Watson Webb to Joào Silveira de Souza, Councillor to his Imperial Majesty the Emperor, July 1, 1868

Mr. Webb to Senhor Silveira de Souza.

The undersigned, envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary from the United States, begs leave to inform his excellency Joáo Silveira de Souza, councillor to his Imperial Majesty the Emperor, minister and secretary of state for foreign affairs, that he has this day received a communication from Rear-Admiral Charles H. Davis, commanding the United States South Atlantic squadron, informing him that the United States steamer Wasp, sent by him to Asuncion for the purpose of bringing from that city the United States minister, Charles A. Washburn, and family, has been prevented by the commander of the allied forces from going to Asuncion, as her commanding officer was ordered to do, in the performance of a duty to which he was assigned, by command of Admiral Davis, in obedience to instructions from the Secretary of the Navy, based upon an application from the Hon. William H. Seward, the Secretary of State of the United States; and, in consequence of such grave denial of the rights of the United States, the commander of the steamer Wasp, after making repeated applications to pass the lines of the allies engaged in a war against the government of Paraguay, has returned to Montevideo, and reported to the commanding officer of the United States South Atlantic squadron that he has been prevented from executing the duty upon which he was detached by the peremptory refusal of the commander-in-chief of the allied forces, the Marquis de Caxias, to permit him to pass his lines on the Paraguay.

This very extraordinary and most unjustifiable proceeding on the part of Marquis de Caxias, “commander-in-chief of all the Brazilian forces, and, in the interim, of the allied armies,” as he signs himself, is in open defiance of the rights of the United States, and, in view of what transpired between the undersigned and the government of his Imperial Majesty in August, 1886, is an outrage against “the sovereignty and honor of the United States” which calls for prompt and severe censure of the offender.

When, in 1861, the President of Maranhao outraged the feelings of a friendly nation by admitting the pirate Sumter within his port, and furnished her with the necessary coals and provisions wherewith to continue her depredations upon the unarmed and unprotected commerce of the United States, and when the then minister of foreign affairs justified that act of the President of Maranhao, the Secretary of State of the United States said “the proceedings of the President of Maranhao, and the approval of his conduct by the minister of foreign affairs, is intolerable,” and the undersigned was directed to “ask that such measures shall be taken in regard to the case as will make the President of Maranhao sensible of his Majesty’s displeasure.”

The proceedings of the Marquis de Caxias against the “sovereignty and honor of the United States” is far more offensive than was the conduct of the President of Maranhao, because he well knew that in 1866 the United States had formally advised Brazil that she would permit no such violation of her sovereign rights, and that Brazil had thereupon reconsidered and reversed her offensive action. He has therefore acted with full knowledge that he was grossly offending the sovereignty and honor of the United States, and setting at defiance its remonstrances and the recognition of those remonstrances by Brazil.

Rear-Admiral Davis, in his official note to the undersigned, says: “Acting under instructions from the Secretary of the Navy, I recently sent the United States steamer Wasp, of my squadron, to the seat of war, for the purpose of taking Mr. Washburn and family out of Paraguay, in compliance with a request from the Secretary of State to relieve Mr. Washburn from his embarrassing and probably dangerous situation.” This humane purpose on the part of the government of Washington has, your excellency well knows, been thwarted by the representative of Brazil on the Paraguay, he well knowing at the time that he was outraging the “sovereignty and honor of the United States,” and setting at defiance the explicit understanding at which the United States and Brazil had arrived in 1866.

The undersigned therefore feels it his duty to ask such censure of the Marquis de Caxias as, in the name of his government, he demanded when the President of Maranhao offensively placed the piratical vessel of parties in rebellion against the United States on a footing of equality with the national ships of the friendly nation against which they were in rebellion.

That Brazil will promptly and most emphatically repudiate the extraordinary and very unfriendly conduct of the Marquis de Caxias, the undersigned does not for a moment doubt; and as his indefensible interference has already caused a delay of at least four months in relieving the United States minister and his family from what his government consider an “embarrassing” and possibly “dangerous situation,” the undersigned earnestly entreats that the government of Brazil will, without any unnecessary delay, issue instructions that all hindrance to the United States steamer Wasp passing through the lines of the allies be withdrawn, and promptly advise the undersigned that such hindrance has altogether ceased, in order that he may inform the commanding officer of the United States South Atlantic squadron that there will be no further interference by any representative of Brazil with the performance of his duty to humanity and to his government.

The undersigned avails himself of this occasion to renew to his excellency the assurance of his respect and high consideration.