Prudencio de la Cruz Valdez Alvarez to Henry Trescot, April 26, 1882
Señor Alvarez to Mr. Trescot
Sir:The mission which your excellency has come to fulfill near the Government of Peru is another proof of the repeated efforts of your excellency’s government to bring about peace between the belligerent republics on the Pacific; but up to now these efforts have only met with two impediments, which cannot be considered insuperable to a peaceful mind. The first is found in conditions which Chili proposes to impose— conditions which I need not define with particularity, since the government of your excellency has viewed them as inacceptable as a starting point in its good offices. The second is the resistance that Chili makes to all previous discussion. The purpose is clearly not to allow a discussion, and this determination, which is not reasonable, nor according to the usual practice of modern nations, shuts the door to every way to an arrangement.
Peru wishes peace and is ready to make for that purpose, in concert with its ally, the Republic of Bolivia, any sacrifice that will not compromise the future which both have had the right to expect since they entered the list of independent republics. But it is impossible to know either the nature of these sacrifices or how far they may go without a reasonable debate that would carry conviction to the mind. It is not impossible, on the other hand, that Chili itself may become persuaded of the convenience and necessity of modifying its pretension to some acceptable terms, and it would appear incompatible with the rules of human prudence for Chili itself to place, with unnecessary persistence, obstacles in the path of its own interests.
The inconveniences that appear to have been alleged by Chili at one time against entering into conferences with Bolivia and Peru were on account of the internal dissensions of the latter; but your excellency is a witness that they do not exist and that there is only one government recognized without exception from one end of the country to the other; that this government is the emanation of a constitutional congress, and that all factions have yielded to its authority.
It would not be possible to explain in truth how a government recognized by the government of your excellency, before which your excellency is discharging your mission, and which is the only one in the country, should not be considered by the Government of Chili as the Government of Peru with which to discuss the points of an arrangement. The Government of Chili can do no less than abandon this idea, because by the force of things it has to come to an understanding with some political entity that may represent Peru, and this cannot be any other than the legal government recognized by all the nation.
In such a case, the provisional government being a constitutional government and being bound by a treaty to the constitutional government of Bolivia, it should proceed with its approval in all its resolutions. Therefore the road to peace might be shortened and facilitated if both governments could get together, and Peru arrange the best means of assembling Congress, without whose approval any arrangement is impossible.
As your excellency’s mission is one of peace, I deem it proper to make you the present suggestions, that tend to level the first difficulties which come in the way, and thus to show the sincere wish that my government entertains of reaching it.
With sentiments, &c.,