Hall to Salvador Gallegos, December 24, 1883

Mr. Hall to Mr. Gallegos.

Sir: I have the honor to inform your excellency that my attention has been invited to the new constitution of the Republic of Salvador (published in the Diario Oficial of that capital of the 8th instant), and especially to its provisions relating to foreigners. These provisions are identical in text or tenor with those of the constitution of Guatemala of 1879, which were at the time the subject of protest on the part of my predecessor, Mr. Cornelius A. Logan, who, in view of his instructions, declared to the Guatemalan Government that the provisions referred to affect “the plainest rights of his countrymen, as well as his own faculties and prerogatives as a foreign representative.”

In accordance with the same instructions, I beg leave, most respectfully, to state that wherein the above-named provisions affect the rights of citizens of the United States my Government will require that those rights shall be respected, that their just claims shall be sustained, and that redress shall be demanded in all cases in which diplomatic intervention may be justified by international law.

I have, &c.,