José Antonio Saraiva to William V. V. Lidgerwood, July 17, 1866
Senhor Saraiva to Mr. Lidgerwood.
The undersigned, councillor to his Majesty the Emperor, and his minister and secretary of state for foreign affairs, received a note which, under date of the 7th instant, Mr. William Van Vleck Lidgerwood, Chargé d’affaires of the United States of America, addressed to him.
In that note Mr. Lidgerwood asks for an explanation of a fact which, to his government, appears to be wanting in respect towards the United States, and incompatible with the international laws.
Mr. Washburn, the American minister at Asuncion, has been detained or delayed at the city of Corrientes, or in its vicinity, by the allied forces at present at war with Paraguay, and impeded in his passing onward to his post of duty.
The undersigned conveyed Mr. Lidgerwood’s note to the notice of the imperial government, and at the present moment has the honor of replying to it.
Brazil is not the only one concerned in the affair at present under consideration. Notwithstanding, the government of his Majesty does not hesitate to express its opinion on the subject at once, giving thus to the United States a proof of the amicable sentiments which actuate it, and of the sincerity with which it desires to remove all cause of misunderstanding.
Without doubt Mr. Lidgerwood is cognizant of a note which his excellency Don Bartolome Mitre, President of the Argentine Republic, and general-in-chief of the allied armies, addressed to Mr. Washburn, under date of the 9th of April of the current year. In that note are resumed all the principal circumstances of the fact under contemplation, and both of the phases which it presents discriminated.
That objections were made to the transit of Mr. Washburn to Asuncion is true, but it is also true that in February he would have met with every facility he could have desired on his way to that city, but notable events transpired between those two dates which rendered the renewing of a permit to pass onward impossible. True, those events did not happen nor depend upon the volition of Mr. Washburn, nor are the allied generals responsible for their occurring. Mr. Washburn was so very much delayed in his passage from Buenos Ayres to Corrientes that he did not arrive at the latter point while there was yet but a simple though effective blockade, even supposing that he could have passed onward to his mission at that time.
In April the squadron was already in front of the Paraguayan positions, and on the eve of commencing decisive operations. The objections made by the allied generals were imperatively based upon this change in the movements and progress of the war towards its termination.
Such are the heads of this question, and the undersigned believes that the explanation sought by Mr. Lidgerwood will be found by their perusal.
The government of his Majesty the Emperor is obliged, unavoidably, to differ from the United States as to the manner of application to this case of the international laws. It holds that from the right to make war upon its enemy, and to effectively blockade his waters, arises the right to impede the transit even of the diplomatic agent of a neutral power. The exercise of that faculty may, it is true, temporarily embarrass interests foreign to the war, but the importance of those of this war are such that sound reason will give to them the preference. The harm which, to the belligerents, would supervene from the mere satisfaction of its friendly feelings is much greater than that which would happen to neutrals were a contrary course pursued.
The right to oppose the passing of its line of operations, be they decisive, or only a simple blockade being established, (and the imperial government is assured that it has that right,) it follows that from the exercise of that right no intent to offend can be inferred to the United States, nor does it offend them. The temporary hindrance to Mr. Washburn is the effect of the imperative exigences of a war to which Brazil, the Argentine, and Oriental Republics of Uruguay have been most unjustly provoked, together with all the enormous sacrifices it is costing them.
The government of his Majesty the Emperor deplores, and undoubtedly its allies sympathize with it in that regret, that even with such well-founded reasons for so acting, it has not been expedient for them to allow the ingress to the enemy’s territory of the representative of a neutral power, to whom they are attached by the closest bonds of friendship and sympathy.
The undersigned is assured that by this sincere declaration, which, without question, will be accepted in the same spirit in which it is offered, he has said all that he could to satisfy the desire manifested by Mr. Lidgerwood, in the name and by order of his government; adding, furthermore, that the allied generals will unquestionably take advantage of the first opportunity that may occur in the various events of war to pass Mr. Washburn on to his post.
The undersigned avails himself of this opportunity of assuring Mr. Lidgerwood of his very distinguished consideration.