José Maria Autran to the British consul, December 17, 1877

Commandant Autran to the British consul.

To Mr. Consul of Her Britannic Majesty, Doyen of the diplomatic body in this place:

(Aviso Don Jorge Juan.)

Sir: The unjustifiable and violent attempts of which Spain has been the object, on the part of the Haytian Government, at different times, have at length produced the fruits which were to be expected. Those attempts have assumed distinct forms, all of which are most insulting and offensive; and although the Government of His Catholic Majesty, very much occupied with matters of a far different nature and of the highest importance, has not yet bestowed special attention on such a state of things, it considers them now of such magnitude, that they have driven it to demand the reparations which are due to it, and which, if delayed, would cause a deep wound to the dignity of one of the noblest and most valorous nations of the earth.

The conduct pursued by the Haytian Government is inconceivable, and I have the certitude that circumstances would never have arrived at the extreme in which they now are if the Cuban insurrection had not existed. Those separatists of the great Antille who do not find in their breasts sufficient breath to meet the charge of the Spanish bayonets are scattered in the nearest foreign places, with the object of creating at every step international difficulties, and to lend aid to those who have risen in arms. Much injury have they done and continue to do as well to the government which combats them as to their own country to which they owe their existence, and great are the sympathies, likewise inexplicable to me, which they have met with in Jamaica, Nassau, Cayo, Hueso, St. Domingo, Hayti, and other places. But where those sympathies have cast deep roots and caused the perpetration of unheard-of wrongs, has been without dispute in the last-mentioned republic. That state, not knowing to what degree it was bound by its imprescriptible obligations to be very cautious and reserved in the manifestation of such a culpable sentiment, has, nevertheless, trampled on all the rules of propriety and despised the precepts of international right, so that any one of those insults for which I came to demand account is more than sufficient to promote a conflict disagreeable and bloody.

The Haytian Government, imagining that the forebearance and patience of the Spaniard are sure symptoms of weakness or evident demonstrations (proofs) of the want of material resources wherewith to be able to demand reparation, has repeated its acts, shielded, seemingly, behind the apparent indifference of the offended nation. However, it has been deplorably mistaken, and it is more than probable that it will be convinced to its cost that that ostensible and prolonged silence was due to very different causes and motives.

Spain, the faithful depositary and jealous guardian of justice and of right, consequently, with the disposition especially generous of its elevated character, entertains unusual consideration for all other people, and never have her exigencies with any one been intended to humiliate or ridicule; she always succeeds and has succeeded in maintaining herself in her foreign relations at the level of the most absolute equality; and though her pride and susceptibility awake up and break forth easily at the touch of any offense offered by strong and powerful nations, they are very slow in showing themselves when the aggressor is relatively weak and they lack the means to sustain by force their extravagant pretensions.

It may be that the Haytian Government professes principles of national right which are unknown in Spain and in the rest of the world, or does it think it just that its visible material weakness should authorize it to despise the obligatory axioms of the moral nniverse? I know not. The day will come, without doubt, and I hope it with all confidence, for I have sure faith in the real human progress—the day will come when the offenses which one people offers to another will be respected, and they will be solemnly protested against, not only by the representative of the country interested, but also in like manner by all those of other countries. Then would be constituted a moral theory, clearly perceptible, that an insult aimed at any one of them is a threat which is made to the others, who are under the necessity to repel it collectively and vigorously. Nevertheless, so long as that legitimate and more or less distant future of right of nations and of diplomacy is not realized, I see myself compelled to demand, solely from the Haytian Government, full reparation for its irregular proceedings.

And this attitude of mine is not the result of a resolution lightly and inconsiderately taken. It is a necessary consequence of the subject which I have just explained, and which I do not deem inconvenient to place within your reach, inasmuch as it constitutes a debt of conscience, to the end that my country be not accused for the grave events which, at occasion and time still unknown, may take place in this territory, because I am refused by those who are at the front of its destinies the satisfaction they are bound to give. I shall seek that at all times we may in Spain be able to make it appear, and even oblige those who write the pages of history to see that if we are obliged to make use of force, causing grave and irreparable prejudice to individuals of other nations and to the peaceful natives, it has been after exhausting our magnanimity and patience, all the resources of the most measured persuasion and all the helps of words and of writing.

Still, before formulating the precise terms of the reparation which I am in the case to demand in the name of my government, it suits my purpose and before express promise, to inform you of the grave charges to which I have referred, and which are of the following tenor:

