Señor Licenciado Don A. H. Rivas to To the, February 20, 1875

Mr. Rivas to Mr. Jimenez.

Sir: I have had the honor to receive the esteemed dispatch of your excellency of the 27th of January last, replying to mine of the 2d of the same month, in which I repeat the reclamation stated in a dispatch of the 12th of November last, in reference to the violation of territory and sovereign rights of Nicaragua done by the forces of that republic.

In that dispatch your excellency styles the acts inaccurate, and the estimates erroneons and even offensive; which my government repels with all the energy that a consciousness of its honor gives it. But that I may abstain from refuting this point by point, as such a discussion is entirely foreign to the object my government has in view—which is to try to bring to a good termination the differences aroused between our respective countries, and this would not produce any other result than to aggravate the questions by a sharp and interminable correspondence—I will confine myself, then, to the two essential points that your excellency indicates as a means of arriving at a solution that is desired, and in which the two governments seem to coincide in the general principle. I refer to the idea of submitting to an arbitration the question of the validity or instability of the treaty of boundaries, and to forming a mixed commission to decide upon certain points of the matter pertaining to the last events.

My government, which, since the 6th of August, 1872, proposed to that cabinet that it should submit the principal question to the arbitration of a nation friendly to both countries, as the means established by the treaty in force and approved by civilization and the true interests of the two people, now gladly accepts what your excellency’s government proposes, but accepts it without the limitation that that government has believed it ought to place in respect to its competency, and with the condition that that arbitration may take cognizance of all the questions that have originated from the uncertainty of our boundaries, and all the complaints and grievances that our respective governments may have the one with the other.

My government expects to have the satisfaction of being able to prove before the arbitration that, in respect to the question of boundaries, its principal object has been to assure to Nicaragua her essential rights, avoiding the possibility of impeding the development of her commerce and industry, and in no manner depriving Costa Rica of any of those advantages that can contribute to her progress without injury to Nicaragua, since my government believes that the prosperity and aggrandizement of her neighbors is the prosperity and aggrandizement of herself; and as to the other questions, she has no other object than to sustain the rights and dignity of the republic, and to provide for the security, the peace, and well-being of the inhabitants.

In respect to the mixed commission, my government does not admit the extension that that of your excellency wishes to give to the powers that may be conferred upon it.

For this it has reasons that refer to the material of the commission, and to the objects that ought to be intrusted to it. Besides the establishing of the boundaries, although it should be done provisionally, would give for a result a source of new complications in the troublesome question pending; the delays that the choice of a suitable commissioner and the clearing up of this complicated affair would produce would postpone the object of my government, which is to terminate quickly the arrangement of the last unfortunate incident occurring in respect to the deplorable affairs of Punta Arenas and Liberia.

For the rest, as it is necessary to proceed as soon as possible, in fulfillment of an international duty, to the arbitration proposed and accepted by both parties, and that arbitration having to understand in all things the reclamations of my government, from the acts that gave rise to the treaty of alliance with the Republics of Guatemala and Salvador until those that caused the last reclamation in reference to the recent revolutionary movements in that republic, my government believes that the idea of that commission, that proposes to arrange one of these questions, is no longer of any use.

My government, in insisting that all the questions of every character be submitted to the arbitration established by the existing treaty, is animated by a desire to put an end at once and forever to the causes of difference that have arisen and can arise in the future relations of two people, destined to advance united and to strive for the highest degree of prosperity, and which questions have served to delay their mutual development. If, as your excellency declares, your government is animated by these sentiments, we can congratulate ourselves that these fatal discords, which have been so unfavorable to the well-being of both republics, will be soon terminated.

May your excellency be pleased to bring this to the notice of your government, and accept the distinguished consideration with which I subscribe myself, your attentive servant,