be added by way of explanation of this negotiation; and it only remains for me to say that it has been concluded with promptness even beyond my expectations; and its results will, it is hoped, commend themselves to the approbation of the President.

I have, &c.,