Richard Cutts Shannon to To his excellency the councilor Dr. Manoel Francisco Correia, October 23, 1872

No. 28. Mr. Shannon to Mr. Fish.

Sir: Notwithstanding the rumors very generally entertained to the contrary, and to which I referred in my No. 79, it now seems more than probable that the special mission of General Mitre, Argentine envoy to this court, will have an early and successful issue. In this connection, I have the honor to call your attention to the accompanying notes (to which I have added, for convenience’ sake, marginal translations) recently exchanged between the Brazilian minister of foreign affairs and the Argentine minister of foreign affairs and General Mitre. (Appendix A.) These notes were published simultaneously here and in Buenos Ayres about a fortnight since.

It will be observed, by an examination of the dates, that General Mitre, up to the beginning of the present month, has occupied himself exclusively with the task of removing, so far as it was possible for him to do so, the bad impression which had been created here by the extraordinary tone of the celebrated Tejedor note of the 27th of April last, and of which Mr. Partridge gave an account in his No. 59. The first note of the series from the Argentine minister of foreign affairs, to the Brazilian minister of foreign affairs, dated September 25, 1872, is the apology for that extraordinary tone: and, together with the response of the Brazilian minister of foreign affairs, (second of the series,) closes this branch of the subject.

In the third of the series, dated October 3, 1872, General Mitre gives a succinct account of his mission from date of his arrival at Rio de Janeiro, on the 6th of July last, to date of writing; congratulates himself upon the satisfactory solution of the “question of form;” and concludes by stating that he shall henceforward occupy himself with the chief object of his mission, requesting, at the same time, that a plenipotentiary may be designated with whom he can negotiate. This “chief object” he also declares to be, “treating fully all pending questions until a perfect agreement is reached.” The Brazilian minister of foreign affairs, in the second of the series of notes, had already defined it to be the most perfect understanding or best agreement between the two governments upon the rights and obligations of the treaty of alliance of the 1st of May, 1865.”

In the fourth of the series, dated October 9, 1872, the Brazilian minister of foreign affairs, responding to General Mitre, designates the Viscount of Sáo Vicénte as the Brazilian plenipotentiary to negotiate with General Mitre.

The basis and point of departure of this negotiation, we are told, is to be the agreement arranged between Baron de Cotegipe and the Argentine minister of foreign affairs, and drawn up by the former. Appendix B to this dispatch, being the translation of an extract from the letter of Baron de Cotegipe, addressed to the Brazilian minister of foreign affairs on the 25th of June last, and giving an account of his negotiations at Assumption and Buenos Ayres, will show exactly what that “agreement” was.

In conclusion, it may be well to state that assurances have been given me by members of the Argentine legation that they confidently expect to complete the work of their mission so as to leave here some time during the month of December next.

I am, &c.,

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The terms of the conciliatory agreement, written hy me, read and approved by Dr. Tejedor, were these:

“That Brazil should declare, in reply to the note of the Argentine Republic, that it acknowledged the obligations of the treaty of alliance and is disposed to give the guarantees which it offers. This done, the Argentine government will send a negotiator to Paraguay, who afterward should go to Brazil to reduce to protocol the declarations of the note. These declarations made, there is no objection to the ratification of the treaties.”

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