Fernando Calderon Y Callantes to Caleb Cushing, April 21, 1876

Mr. Calderon y Collantes to Mr. Cushing.

Excellency: Sir: I have the honor to inform your excellency that, in virtue of the communication which I passed to the ministry of war, and of which I transmitted to your excellency literal copy, claiming the immediate fulfillment of the convention with the Government so worthily represented by your excellency at this court, contained in the protocol signed at Washington on the 29th day of November, 1873, concerning the judicial proceedings against those who may prove to be culpable for the consequences to which the seizure of the Virginius gave rise, the supreme council of war, to which the señor minister of that department passed my above-mentioned communication, has declared itself competent to have cognizance of the cause.

In initiation thereof, and in consideration of its importance, it has appointed as fiscal in the cause the robed minister of the same supreme council, Don Carlos Apolinario Fernandez de Souza, and as secretary, him who already is secretary of that high body, Brigadier Don Francisco Aguirre.

With this, remains fulfilled on the part of the government of His Majesty the obligation which was contracted toward the Government of the United States by the aforesaid protocol of November, 1873. The rest remains exclusively in the charge of the supreme council, which is the most elevated body in its department in our country, and which, as a tribunal of justice, will proceed according to its usages, and with absolute independence of the executive power, in the pursuance of the principle universally recognized in countries governed by liberal institutions.

In the midst of the pain caused to me by the memory of the acts which gave origin to the before-mentioned protocol, it is a source of satisfaction to me that it is the government of which I have the honor to form part which gives due fulfillment thereto as a proof of the honorability and loyalty wherewith it endeavors to fulfill, and will fulfill, all obligations contracted.

I avail myself of this occasion to reiterate to your excellency the assurances of my most distinguished consideration.