Luigi Gerolamo Cusani Confalonieri

Luigi Girolamo Cusani Confalonieri was born in Milan in 1861. A contemporary biographical notice records his legal education and service as an embassy secretary in Vienna before becoming consul-general in Budapest. ¹

In Washington, he received a $6,000 payment for the heirs of Angelo Albano, an Italian subject killed by an armed mob in Tampa in September 1910. Cusani’s signed receipt, dated 14 November 1913, records Congress’s provision of the compensation. The United States characterized the payment as humanitarian and expressly avoided deciding legal liability. ²

On 5 May 1914 he and Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan signed a treaty establishing a commission of five members to investigate disputes that diplomacy or arbitration had not resolved. Both countries undertook to refrain from war while an investigation was under way. The commission would report, rather than impose a binding settlement; after its report, each government retained freedom of action. ³

He later served as ambassador in Tokyo. A January 1918 telegram to Sidney Sonnino reported Japanese naval movements toward Vladivostok and the differing British and American attitudes toward intervention. ⁴