Spanish Assurances Resolve Peru's Objection to Thirty Gunboats
8 December 1869
Spain's seizure of Peru's Chincha Islands in 1864 had already made American shipyards part of the dispute. Peru asked to buy and arm vessels in the United States to protect its coasts and guano islands. Secretary of State William Seward considered whether defensive purchases could be allowed consistently with neutrality and equal treatment of Spain. [7]
Peru's mission in Washington used American neutrality obligations to challenge thirty gunboats being built for Spain. The vessels were detained in New York after a Peruvian request in August 1869. Spain's minister, Mauricio López Roberts, protested that the proceedings threatened a contract with the American builder Cornelius Delamater and would prevent Spain from taking possession of the ships. [1] [5]
López Roberts argued that Spain and Peru were effectively at peace and recalled Peru's own earlier effort to obtain monitors built in the United States. He then offered a narrower way through the dispute: Spain would promise that the gunboats would neither attack Peru nor release larger Spanish warships for that purpose. Secretary of State Hamilton Fish relayed the assurances between the two missions. [1] [2] [5] [3]
Peruvian minister Manuel Freyre assented to the vessels' departure in a note of 5 December. After receiving Spain's formal assurance on 8 December, Fish informed the federal prosecutor in New York that the agreement of both governments removed the basis for continuing the case. The settlement depended on a specific undertaking about the ships' use, while the wider peace negotiations continued separately. [4] [5] [6] [1]
Related Diplomats
Sources
- Mauricio López Roberts to Hamilton Fish, 27 November 1869
pp. 743-746, Spanish contract, seizure proceedings, and comparison with Peru's earlier monitors
- Mauricio López Roberts to Hamilton Fish, 1 December 1869
pp. 749-750, Spanish position on peace and offer of assurances
- Hamilton Fish to Mauricio López Roberts, 4 December 1869
p. 751; second substantive paragraph records transmission of the authoritative Spanish statement to Peru's representative
- Hamilton Fish to Mauricio López Roberts, 8 December 1869
p. 751, transmitting Freyre's assent dated 5 December
- Mauricio López Roberts to Hamilton Fish, 8 December 1869
pp. 751-752, Spanish assurance that thirty gunboats would not attack Peru or free other vessels to do so
- Hamilton Fish to Edwards Pierrepont, 8 December 1869
pp. 752-753, direction concerning further prosecution
- Seward to Koerner, May 25, 1864
Document 38, complete instruction on Spanish seizure of Chincha Islands, Peru's ship-purchase request, and neutrality
Related Reading
Cite This Article
Spanish Assurances Resolve Peru's Objection to Thirty Gunboats. Chanceries Diplopedia. Record 4848a80aecd3b8b293b1. https://chanceries.org/research/history/peru-spain-gunboats-assurances-1869/