Judson Kilpatrick to William H. Seward, May 1, 1867

Mr. Kilpatrick to Mr. Seward

Sir: I have the honor to forward you by this mail the long-delayed reply (A) of the government of Chili to the generous offer on your part of the good offices of the government of the United States in arranging for Spain and the ablied republics an honorable adjustment of their present difficulties. I can only say that I most deeply regret that the kind offer has not been more frankly and less conditionally accepted. You are already well informed of the efforts I have made from time to time, as opportunity offered, to bring to an end a state of war so detrimental to our sister republics and the commercial world. How nearly successful were the mutual efforts of Commodore Rodgers and myself to arrange terms of peace before the bombardment of Valparaiso is well known at the State Department. How we labored to prevent that bombardment, and through whose fault we failed, is equally known; and I need only to add that your instructions, accompanying your kind letter approving of my conduct after that sad affair, to let no opportunity pass to renew my efforts for a peaceful adjustment, have been most earnestly carried out. Everything has been done, both by official communications and personal interviews with the cabinet at Santiago, consistent with dignity and respect for my government, to induce an acceptance of your proposition, so fair and honorable alike for Spain and the allied republics. As I understand the communication of Mr. Covarrubias, it is equivalent to a rejection of the proposed conference altogether; for, after his lengthy remarks upon the character of the conference, he gives it as his firm opinion that it will end in arbitration pure and simple; and after his decided expression of want of faith that the conference will result happily for those interested, he adds:

Although the republic of Chili has always been partial to this method of solution, [meaning arbitration,] it believes it would not be able to accept it without certain reservations.

An examination of these reservations will, I think, convince you that the conference can never be had. While Spain accepts the conference with the condition that she must know what questions are to be settled by arbitration, should arbitration be necessary, Chili accepts the conference with the condition that certain important points shall be admited by Spain. First, “that the bombardment of Valparaiso was an act of inexcusable hostility, and merits the most severe reprobation.” Second, that Chili must be allowed to explain in a precise manner the different situations which the contending parties in the present war occupy, namely:

That there is only one aggressor, which is Spain, and four injured parties, Chili, Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador—the first two in a manner direct, and the last two indirectly. Whatever might have been the motives of complaint which the Spanish government had against those of Chili and Peru, it is an evident and incontrovertible fact that to make them of value she did not begin by exhausting the pacific means of diplomacy, nor did she respect the laws of international right; and that the occupation of the Chinchas on the 14th of April, 1864, and the blockade of the port of Valparaiso on the 25th of September, 1865, were acts of unnecessary hostility, irregular in their form and unjust in their motives.

This explanation is to be made for the information of the state chosen as arbitrator, and Spain must accept it. In the third place, the question of the rendition of the Covadonga shall not be entertained in the arbitration; and finally, as a last condition, Chili and her allies will not renounce the reparations which they claim their enemy owes them, nor the right of fixing by themselves the kind and magnitude of those reparations.

These conditions will, I am certain, prevent a consummation of the honorable efforts made by you and your representative here, and he must be compelled to look helplessly on while this useless, half-waged war continues; a war which, although inoffensive in its character, influences with all its ruinous effects the commercial interests of the belligerents and unoffending neutrals.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,