Ernest Dichman to Evarts, December 14, 1878

No. 124. Mr. Dichman to Mr. Evarts.

Sir: I inclose copies of two communications addressed to the secretary of foreign relations, dated November 5 and December 13, respectively, on the subject of the custody of the registers of vessels of the United States by their consuls.

The Department will perceive from these inclosures that the difficulty is one of long standing, dating almost from the very origin of this government, and that in any treatment of the question my object is to arrive at a final settlement which will preclude the possibility of a similar difficulty in future. With this view, a mere understanding with the department of foreign relations as to how the objectionable law in question can be avoided, or even a promise to ask the Congress of Colombia to repeal the same, will not answer my purpose, for either mode of settlement might be only temporary.

The position of the Colombian Government can be stated briefly as follows, that it cannot neglect the execution of a plain act of Congress; that Congress at its last session passed a resolution directing the law to be enforced, and that the reason for such action arose from the fact that several vessels had left the ports of Colombia without a clearance.

My answer to the last was, that unless the Colombian Government could point out to me a case where a consul of the United States had been reported to his government for having delivered the papers of an American vessel, the captain of which had not produced to him a clearance, and no action having been taken on such report by his government, the reason advanced by the Colombian Government could not constitute an explanation for its action.

As to the law itself, I have endeavored to point out to the secretary of foreign relations that the matter was one of international obligation, and as such it was superior to any local law, and that article 91 of the constitution of the United States of Colombia expressly recognized the law of nations as the law of the land.

I also illustrated the position of the Government of the United States from the standpoint of public convenience, its necessity for the protection of destitute seamen who would otherwise become a charge upon the authorities at the Colombian ports, and the disadvantages arising to Colombia by trying to adopt a policy different from that of other maritime nations.

The attention of the department is respectfully called to the citation of the law of Colombia on the duty of Colombian consuls in foreign ports, quoted in page 20 of inclosure No. 1.

I am, &c.,