1 
 
 IEM.OMAL 
 
 u 
 
 TO THE 
 
 ongras of tl\e f|nitcd Staffs, 
 
 FROM THE 
 
 EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE, 
 
 APPOINTED AT THE 
 
 (S^iniaii-Hi'mericaiv Ultci** llTieclmg, 
 
 ON BEHALF OF 
 
 
 fRME 
 
 MELD N C ) V E M B E I J 2 Is t, 187 
 
 \T THE 
 
 CITY OF NEW YORK. 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2011 with funding from 
 
 The Library of Congress 
 
 
 \ 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/memorialtocongre01newy 
 
To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United 
 States, in Congress assembled : — 
 
 The undersigned, your Memorialists, citizens of the United 
 States of German descent and residents of the City and State of 
 New York, do most respectfully represent : 
 
 For more than five years a bloody conflict has been waged upon 
 the Island of Cuba. The world has not been left in ignorance of 
 the object and purposes of this revolutionary strife. It is a noto- 
 rious fact that the Cubans, at least a majority of them, are deter- 
 mined to sever all political connections with their ancient govern- 
 ment in Europe and establish their independence as a free and 
 sovereign State. Spain on her part exerts all her material and 
 warlike power to suppress this yearning for Liberty and Indepen- 
 dence, and strives to exact complete submission of the Revolu- 
 tionists to her demands. During the long continuance of this war 
 — for such it must be justly called — the barbarous ferocity of the 
 Spanish representatives in Cuba has not abated, but rather in- 
 creased. The Executive of the United States has time and again 
 officially protested against this violation of all the rules of civilized 
 warfare on the part of Spain, but without any practical results. 
 Not only the rightfulness of the cause of those who stand in the field 
 for Cuban independence, but also the savage method of warfare 
 persistently maintained by Spain, created an intense feeling in the 
 United States. In the language of Daniel Webster, "When the 
 United States behold the people of foreign countries * * * spon- 
 taneously moving toward the adoption of institutions like their own, 
 it surely cannot be expected of them to remain wholly in different 
 spectators." And in view of the many brutalities, murders und 
 assassinations, justified by no law either of war or of necessity, 
 
2 
 
 which have been perpetrated by Spanish officials in that unhappy 
 island, the American people must remember the burning words 
 uttered by Henry Clay in the House of Eepresentatives of Congress 
 on the 20th of January, 1824, when speaking of the unheard-of 
 barbarities and wholesale slaughters committed by the Turks 
 against the Greek insurrectionists :— "Are we so mean, so debased, 
 so despicable, that we will not attempt to express our horror, utter 
 our indignation, at the most brutal and atrocious war that ever 
 stained earth or shocked high heaven, at the ferocious deeds of a 
 savage and infuriated soldiery, rioting in all the excesses of blood 
 and butchery, at the mere details of which the heart' sickens and 
 recoils ? " The late executions or rather massacres at Santiago de 
 Cuba recall with vastly increased force these noble words of the 
 great American statesman of a past era, who seems to speak to us 
 from his grave in the emergency of the hour. 
 
 For eight years the American people sustained what for a long- 
 time appeared as an unequal and almost hopeless conflict. They 
 have their own experience to justify them in sympathizing with a 
 neighboring people struggling to obtain for themselves the Eights, 
 Liberties and the same Independence from European Dominion, 
 which the United States, after much suffering and slaughter and 
 many years of military reverses, succeeded at last in achieving for 
 their country. But the Star of Fortune did not smile permanently 
 upon their banner, until enlightened governments of Europe, like 
 that of Holland and France and the Great Frederick of Prussia, 
 recognized in the revolted colonies a belligerent power possessing 
 all the rights of an independent nation at war with another. And 
 it was the combined action of the Courts of Austria, Russia and 
 Prussia, in the year 1781, proposing an International Congress 
 between the belligerents, which led to the preliminary conferences 
 at the Hague and finally resulted in the Treaty of Paris in 1783, 
 from which dates the acknowledgment by England of the Inde- 
 pendence of the United States. 
 