• The Haytian Government, which ought not to be ignorant of the independence of its own judicial power, which during the command of General Domingue had condemned to three years of forced labor the insurgent Cuban, D. Manuel Fernandez, which ought to know that the sentences of this power are irrevocable; that a change of chief in the executive power does not authorize them to modify those sentences, legal and solemn, as being the only guarantees of social life; that if the sentences pronounced by this power are obligatory in absolute respect of the territory in which it acts, they are much more so when some interest of the foreigner is in question; that this interest, in the present case, is the dignity of the Spanish nation which peremptorily demands the punishment of a man who, without recognized flag, a proscript, and outlaw, has outraged her (the Spanish nation) in this same territory, and who holds perfect right to what is above the charge, the weight of the law itself—this government at length, which knows all this, but which, according to appearance, is disposed to trample on all, not only despises its own judges and the laws of its own country, but which, by opening new judgment on Fernandez or pretending to annul the past, darts open insult at the Spanish nation which holds the unquestionable obligation to repress it.
• The President, the government, and the Haytian marine, which ought not to be ignorant of the mutual interchange of courtesy to which are bound all civilized people without exception, and which received visits from the captain of the Spanish war steamer Bazan, in August of last year, allowed themselves the insolent liberty of not returning them. This offense to the Spanish flag, and many omissions of respect to our officers, as the result of such attitude, neither require commentaries, nor call for efforts of imagination to show the necessity in which the Spanish Government finds itself to seek redress for them without delay.
• On the 10th and 11th of October also of last year Haytian subjects, and with them some Cubans, insulted the Spanish consulate with the cries “Down with Spain” and “Long live free Cuba” and the authors of such misbehavior have not yet been punished, on the pretext that the acts occurred during the night, and the authors could not be recognized unless the consulate pointed them out. You are perfectly aware that no government whatsoever can require of foreign representatives in any case the duty of pointing out and recognizing natives or others; and in a manner like the present the Spanish consul, in identifying persons in order to denounce them, would be taking the place of the local authorities. Every government has the exclusive mission to guard the inviolability of the foreign domicile, and to make use of the force at its disposal to prevent its being insulted or lowered, and it is absolutely incumbent upon it to punish the promoters of such outrageous and savage felonies.
• The 3d of March last a Mr. Despeaux insulted the Spanish flag hoisted at the consulate, cognizance of which, according to notification of the Haytian Government dated the 2d of April, was taken at the Department of Justice, and there was no result. Neither does this fact call for commentary of any kind.
• In the beginning of July last various stupid disturbers trampled upon (or pulled down) the Spanish Pavilion at the doors of a panorama, and as yet no other satisfaction has been obtained from the Haytian Government than that it was broken (torn) by a saleswoman, having caught in a basket which she was carrying on her head.
• Recently has appeared (has been published) the condemnation to death of the Spanish subject Don José Santisi, which unjust judgment and unusual sentence have been qualified by the Belgian consul, who is acting Spanish consul, as a “judicial murder”; and that means that the Haytian Government, voluntarily relinquishing every sentiment of honor and justice with respect to Spain, pretends to throw down the gauntlet to us in its insane delirium, not knowing assuredly that it will be taken up at fit time and circumstance.

On my arrival at this port I took the utmost care to inform myself of the particulars which have brought me here; and the sad reality has shown me that it is not possible for me to obtain any advantage for my country by the ordinary and current means. The circumstances of a stranger being the bearer of our claims, and the little fruit that as yet they have produced, notwithstanding the good desires and recognized talent they have constantly put in action, which induces me to suspect that to any other Spanish agent (encargado) the same would have happened. The same case has resulted from the official demands of my worthy predecessor, the captain of the Barcaïztegui; the marked bad faith with which the Haytian Government acts since years with the Spanish; the propensity of this same government to make delays to all claims, aiming at weakening the course of diplomacy; the same temper of the superior instructions I have received, and above all that, my own conviction that the supreme moment is come to exercise the last peaceful argument, have placed me in the precise case to throw on my shoulders the responsibility of this business, obliging me to extend and magnify my own personality in the identical proportion in which have increased the difficulties which surround me.

In its virtue, and as satisfaction to the Spanish nation, so deliberately and unjustly hurt, the Haytian Government will give the following satisfaction:

• In any one of the batteries of the forts, or in some vessel of war, the Spanish Pavilion shall be hoisted, which shall be saluted with twenty-one guns, for the effacement of the insults of which I have spoken to you, marked with the numbers 2°, 3°, 4°, and 5°; at the same time the Haytian Government will promise officially to the Dean of the diplomatic corps and to Mr. Consul of Belgium, in charge of the affairs of Spain in this place, that it will effectually seek out and punish the parties to these excesses, if there have been any, especially Mr. Despeaux, who, to the present time, has remained unpunished.
• The government of President Boisrond Canal will also inflict immediately on the insurgent Cuban, D. Manuel Fernandez, the punishment of three years’ forced labor, to which he was sentenced by a competent tribunal and in the full enjoyment of its judicial functions.
• The Haytian Government will hand over to me immediately and without conditions the Spanish subject D. José Santisi, unless that, from what can be proved in the short time which is to be allowed to the said government, his culpability should be fully proved; and, in such case, that no punishment be inflicted on him other than what is established for his offense.

In order that the Haytian Government may have sufficient time to meditate on its future acts, I concede to it a term of seventy-two hours, or, in other words, three days exactly; that term past, and whatsoever shall be the result and decision which the said government may take, I shall quit the port and pass to Santiago de Cuba and give account of my mission to the authorities which have sent me.

I have likewise to make known to you that, in consequence of the want of courtesy shown to the captain of the Bazan, I shall visit only the Dean of the diplomatic corps and the Belgian consul in charge of the affairs of Spain. If any of the authorities or the President himself should desire to have an interview with me, they will necessarily have to come on board to obtain it.

I have endeavored, in executing my difficult task, to adapt myself strictly to the prescriptions of the law of nations, and which I will always follow (celebraré infinito), that the inflexible severity and firmness of which I give and shall continue to give proofs to that end, and which indicates an unchanging purpose to direct it to the last effort of agreement, will meet a sympathetic echo in your heart and intelligence.

I beg of you as briefly as possible to be pleased to acknowledge the receipt of this communication, for which, by anticipation, I beg you, with all enhancement, to receive the distinguished expression of my gratitude and the most affectionate demonstrations of my greatest consideration and esteem.