ments are equally animated by similar sentiments of equity and justice, they will certainly not fail to attain the end which they have in view, to the advantage of the sacred interests with which they are intrusted. Palpable proof of this is the understanding which was reached in the friendly conference which occurred on the 28th of December between the representatives of the United States and the minister of state of His Catholic Majesty. If this understanding takes a practical form, the presentation to the American Congress of a bill, referring to the liquidation and payment of the Spanish claims, would have to be simultaneous with the presentation in the Spanish Chamber of another bill providing for the payment of the Mora claim. That is to say, that these two bills, although presented separately, have to be developed in parallel lines, according to the happy and fitting expression of the worthy representative of the Union, Mr. Taylor. The Government of His Majesty ratifies the declarations already made to examine with all care the project of a treaty to settle the Spanish claims, which the Government of the United States is about to send. MADRID, February 26, 1894. S. MORET. No. 140.] Mr. Taylor to Mr. Gresham. [Extract.] LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, Madrid, March 8, 1891. (Received March 26.) SIR: In my No. 135, of the 2d instant, I informed you of the promise of the minister of state to summon me in a few days for the discussion of the proposed convention. Yesterday I received a personal note, a copy of which I inclose with translation, in which he requests a delay until the termination of the pending cabinet crisis. It seems to be certain that the present cabinet will be reorganized in a very few days, after the withdrawal of several members. As soon as the reorganization is effected I will press the convention for discussion. In the meantime it is useless to attempt anything. I am, etc., [Inclosure in No. 140.-Translation.] Señor S. Moret to Mr. Taylor. HANNIS TAYLOR. MARCH 6, 1894. MY DISTINGUISHED FRIEND: I have to apologize to you, and I hope you will excuse me for not having you summoned yesterday (Monday) as I had promised you. I have been prevented, on one side, by the urgent character of the Morocco affairs, and on the other, by the possibility of a cabinet crisis, which may occur at any moment, and which would render useless the work which we are about to commence. I believe that this important question will be decided very soon, and I hope that you will agree with me, that in the situation in which the Government finds itself, it is prudent and even necessary for me to await the result before entering upon the discussion of such an important matter as that which we have pending. I remain, etc., S. MORET. No. 143.] Mr. Taylor to Mr. Gresham. LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, Madrid, March 16, 1894. (Received March 30.) SIR: I have the honor to report that yesterday I received a note from the minister of state, informing me that he would be ready to receive me at 4 o'clock. At the appointed time I met him in the ministry of state and read to him your dispatch No. 95, of the 14th ultimo, touching the proposed convention for the settlement of claims. As he desired a copy of what I read to him, I left with him a copy according to your instructions. I also presented to him a copy of the draft of the proposed convention, together with a copy of the draft of a proposed clause to be added to article 1. The minister expressed the very greatest pleasure at the receipt of the documents, and he assured me that they should receive his immediate personal attention, and that at an early day he would submit them to his colleagues of the cabinet. I am, etc., HANNIS TAYLOR. Mr. Gresham to Mr. Taylor. [Telegram.] DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Mr. Gresham after reviewing the statements contained in the note of the Spanish minister of state, submitted in dispatch No. 37, declares that the agreement was unconditional, and that all departments of the Spanish Government were bound by it; to say that one of those departments does not recognize the binding force of the obligation is no answer to the instructions sent to Mr. Taylor. Mr. Taylor to Mr. Gresham. [Telegram.] LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, Madrid, March 21, 1894. Mr. Taylor reports that he has communicated to the minister of state in a note, copy of which has been mailed, the contents of Mr. Gresham's telegram, to emphasize what he had already said to him after the receipt of his (the minister of state's) answer to instruction No. 16 when he read to him instruction No. 95, as restating the Department's position denying the contention that the promise to pay the Mora claim was subject to implied condition of appropriation by the Cortes. No. 147.] Mr. Taylor to Mr. Gresham. [Extract.] LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, Madrid, March 22, 1894. (Received April 2.) SIR: Yesterday I had the honor to receive your cipher telegram concerning the Mora memorandum. I immediately addressed a note to the minister of the state, a copy of which is inclosed herein. # I then sent you a telegram. The two documents last named will explain to you my action after the receipt of the minister of state's memorandum of the 26th ultimo in reply to your No. 16 of the 14th of July last. A day or two