 Your Memorialists beg pardon for this reference to well-known 
 facts of American history, and they offer for excuse that ever since 
 those memorable days the American people held in sacred memory 
 the aid they received from other nations in their first struggle for 
 National Life, and have themselves aided with their sympathy and 
 often materially all rising nationalities on this hemisphere fixedly 
 determined to cut loose from further subjection to European powers. 
 Your memorialists beg also to call attention to the course of the 
 American Government, including the Congress and the Supreme 
 
Court of the United States, towards the revolutionary war carried 
 on by the people of the many Spanish Vice-Royalties on the Ame- 
 rican continent against the parent country in Europe. The ill- 
 fated expedition of Miranda, which left these shores to assist the 
 insurgents in Venezuela, while Thomas Jefferson yet occupied the 
 presidential chair, was openly assisted by the people, and numerous 
 other expeditions in aid of the Revolution in the various other 
 colonies were similarly supported and helped by popular sympathy 
 during the fifteen years that the cruel war continued. Although the 
 resolution recognizing the independence of the revolted colonies as 
 free states, did not pass Congress until 1822, — two years before 
 Spain was compelled by the ill success of her forces to submit to 
 the inevitable, and before any other government took the same step, 
 - — the Revolutionists were long before treated as belligerents and 
 their right to buy ships, arms and ammunition in this country was 
 not only diplomatically conceded them, but our Courts of Admiralty 
 almost uniformly maintained it, and it was finally and authorita- 
 tively settled by the Supreme Court of the United States, under the 
 leadership of Chief Justice' Marshall in the celebrated case of the 
 Santissima Trinidad. Your memorialists beg leave to state it as 
 their opinion, that even the stringent Neutrality Act of 1818 seems, 
 in their view, not to change that principle, in as much as by the 
 force of its very terms any "people" may be recognized as a sove- 
 reignty, capable, if at peace with the United States, of enjoying in 
 our ports all the rights of an' independent power in a state of belli- 
 gerency, and the United States are certainly not at war with the 
 "people" of Cuba. Again your Memorialists would respectfully refer 
 to an undoubted authority in American Legislation. The Neutrality 
 Act of 1818 was passed — although your memorialists are fully 
 aware of the influence exercised bv the British Government under 
 Mr. Canning at the same time and in the same direction — after, and 
 probably in consequence of a resolution introduced by Henry Clay 
 in the House of Representatives on the 3d of December, 1817, in 
 the following words : "That the said committee be instructed to 
 inquire whether any, and if any what, provisions of law are neces- 
 sary to insure to the American colonies of Spain a just observance 
 of the duties of the neutral relation in which the United States 
 stand in the existing war between them and Spain." In advocating 
 this resolution Mr. Clay on the same day made use of this langu- 
 age : "Let us look at the condition of the patriots. No minister 
 here to spur on our g< >vernment. No ; their unfortunate case is 
 what ours has been in the years 1778 and 1779 ; their ministers, 
 
4 
 
 like our Franklins and Jays, are skulking about imploring *. * * for 
 one kind look — some aid to terminate a war afflicting humanity." 
 And on the 10th of May, 1820, Henry Clay from his seat in the 
 House again addressed himself to the subject and said : " The 
 relation of colonies and mother country can no longer exist, from 
 the nature of things, under whatever aspect the Government of 
 Spain might assume. The condition of Spain is no reason for 
 neglecting now to do what we ought to have done long ago." In 
 view of our present complications with Cuba and of the fact that 
 there was a revolution in Spain at that time as there is now, these 
 words come down to us from the past as the wise counsels of one of 
 the wisest of American statesmen. No wonder that he received the 
 votes of thanks of all these Spanish- American Kepnblics and still 
 lives in their grateful memory. 
 
 While your memorialists fully agree that the efforts to form 
 and consolidate a Republic in Spain deserves the fullest and 
 warmest sympathy of our government and people, yet the attempt 
 of that country to hold in subjection by force of arms a people on 
 this continent determined to be as free from its dominion, as the 
 other Spanish- American Republics, must be deprecated and con- 
 demned. What, in the case of these earlier wars of Spain on this 
 continent, was well done by the statesmen of the Republic, when 
 this country was yet weak in the eyes of the world, with a population 
 of less than twenty million souls, cannot be wrong now when the 
 United States rank among the first and most powerful nations on 
 the globe and their interests ought to be considered superior to 
 those having colonial possessions in such near proximity and 
 situated as the Island of Cuba. Your Memorialists cannot refrain 
 from declaring that in this connection they believe to express what 
 has been the settled policy of America since the foundation of its 
 present government. It is a matter of history, unfortunately forgot- 
 ten by too many in the turmoil and the tremendous concussion of 
 events within the last twelve years, that under President Fillmore's 
 administration England and France proposed a tripartite treaty, by 
 which the United States and the other two governments named were 
 to bind themselves never in all the future to disturb the possession 
 of Cuba by Spain. Secretary Webster at once, within six days 
 after the receipt of the proposition, formally declined to entertain 
 it. After the death of that great man, Edward Everett, his suc- 
 cessor as Secretary of State, in a lengthy despatch dated Dec. 1st, 
 1852, gave the reasons actuating the Government for not entering 
 into the treatv. 
 
