WASHINGTON, _June 14, 1852_.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives_:
I transmit herewith, for your consideration, a report from the
Secretary of State, accompanied by a communication from His Excellency
Señor Don A. Calderon de la Barca, envoy extraordinary and minister
plenipotentiary of Her Catholic Majesty, claiming indemnity for those
Spanish subjects in New Orleans who sustained injury from the unlawful
violence of the mob in that city consequent upon hearing the news of the
execution of those persons who unlawfully invaded Cuba in August, 1851.
My own views of the national liability upon this subject were expressed
in the note of the Secretary of State to Mr. Calderon of the 13th
November, 1851, and I do not understand that Her Catholic Majesty's
minister controverts the correctness of the position there taken. He,
however, insists that the thirteenth article of the treaty of 1795
promises indemnity for such injuries sustained within one year after
the commencement of war between the two nations, and although he admits
this is not within the letter of the treaty, yet he conceives that, as
between two friendly nations, it is within the spirit of it.
This view of the case is at his request submitted for your
consideration, but whether you may deem it correct or not, there is,
perhaps, one ground upon which this indemnity, which can not be large in
amount, may be granted without establishing a dangerous precedent, and
the granting of which would commend itself to the generous feelings
of the entire country, and that is this: The Queen of Spain, with a
magnanimity worthy of all commendation, in a case where we had no legal
right to solicit the favor, granted a free pardon to all the persons who
had so unjustifiably invaded her dominions and murdered her subjects in
Cuba, in violation of her own laws as well as those of the United States
and the public law of nations. Such an act of mercy, which restored many
misguided and unfortunate youth of this country to their parents and
friends, seems to me to merit some corresponding act of magnanimity
and generosity on the part of the Government of this country, and I
think that there can be none more appropriate than to grant an indemnity
to those Spanish subjects who were resident among us and who suffered
by the violence of the mob, not on account of any fault which they
themselves had committed, but because they were the subjects of the
Queen of Spain. Such an act would tend to confirm that friendship which
has so long existed between the two nations and to perpetuate it as a
blessing to both, and I therefore recommend it to your favorable
consideration.