after the receipt of the memorandum I received your No. 95 of the 14th ultimo, in which you saw fit to approve the four propositions in which I had restated your conclusions. Thus armed with your approval I thought it far wiser to simply read to the minister your No. 95 in answer to his memorandum, rather than to enter into a fresh discussion of its contents, prior to your perusal of it. As soon, however, as your telegram was received, I at once embodied its contents in the note which I inclose, and sent the same to the minister in order to emphasize what I had said already. In that way, I think your views upon the vital question have now received all the emphasis which language can give them. I am, etc., HANNIS TAYLOR. [Inclosure in No. 147.] Mr. Taylor to Señor Moret. LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES. EXCELLENCY: I duly transmitted to Washington the memorandum of the 26th ultimo, which I had the honor to receive from you as your formal answer to the note of 14th of July last from the Secretary of State, defining the position of the Government of the United States as to the payment of the Mora claim. You will remember that in our last interview of the 15th instant, I first read to you, and then, at your request, delivered to you-as a rejoinder to your memorandum-a copy of the dispatch addressed to me by the Secretary of State on the 14th ultimo. In that dispatch the four propositions carefully defining the position of my Government as to the payment of the Mora claim, previously submitted by me to you, are expressly approved. The reading of the third proposition-"that my Government will not consent that payment shall depend upon the willingness of the Cortes to make the appropriation"-was intended as a succinct yet emphatic reiteration of its original position in answer to your contention that the unqualified promise to pay the Mora claim, made by your Government in your note of November 29, 1886, was subject to the implied condition that the Cortes would make the appropriation. In order that no possible ambiguity shall exist upon that point, my Government, since the receipt of your memorandum of the 26th ultimo, has sent me the following telegram: "Your dispatch transmitting the answer of the minister of state (February 26, 1894) to my note (No. 16, of the 14th of July, 1893) received. The minister says Spain's agreement to pay the Mora claim was conditional; that the consent of the Cortes was implied; that its refusal to appropriate money necessitated a new agreement; and that the Cortes will make an appropriation to pay the claim, provided such payment coincides with the payment of Spanish claims against the United States. It is no answer to my instruction to you to say that one department of the Spanish Government does not recognize the force of an obligation binding equally upon all." I transmit to you at once the substance of this telegram in order to give additional emphasis to the statements contained in the Secretary of State's note of the 14th ultimo, which I first read and then delivered to you on the 15th instant in reply to your memorandum of the 26th ultimo. I hope you will understand that while my Government has submitted to you, in accordance with your request, the draft of a treaty looking to the adjudication of Spanish claims against the United States, it has done so in a formal note which denies, with all possible emphasis, your contention that the positive agreement to pay the Mora claim, made by the Government of Spain on the 29th day of November, 1886, was made subject to the implied condition that the Cortes would make the appropriation. I seize, ctc., HANNIS TAYLOR. No. 149.] Mr. Taylor to Mr. Gresham. [Extract.] LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, Madrid, March 29, 1894. (Received April 9.) SIR: In my No. 147 of the 22d instant, I inclosed to you a copy of my note to the minister of state concerning the Mora claim, written after the receipt of your last cipher telegram on that subject. I have to-day received the minister's reply to my note, a copy of which I inclose herein with translation. You will observe that the reply closes with the following statement: When on this point all ambiguity shall have disappeared-which I can not understand, as the question is one of public law-the negotiation will be proceeded with in the loyal and friendly manner in which your excellency and I have arranged to conduct it. I take this to be a plain intimation that no further advance can be made in the way of friendly negotiation until some common understanding is reached as to the abstract question of constitutional law in which we have become involved. I am, etc., [Inclosure in No. 149.