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Aaron Vail to Daniel Webster, November 30,1841.
Aaron Vail, United States Charge d'Affaires at Madrid, to Daniel Webster, Secretary of State of the United States
Confidential MADRID, November 30, 1841.
SIR: Some alarm has spread itself in the Spanish West India Islands by the announcement of pending british [sic] intervention in bringing about the sudden emancipation of a large portion of the slave population of those Islands. The same announcement, re-produced by the public periodical press of Europe, is beginning to occupy a considerable share of public attention; and this Government, though not laboring under positive fears, has not been without bestowing serious reflection on the subject-- I was, a few days ago, invited, by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, to an interview on our relations, generally, with the Island of Cuba, which I found, however, to have for its special object the discussions of that portion of said relations which connects itself more particularly with the territorial nationality of the Colony. Mr Gonzalez began by alluding to the alarm above referred to, which he understood from communications recently received had found an echo in the southern portions of the United States--Presuming from this that we would not see without solicitude any prospect of such an intervention as that which appeared to be apprehended, he inquired whether I would inform him of the views of my Government in that respect.
Our views regarding the Island of Cuba ought not to be a secret to this Government; for they have frequently been communicated to persons at the head of it, and, even since my arrival here, I have had occasion to lay before the last ministry those views as set forth in my instructions--But as those communications were necessarily confidential, and, in all cases, I believe, made verbally, every change of ministry calls for a repetition of them; and hence the occasion again presented for laying them before the Minister, having found out that he was utterly ignorant of them.
I explained to him the importance of our connexion[sic] with the Island: first in a commercial point of view, as involving interests of the greatest magnitude, especially with the prospect we are unwilling to abandon of ultimately seeing our intercourse placed upon a more liberal footing than the present. 2nd as connected with the geographical position of the Island, and our aversion to the establishment, so near our shores and in seas so frequented by our trade, of a first rate naval and military power; and, lastly, with reference to the existence of similar domestic institutions in the Island and the contiguous parts of our territory, and the danger to those institutions of the doctrines professed on the subject and sought to be enforced by Great Britain. -- As that part of my instructions which relates to the matter had been drawn up with the specific object of such communications, I thought I could do no better than draw at the fountain head; and I consequently read the entire paragraph to Mr Gonzale -- With its contents he expressed himself highly gratified; but particularly with the closing declaration of our determination in the event of any attempt to wrest from Spain the territorial possession of the Colony.
I called his particular attention to the views of the American Cabinet as to the means Spain, herself, possessed of averting the danger, or, at least, of doing away every pretext for it, by a scrupulous fulfilment of her engagements to Great Britain, whether arising from pecuniary liabilities, or from her Treaty obligations for the suppression of the African slave trade -— Mr. Gonzalez answered that not a shadow of any such pretext at present existed, either in reality or in the imagination of the British Government. That, with reference to the first class of liabilities, the only demands recently urged by Great Britain had been satisfied by the payment to her, on account of the debt for war subsidies, of the sum of sixty thousand pounds sterling which was to have been passed to the credit of Spain as the price of certain Islands on the coast of Africa, had the cession of those Islands been consummated; and that, for the balance of that debt, which is still very large, England was not now disposed to press its settlement. With regard to the fulfilment of the Treaty obligations for the suppression of the African slave trade, the British Government had been satisfied on that head also by assurances given to it of the determination of Spain to carry out the purposes of the Treaty by all means within the reach of Government, to which effect strict orders had been given to the Colonial Authorities to use all possible means of repression; and to remove the pretext for the introduction of African slaves by the adoption of all measures calculated to foster the natural increase and the preservation of the native slave population. Independently of these motives for allaying all fears that might arise from supposed designs of Great Britain, Spain had confidence in her own means of preserving her colonial possessions. Cuba possesses vast military and respectable naval resources: the population is partial to, and content under, Spanish domination, is withal, susceptible of efficient military organization for many purposes of defence, and animated by a spirit of loyalty that might be depended on.
The immediate cause of the apprehension prevailing in the colonies grows out of the belief entertained there that England had actually demanded of Spain the immediate emancipation of all the blacks who have been introduced in the Islands since the Treaties for the suppression of the slave trade have been in operation.—With all the evidences before the world of the boldness of British policy in the matter, I thought it difficult to credit the report; but to obviate all doubts, and believing that the information would not be uninteresting at Washington, I took advantage of a more recent interview with Mr Gonzalez to ascertain how much truth there might be in the rumor. Mr Gonzalez answered me, confidentially, that, of the secret wishes of Great Britain he could not undertake to speak; but that what had probably given rise to the report of her alleged demand was the fact of an application having, within the year, actually been put in by the British Minister at this Court for a return to be prepared by the authorities of Cuba, of the number of blacks now existing in the Island, who had been introduced since the conclusion of the Treaties for the suppression of the African slave trade. He added that orders had been given by the last ministry for the preparation of such returns; but he wound up by an emphatic and energetic declaration that such returns should never be furnished by Great Britain. That the present Government were willing that the Treaties referred to should receive a full and bona fide execution, and had taken efficient measures for the entire cessation of the importation of African slaves; but that, as they considered that the British right under the Treaty to interfere in the matter had ceased with the landing of the slaves and could not follow them within the limits of Spanish jurisdiction, the Government had determined to withhold the information requested by the British Minister—a proceeding sufficiently indicative of the spirit in which Spain would be prepared to receive such a proposition as that the supposition of which has excited the fears of the Spanish Colonists--Mr. Gonzalez took the occasion of some allusion to the mischief caused by the intemperate zeal of British Abolitionists to say that the late change in the administration of Government in England had brought about a material alteration in the policy hitherto pursued by that country in relation to slavery in the Spanish dominions--He had received late evidences of the existence of a more moderate and conciliatory spirit in answers, specifically, from Lord Aberdeen to complaints of the conduct of the British Consul at Havana, who had been compelled to abandon the very objectionable course before pursued by him; and also in assurances that the imperious tone assumed by that, and other British Agents and countenanced or overlooked by the late administration in Great Britain, would, in no case, be tolerated by the existing Ministry.
I have the honor [etc.].
Source: Vol. 11-Spain, Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States, Inter-American
Affairs, 1831-1860, selected and arranged by William R. Manning. Washington,
[D.C.], 1939, 326 -328.
