Julius White to Hamilton Fish, June 8, 1873

No. 10. Mr. White to Mr. Fish.

Sir: I respectfully transmit herewith a copy of the message of President Sarmiento to the Congress of this republic at the opening of its present session, and have marked such passages as are deemed noteworthy as showing the advancement of this people in modern civilization.

While commentary upon any of the subjects thus designated may be unnecessary, I trust it will not be deemed improper to call the special attention of the Department to the following paragraph of the message:

A discussion is pending with Chili upon the Straits of Magellan, and a recent circumstance which might have endangered a peaceable solution of the question was amicably disposed of the very moment it assumed a disagreeable character. Whatever importance may be given to this subject, the governments of Chili and of this Republic, in prevision of any serious difficulty, have established by treaty that the question of boundaries should be submitted to arbitration in the event of a failure by diplomatic means. This honorable method of settling international disputes was adopted only a short time ago by two of the most powerful nations of the earth, and should, be imitated, as it was applauded, by all others.

This seems to furnish a striking proof of the wisdom which dictated the establishment of the principle that war, with its long train of concomitant evils, may be honorably avoided in most, if not all cases, by reference of disputed questions between nations to the award of disinterested parties. The history of the Spanish-American states exhibits among their peoples a keen sensitiveness upon all questions affecting their national honor, or the integrity of their territory, and a strongly marked tendency to belligerency as the proper method of settling them. The prompt adoption of the precedent established by Great Britain and the United States, by people with such tendencies, is, to say the least, a gratifying evidence of the progress of anti-war sentiment, and warrants the hope that this, or similar methods of adjusting differences between civilized nations, may become general.

The realization of this hope would constitute at once an era in the history of civilization, and one of the most glorious pages in that of the great nations by whose agency it was accomplished.

I have, &c.,