Morgan to José Fernandez, February 7, 1884

Mr. Morgan to Mr. Fernandez.

Sir: I have been instructed by the Department of State at Washington to bring to the consideration of your honor’s Government the case of Capt. George Caleb, of the American schooner Adriana.

Captain Caleb, as the correspondence between this legation and the department for foreign relations shows, was on a voyage with his vessel from San Francisco to La Paz, Lower California. Having reached the Gulf of California, he was, on or about the 1st of January, 1883, arrested by Mexican officials and, with his vessel and crew, taken to La Paz, where they, as well as the vessel itself, were prosecuted for smuggling. The goods which it was said it was the intention of Captain Caleb to smuggle were condemned, as was also his vessel. The crew were discharged and Captain Caleb was condemned by the court at La Paz to live years’ imprisonment. The case was appealed to the court at Culiacan, where the judgment of the lower court was affirmed. He is now in confinement.

My Government has been informed that Captain Caleb has applied to his excellency the President of Mexico for a pardon, and it is with the view of obtaining executive clemency in his behalf that I have been instructed to bring his case again before you.

Captain Caleb is a man advanced in years and infirm. He was ill when he was taken prisoner, and is, I am informed, now in a suffering state of health. So infirm is he that from the day of his arrest, through the humanity of the authorities at La Paz, he was permitted to lodge in a private house, and after his sentence, and when he was sent to the common jail, such was his condition that the authorities removed him thereupon and again allowed him to remain in a private dwelling.

He has a family entirely dependent upon him for support. All the property he had was his interest in the schooner Adriana, and, that vessel having been confiscated, he is now destitute. His ruin is therefore complete, and if the balance of the sentence to which he has been sentenced be remitted, he and his family would be dependent upon his daily labor for his daily bread. Surely this would appear to be punishment enough for so trifling an offense as he was found guilty of.

But it is not probable that he will survive his imprisonment. He has been in confinement now for more than a year. Assuming him to be guilty of the offense which he is charged with having committed, my Government is induced to believe that the ends of justice will have been sufficiently met by the punishment he has already borne, and that by the exercise of his prerogative in the case his excellency the President of Mexico will afford a strong proof of his friendship to the Government of the United States and at the same time be guilty of no measure of injustice to the Government of Mexico.

There are circumstances connected with this case which would seem to insure the favorable consideration of his excellency the President to the application of Captain Caleb for pardon, which I have been instructed to join in. When the Adriana was first boarded by Mexican officials she was lying at anchor, and there was nothing to indicate that she had been engaged in an illicit trade.

It was after the Mexican officers had left her that they discovered a small vessel heading for the coast. They intercepted her and found on her a trifling amount of merchandise which her crew said had been transshipped from the Adriana. This vessel was seized and conveyed to where the Adriana was anchored, and both vessels, with their crews, were taken in custody to La Paz. Both vessels were prosecuted and both were condemned. But only Captain Caleb and the crew of the Adriana were prosecuted.

The crew of the Mexican vessel, whose guilt was certainly equal to that of Captain Caleb, have never been punished.

Considering all the circumstances of the case, I hope that his excellency the President will find it in his power to comply with the appeal of my Government in support of the petition which this aged, infirm, and unfortunate man has made for a remission of the punishment which he has been subjected to.

I renew, &c.,