José Ma Castro to John A. Logan, July 28, 1881

Mr. Castro to Mr. Logan.

Sir: I have received the note, dated June 23, ultimo, which your honor was pleased to remit me, because of having seen in a periodical of Central America the reproduction of the treaty celebrated the 25th of December last, between Costa Rica and Colombia, and by which the high contracting parties submit to arbitration the question of boundaries pending between the two mentioned countries.

Your honor addresses me in an unofficial manner, on account of not having any official notice that the said treaty was ratified by the Government of Costa Rica, and that it had been sent to Colombia to receive like authorization; and that you must believe—these are the exact words of your note [Mr. Logan said, “I am led to believe,” which the translator has rendered “debosuponer”]—that it is not yet “definitely approved,” because the government of your honor has received no notification of the fact.

Being aware, nevertheless, of the impression produced on the mind of your government by the information you have furnished it, your honor enters, in the note to which I am replying, into considerations of a grave character concerning the form in which the treaty was celebrated, and its possible consequences, arriving at the extreme of assuring me that “the United States of America will not consider themselves as obliged, where their rights, duties, and interests are concerned, by the decision of any arbitrator in whose nomination they have not been consulted, and in whose election they have not taken part,” and your honor invokes for the justification of such a surprising assertion the existence of a treaty in which, as you assure me, the United States of America and the United States of Colombia were bound in the year 1846.

Your honor accompanies your observations with expressive protestations of the friendship which happily unites our governments, reminds me of the cordiality of your personal sentiments towards myself, and terminates, asserting that you proceed with the knowledge but without instructions from the Government of the United States of America, in the communication which you make me.

Permit me to observe that the celebration of the treaty of 1846, to which your honor’s note refers, was not notified to the Government of Costa Rica, neither before nor after the said treaty received “the final ratification;” but with regard to the apreciaciones (untranslatable) which spring from that antecedent, and to the reply made necessary to the various points touched upon by your honor, I am obliged to delay them until the instructions being received, which I have no doubt the Cabinet of Washington will transmit you concerning this interesting affair, the words of your honor may have official signification, the only one with which I am permitted to submit them to the examination of his excellency designated for the exercise of the executive power, that he may instruct me concerning the answer which they merit.

With regard to the instructions which your honor will receive, I am flattered by the hope that they will be inspired by that noble spirit of respect for the liberty, sovereignty, and independence of other peoples, and to the immovable principles of justice, which keep the government of your honor so highly recommended to the estimation of the enlightened world, and to the favorable judgment of history.

I conclude, renewing to your honor the assurances of my esteem, and of my very distinguished consideration.