THE VIRGINIUS EMBROGLIO.
There was one event of the ten years' war which deserves to be treated
somewhat in detail, as the universal excitement in the United States
caused by the affair for a time appeared to make a war between the
United States and Spain inevitable. And the Cubans hoped that this
occurrence would lead to the immediate expulsion of the Spaniards from
Cuba.
The hopes thus raised, however, were doomed to meet with disappointment,
as the diplomatic negotiations opened between the United States and
Spain led to a peaceable settlement of the whole difficulty.
The trouble was this: On the 31st of October, 1873, the Virginius, a
ship sailing under the American flag, was captured on the high seas,
near Jamaica, by the Spanish steamer Tornado, on the ground that it
intended to land men and arms in Cuba for the insurgent army.
The Virginius was a steamer which was built in England during the civil
war, and was used as a blockade-runner. She was captured and brought to
the Washington Navy Yard. There she was sold at auction. The purchaser
was one John F. Patterson, who took an oath that he was a citizen of the
United States. On the 26th of September, 1870, the Virginius was
registered in the custom house of New York.
As all the requisites of the statute were fulfilled in her behalf, she
cleared in the usual way for Curacoa, and sailed early in September for
that port.
It was discovered a good many years after that Patterson was not the
real owner of the vessel, but that, as a matter of fact, the money for
her purchase had been furnished by Cuban sympathizers, and that she was
virtually controlled by them.
From the day of her clearance in New York, she certainly did not return
within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States.
Nevertheless, she preserved her American papers, and whenever she
entered foreign ports, she made it a practice to put forth a claim to
American nationality, which claim was always recognized by the
authorities in those ports.
There is no evidence whatever to show that she committed any overt act,
or did anything that was contrary to international law.
She cleared from Kingston, Jamaica, on the 23rd of October, 1873, for
Costa Rica.
As President Grant said in his message to Congress, January 5th, 1874,
she was under the flag of the United States, and she would appear to
have had, as against all powers except the United States, the right to
fly that flag and to claim its protection as enjoyed by all regularly
documented vessels registered as part of our commercial marine.
Still quoting President Grant, no state of war existed conferring upon a
maritime power the right to molest and detain upon the high seas a
documented vessel, and it could not be pretended that the Virginius had
placed herself without the pale of all law by acts of piracy against the
human race. (And yet this very thing is what the Spaniards, without
rhyme or reason, did claim. Ever since they have been claiming what was
false, as for instance their reports of the victories (!) in the
American-Spanish war. By so doing they have made themselves the
laughing-stock of nations, for, although they never hesitate to lie,
they do not know how to lie with a semblance of truth, which might be,
far be it from us to say would be, a saving grace).
If the papers of the Virginius were irregular or fraudulent, and frankly
they probably were, the offense was one against the laws of the United
States, justifiable only in their tribunals. However, to return to
facts, on the morning of the 31st of October, the Virginius was seen
cruising near the coast of Cuba. She was chased by the Spanish
man-of-war Tornado, captured, and brought into the harbor of Santiago de
Cuba on the following day.
One hundred and fifty-five persons were on board, many of whom bore
Spanish names. This was made a great point of by the Spanish
authorities, although as a matter of fact it proved nothing.
This action was not only in violation of international law, but it was
in direct contravention of the provisions of the treaty of 1795.
Mr. E. G. Schmitt was at that time the American vice-consul at Santiago,
and he lost no time in demanding that he should be allowed to see the
prisoners, in order to obtain from them information which should enable
him to protect those who might be American citizens, and also whatever
rights the ship should chance to have.
Mr. Schmitt was treated with the utmost discourtesy by the authorities,
who practically told him that they would admit of no interference on his
part, and insisted that all on board the Virginius were pirates and
would be dealt with as such.
And indeed they were.
The Virginius was brought into Santiago late in the afternoon of the
first of November, and a court-martial was convened the next morning to
try the prisoners.
Within a week fifty-three men had received the semblance of a trial and
had been shot.
Meanwhile England, who even her worst enemies cannot deny, is always on
the side of humanity, intervened.
Reports of the barbarous proceedings had reached Jamaica, and H. M. S.
Niobe, under the command of Sir Lambton Lorraine, was dispatched to
Santiago with instructions to stop the massacre.
The Niobe arrived at Santiago on the eighth, and Lorraine threatened to
bombard the town unless the executions were immediately stopped.
This threat evidently frightened the bloodthirsty governor, for no more
shooting took place.
It was a noble act on the part of Sir Lambton Lorraine, and the American
public appreciated it. On his way home to England, he stopped in New
York. It was proposed to tender him a public reception, but this Sir
Lambton declined. But by way of telling what a "brick" he was
considered, a silver brick from Nevada was presented to him, upon the
face of which was inscribed: "Blood is thicker than water. Santiago de
Cuba, November, 1873. To Sir Lambton Lorraine, from the Comstock Mines,
Virginia City, Nevada, U. S. A."
President Grant, through General Daniel E. Sickles, who then represented
the United States at Madrid, directed that a demand should be made upon
Spain for the restoration of the Virginius, for the return of the
survivors to the protection of the United States, for a salute to the
flag, and for the punishment of the offending parties.
When the news of the massacre reached Washington, the Secretary of State
telegraphed Minister Sickles:
"Accounts have been received from Havana of the execution of the captain
and thirty-six of the crew and eighteen others. If true, General Sickles
will protest against the act as brutal and barbarous, and ample
reparation will be demanded."
