Daniel E. Sickles to Hamilton Fish, March 30, 1873

No. 401. General Sickles to Mr. Fish.

Sir: I have the honor to forward herewith, for your perusal, a translation of an appeal to the nation, published by the executive under date of the 25th instant. The Carlists have lately given a character to their hostilities, which is not too strongly denounced by the government. Repeated instances of cruelty to captives, barbarous acts of violence to non-combatants, from which even women and children are not always exempt, firing on railway trains with their passengers, burning depots, stations, dwellings, and even churches, are among the authenticated reports of outrages committed by the partisans of the pretender. Some of these guerrilla bands are led, and most of them are attended by priests, who incite their adherents to all sorts of crimes by appeals to the religious fanaticism common to the population of the Pyrenees. It seems inevitable, in view of these occurrences, that Spain is again to suffer the scourge of a war of extermination, like that which disgraced modern civilization in the dispute between the eldest daughter of Ferdinand VII and his nephew for the succession to the throne.

It is said that, in deference to repeated remonstrances made by this government, the French authorities have promised to exercise more vigilance on the frontier in preventing the use hitherto made of their territory as a base of operations for the Carlists forces. The headquarters of the Prince have been for some time established in the French Pyrenees. It is supposed that he has about ten thousand men under arms in Spain, and if more equipments are obtained, as is probable from the proceeds of subscriptions made in Paris and London, the strength of the insurgents may be considerably increased.

I am. &c.,