-Translation.] Señor Moret to Mr. Taylor. HANNIS TAYLOR. MINISTRY OF STATE, MY DEAR SIR: On my return to Madrid I find the note of your excellency, under date of the 21st of this month, in which yon are so kind as to communicate to me an abstract of a telegram recently received by you from Washington. The importance of the question which your excellency lays before me, accentuated by the telegram referred to, obliges me to reply immediately with the same purpose as that which animates your excellency, namely, that all doubt or uncertainty in regard to the obligations contracted by the Spanish Government may disappear. The loyalty with which the Government of His Majesty is proceeding in these questions demands that the attitude to one another of the two Governments should be clearly defined, so that any difficulties that may subsequently arise in the course of the negotiations may not be attributed to a want of clearness. It is, therefore, incumbent upon me, once and for all, to make it quite clear that the Spanish Government has not in the past, and can not in the future enter upon any obligation which would imply the payment of moneys of any kind, without first having obtained the consent of the Cortes. This is not a matter which admits of discussion or one in anyway dependent upon the will of particular governments. It is a logical sequence of the Constitution, the foundation of the law of the country, and this being known to the Government of the United States as well as to all other governments which entertain relations with Spain, it will be unnecessary to enter into further demonstration of our commentaries on the subject. It would be furthermore quite useless to enter upon further exposition of the question, because should any government or any minister contract such an obligation, it would prove null and void of itself, as having been assumed by one who possessed no such full powers. Such most certainly was not the case in former years, when the minister of the colonies, and consequently through him the Government, was able to decree by himself the payment of such sums as were to be charged against the treasury of Cuba and of Puerto Rico. But since this legislation was modified, as I had occasion to call your attention to in my note of February 26, no payment can be made without the express consent of the Chambers. For this reason, special attention was called to the matter and on this account doubtless Mr. Curry signed, when the negotiations in regard to the payment of the claim of Antonio Maximo Mora was concluded. The recognition of which was pushed by the Government of the United States with such perseverance, well assured that without this condition the obligation assumed by the Minister of State could not be realized by the only means at the disposition of the Government. This point being unquestionable, it can not be disputed, as a natural consequence, that Parliament is at perfect liberty to approve or disapprove of the conduct of the Government. There is no want of argument to prove this and the less in a discussion with the Government of the Republic of the United States, ruled by a constitution the strict interpretation of which regulates and directs the course of national politics. Still it is not idle to repeat that the stipulation-most formal and most solemn of those that are negotiated between the governments, that is, treaties of commerce-can not be ratified without the approval of Parliament, whose full power to accept or refuse them no one as yet has ever placed in doubt. It is very important to have this point completely cleared up, so that all misunderstanding may disappear and the Government of the United States see that just as it would be impossible for it to decree the recognition of the Spanish claims without the concurrence of the Senate, so it is that the Spanish ministers are not invested with the power to pay the Mora indemnity or any other indemnity without an express vote of the Cortes. When on this point all ambiguity shall have disappeared, which I can not understand, as the question is one of public law, the negotiation will be proceeded with in the loyal and friendly manner in which your excellency and I have arranged to conduct it. I avail myself, etc., S. MORET. No. 134.] Mr. Gresham to Mr. Taylor. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, SIR: I have to acknowledge the receipt of your Nos. 135, 137, 140, 147, and 149, as well as your telegram of 21st March, all in reference to the Mora case. I now desire to make some observations upon Mr. Moret's communications of February 26 and March 27, copies of which were received with your Nos. 137 and 149, respectively. Mr. Moret says that the Department's instruction to you of July 14 last contains statements which, although they have been verbally rectified," he deems important to answer in writing. This Department knows nothing of any verbal rectification of any of the statements contained in that instruction in Mr. Moret's verbal interview with you on this subject, as reported by you to the Department, there was no denial of those statements, but rather an implied admission of their correctness, coupled with a request that you should suggest some means of extrication from the dilemma in which he found himself placed between the undeniable facts and his own explicit promises on the one hand and the hostile disposition of the Cortes on the other. The answer of Mr. Moret conveys to this Department the first intimation that the Spanish Government controverted any of the statements contained in the instruction of July 14. Mr. Moret asserts that The seizure and the proceedings against the property which was owned in Cuba by Mora and others dates from the time when they were Spanish subjects and supported there the rebellion personally or with their means and resources. It is quite unnecessary to enter upon a discussion of the question of Mora's citizenship as the time of the first interference with his property by the Spanish Government; it is equally unnecessary to inquire into the question of his sympathies during the Cuban insurrection. |