Minister Sickles replied:
"President Castelar received these observations with his usual kindness,
and told me confidentially that at seven o'clock in the morning, as soon
as he read the telegram from Cuba, and without reference to any
international question, for that indeed had not occurred to him, he at
once sent a message to the captain-general, admonishing him that the
death penalty must not be imposed upon any non-combatant, without the
previous approval of the Cortes, nor upon any person taken in arms
against the government without the sanction of the executive."
About that time, a writer of some celebrity, who was also a war
correspondent, named Ralph Keeler, mysteriously disappeared. Although it
was never proven, there is little doubt but that he was assassinated by
the Spaniards.
Then, as now, there was an intense hatred in the Spanish breast against
every citizen of the United States.
As Murat Halstead expresses it, there seemed to be a blood madness in
the air.
Mr. Halstead, by the way, tells an anecdote of a madman, who seized a
rifle with sabre attached and assaulted a young man who had asked him an
innocent question. He knocked him down and stabbed him to death with a
bayonet, sticking it through him a score of times as he cried:
"Cable my country that I have killed a rebel!"
The murderer was adjudged insane. Further comment is unnecessary.
To return to the controversy over the Virginius between the United
States and Spain.
General Sickles, as he had been instructed, made a solemn protest
against the barbarities perpetrated at Santiago.
The Spanish Minister of State replied in a rather ill-humored way, and
amongst other things, he said that the protest of America was rejected
with serene energy.
This somewhat ridiculous expression gave General Sickles a chance to
rejoin, which he did, as follows:
"And if at last under the good auspices of Senor Carvajal, with the aid
of that serenity that is unmoved by slaughter, and that energy that
rejects the voice of humanity, which even the humblest may utter and the
most powerful cannot hush, this government is successful in restoring
order and peace and liberty where hitherto, and now, all is tumult and
conflict and despotism, the fame of the achievement, not confined to
Spain, will reach the continents beyond the seas and gladden the hearts
of millions who believe that the new world discovered by Columbus is the
home of freemen and not that of slaves."
About this time, Spain asked the good offices of England as an
intervener, but to his glory be it spoken and to the nation which he
represented, Lord Granville declined, "unless on the basis of ample
reparation made to the United States."
Spain continued to dilly-dally and evade the question of her
responsibility.
On the 25th of November Mr. Fish telegraphed to Minister Sickles:
"If no accommodation is reached by the close of to-morrow, leave. If a
proposition is submitted, you will refer it to Washington, and defer
action."
This was just after Minister Sickles had informed the authorities at
Washington that Lord Granville regarded the reparation demanded as just
and moderate.
On the 26th, however, just as the American minister was preparing to
ask for his passports, close the legation and leave Spain, he received a
note from Senor Carvajal which conceded in part the demands of the
United States.
This proposition was virtually that the Virginius and the survivors
should be given up, but the salute was to be dispensed with, in case
Spain satisfied the United States within a certain time that the
Virginius had no right to carry the flag.
After considerable correspondence an arrangement was finally arrived at,
Spain further agreeing to proceed against those who had offended the
sovereignty of the United States, or who had violated their treaty
rights.
In his message, President Grant says:
"The surrender of the vessel and the survivors to the jurisdiction of
the tribunals of the United States was an admission of the principles
upon which our demand had been founded. I therefore had no hesitation in
agreeing to the arrangement which was moderate and just, and calculated
to cement the good relations which have so long existed between Spain
and the United States."
The following words, spoken by Secretary Fish to Admiral Polo, in an
interview during the progress of the negotiations, are worthy to be
quoted:
"I decline to submit to arbitration the question of an indignity to the
flag. I am willing to submit all questions which are properly subjects
of reference."
On the 16th of December the Virginius, with the American flag flying,
was delivered to the United States at Bahia Honda.
The vessel was unseaworthy. Her engines were out of order and she was
leaking badly. On the passage to New York she encountered a severe
storm, and, in spite of the efforts of her officers and men, she sank
off Cape Fear. The survivors of the massacre were surrendered at
Santiago de Cuba on the 18th, and reached New York in safety.
About eighty thousand dollars were paid by Spain as compensation to the
families of the American and British victims who perished at Santiago.
But no punishment was ever visited upon the governor who ordered the
executions. There was a tremendous amount of feeling aroused in the
United States over the Virginius affair, and the government was severely
criticized and censured for not avenging the inhuman butcheries and the
insults to the flag.
But it must be remembered that the government had a very hard task to
deal with. There was little or no doubt but that the Virginius, at the
time of her capture was intended for an unlawful enterprise, in spite of
Captain Fry's words in a letter to his wife just before his execution:
"There is to be a fearful sacrifice of life from the Virginius, and, as
I think, a needless one, as the poor people are unconscious of crime and
even of their fate up to now. I hope God will forgive me, if I am to
blame for it."
The clamor of the American people for revenge was fiery in its
intensity, but the government did not yield to it, in which it was
right. There has been more than one time in our history when if public
opinion had been allowed to rule, the results would have been fatal;
and the very men who were most abused, in the light of future events,
have been praised for their wisdom and moderation.
Murat Halstead sums up the whole matter in a clear and just manner. He
says in his admirable book, "The Story of Cuba:"
"It is not, we must say, a correct use of words to say that the United
States was degraded by the Virginius incident. In proportion as nations
are great and dignified, they must at least obey their own laws and
treaties. When Grant was President of the United States and Castelar was
President of Spain, there was a reckless adventure and shocking
massacre, but we were not degraded because we did not indulge in a
policy of vengeance."