" The island of Cuba," said our Secretary to the English and 
 French Ambassadors, "lies at our doors; it commands the approach 
 to the Gulf of Mexico, which washes the shores of five of our states; it 
 bars the entrance to that great river, which drains half the North 
 American Continent and, with its tributaries, forms the largest 
 system of internal water communication in the world ; it "keeps 
 watch at the doorway of our intercourse with California by the 
 Isthmus route. If an island like Cuba, belonging to the Spanish 
 crown, guarded the entrance to the Thames or the Seine, and the 
 United States should propose a convention like this to England and 
 France, those powers would assuredly feel that the disability 
 assumed by ourselves was far less serious than that which we asked 
 them to assume." 
 
 And further on in the same document we read these memorable 
 declarations : " Spain has retained, of her extensive dominions in 
 this hemisphere, but the two islands of Cuba and Porto Rico ; a 
 respectful sympathy with the fortunes of an ancient ally and a 
 gallant people, with whom the United States have ever maintained 
 the most friendly relations, would, if no other reason existed, make 
 it our duty to leave her in the undisturbed possession of this little 
 remnant of her mightly transatlantic Empire. The President 
 (Fillmore) desires to do so. No word or deed of his will ever 
 question her title or shake her possession. But can it be expected 
 
 TO LAST VERY LONG ? CAN IT RESIST THIS MIGHTHY CURRENT IN THE FOR- 
 TUNES OF THE WORLD ? Is IT DESIRABLE THAT IT SHOULD DO SO ? CAN 
 IT BE FOR THE INTEREST OF SPAIN TO CLING TO A POSSESSION THAT CAN 
 ONLY BE MAINTAINED BY A GARRISON OF 25,000 OR 30,000 TROOPS AND A 
 
 powerful naval force ? * * ■* * No administration of the govern- 
 ment, however strong in the public confidence in other respects, 
 could stand a day under the odium of having stipulated that * * * 
 in no future times under no change of circumstances, * * * b\ no 
 consent of the inhabitants of the island, should they, like the pos- 
 sessions of Spain on the American continent, succeed in rendering 
 themselves independent ; in fine, that by no overruling necessity of 
 self-preservation should the United States ever make the acquisition 
 of Cuba." These views Mr. Everett, after his retirement from 
 office upon a change of administration, fully maintened in a letter 
 published in the newspapers on the 16th of September 1853 and 
 the then Secretary of State, William L. Marcy also adhered to 
 them. 
 
 Your Memorialists believe that the change of circumstances 
 hypothetically predicted by Secretary Everett, has already taken 
 
place and the fruitless resistance of Spain for five years to the 
 mighty current toward freedom and independence in Cuba seems to 
 prove the prophetic foresight of the American statesman. 
 
 But your Memorialists are not insensible to the fact that the 
 inhabitants of the island have not yet gained their independence. 
 Though struggling for many years, their success is still undecided. 
 Yet recent events have conclusively shown that the most vital 
 interests of the American Union, the sanctity of its flag upon the 
 high seas and the right of American citizens to be secure in their 
 persons and property when protected by that flag, are not only put 
 in peril, but have been grievously injured by Spanish officials in 
 Cuba. Believing that by means of Diplomatic courtesies the rightful 
 remedy for such gross insults — war — has for the present been avoided, 
 your Memorialists are yet convinced that it is only postj:>oned and not 
 to a far day in the future. In the light of the past history your 
 Memorialists would respectfully pray that the resolution introduced 
 in the House of Representatives on the 8th of December 1873, by the 
 Hon. Samuel S. Cox, or one of similar import, be passed, granting 
 to the people of Cuba, organized for several years in a republican 
 form of government in all its Departments, and having in their Con- 
 stitution decreed the immediate and perpetual abolition of slavery 
 on the island, at least the Rights of Belligerents, and recognizing 
 a state of war to exist between the Republic of Spain and the 
 "People" of Cuba. When the people of Hungary organized them- 
 selves into a Republic, with Louis Kossuth as its provisional Pre- 
 sident, Gen. Taylor sent A. Dudley Mann from the State Depart- 
 ment to Europe, with instructions and credentials to recognize the 
 nascent Republic, if on his arrival he should find it capable of 
 maintaining itself. Unfortunately the Russian intervention was by 
 that time beating out its life, but the proposed recognition by the 
 United States gave occasion to Daniel Webster, as Secretary of 
 State to send forth to the world that heroic answer to the Chevalier 
 Huelsemann, in which he almost passionately declares that " while 
 performing with strict and exact fidelity all their neutral duties, 
 nothing will deter either the government or the people of the 
 United States from exercising, at their own discretion, the rights 
 belonging to them as an independent nation, and of forming and 
 expressing their own opinions, freely and at all times, upon the 
 great political events which may transpire among the civilized 
 nations of the earth." 
 
