Letter

Heap to General Keredine, February 20, 1874

Author

Heap

Recipient

General Keredine

Date

February 20, 1874

Type

Letter

Language

English

[Inclosure 1 in No. 167.]

Mr. Heap to General Keredine.

Consulate of the United States, Tunis, February 20, 1874.

Excellency: It is my duty to bring to your excellency’s knowledge that I am informed that the prisoners, four in number, who were sentenced in June last to various degrees of imprisonment for the assassination of Mohammed Sennen, a dragoman of the consular agency of the United States at Bizerta, are at large.

If my information is correct, I would respectfully ask your excellency to let me know the reasons that have caused His Highness to release these criminals.

I was officially informed on the 1st of June, 1873, by Mr. Conti on the part of His Highness, and so communicated to my Government, that the four men accused of the murder had been tried by His Highness in person and found guilty, and that one was sentenced to the galleys for life, with hard labor, in chains, and the other to imprisonment for life. It is, therefore, a matter of very natural surprise to learn that these men, after an incarceration of a few months, have been set at liberty.

The lively solicitude my Government has already exhibited to obtain reparation for the murder of an officer attached to a consular agency of the United States, will, I hope, convince your excellency that they will receive the news of the release of these criminals with the greatest concern.

I avail, &c.,

G. H. HEAP.

Topics

19th Century Diplomacy Reconstruction

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.