 Your Memorialists live in the fervent hope that the spirit 
 of Clay, of Webster, of Everett and Marcy, and of other leading 
 
and great men of the country is still alive among the American 
 people and ready, as of yore, to defend their rights and avenge any 
 insult to their honor. The capture of the Yirginius and the massacre 
 of a portion of her crew have brought this whole subject prominently 
 before your Honorable Bodies and before the public at large, and 
 your Memorialists beg to represent that a just punishment of the 
 perpetrators of these outrages and of all who aided and abetted 
 them, as well as to repress forever the barbarous mediaeval spirit and 
 the mode of warfare which made these horrors possible, would be 
 the recognition of the Cuban Patriots as Belligerents, and this 
 sturdy band of Republicans with the aid which under International 
 Laws and the Neutrality Acts, such acknowledgment of their inde- 
 pendent national existence for the purposes of this war, could enable 
 them to obtain without hindrance, would themselves soon avenge 
 the insult and injury heaped upon their cause and upon the Ameri- 
 can people in the course of so many years by the haughty and 
 brutal officials of a volunteer mob, almost beyond the control of 
 the home government in Spain. 
 
 Your Memorialists do further represent, that under the various 
 forms of government in Spain since 1868, including the present 
 Republican system, she unerringly followed the same policy 
 towards Cuba as for centuries before. That policy, in the opinion 
 of your Memorialists, is but the carrying out, at least in spirit if not 
 to the very letter, of the principles enunciated by the Congress of 
 European Monarchs, held at Verona in 1821, in regard to the revo- 
 lutionary movements then going on in Naples, in Spain and in the 
 Spanish Colonies in America. President Monroe, in his message in 
 1823 protested most solemnly, against the Doctrines of the Verona 
 Congress being made applicable to this continent and that protest 
 has ever been one of the fundamental rules of action in the 
 intercourse of the United States with foreign nations and within the 
 memory of all, it prevented the imperialization of Mexico only a 
 few years ago. This rule, hailed with patriotic delight in every part 
 of the Union when first proclaimed, has not yet lost and never will 
 lose its hold upon the hearts of the people and since Spain and her 
 representatives in Cuba persist in virtually maintaining, next to our 
 shores a system of government which, though sanctioned by the Con- 
 gress of Verona, was always regarded, as inimical to American 
 Liberty and Progress, it is but right that the patriots in that 
 oppressed island should not be left wholly unaided, to make an end 
 of it in the interest both of themselves and of the United States. 
 
 Very recent information from Havana brought intelligence that 
 
8 
 
 a Spanish prize court had assumed jurisdiction over the case of the 
 Virginius and adjudicated her a legitimate capture or, in other 
 words, a prize of war. Your memorialists beg to refer to the well 
 known rule that prize courts are recognized only by the Internatio- 
 nal laws of war and that where no war exists there can be no prizes 
 and no prize courts, except in cases of piracy to which category the 
 Virginius evidently did not belong. It would seem that this re- 
 ported decision of the Spanish prize court in Havana does virtually 
 settle the belligerent status of the Cuban Revolution, for without 
 a state of war existing between Spain and the Cubans, there could 
 be no prizes of war and no adjudications by prize courts. By 
 recognizing such a state of belligerency between the two parties, 
 the United States would, therefore, as it appears to your memoria- 
 lists, only acknowledge a state of things which a Spanish court took 
 for granted in assuming jurisdiction over the case at all, without in 
 any wise admitting that the adjudication itself was right or war- 
 ranted by treaties and the Law of Nations. 
 
 Your Memorialists, believing it their duty, in consideration of 
 the grave events of the day, to give full expression to their views, 
 and approach the American Congress as American Citizens, with 
 their humble memorial and petition and sabmit their prayer confi- 
 dently to the scrutiny of your Honorable Bodies and, as in duty 
 bound, will ever pray &c. 
 
 Neiv York, January 3, 1874. 
 
 WM. RADDE, President. 
 
 SAM. BROMBERG, \ q 
 
 F. W. BLECKWENN, | becretarles - 
 
 C, GODFREY GltNTHER, Dr. AUG. FRECH, 
 
 J. MAIDHOF, WM. BOECKEL, 
 
 GEO. W. SAUER, H. HERTZ, 
 
 Dr. AD. BERCKMANN, Dr. A. V. HOFER, 
 
 M. BRUMMERHOP, A. MAIERHOFER, 
 
 Dr. PH. MERKLE, C. G. JOHANSEN, 
 
 H. BRAUNHOLD, H. E. SACKMANN, 
 
 Dr. F. SEEGER, CHAS. MAGNUS, 
 
 CH1S. KINKEL, JOHN RUDOLPH Y. 
 
 Executive Com mittee. 
 
. 
 
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