TEXAS STATE LIBRARY
162
No. 2648 1858 July [26, M. B. LAMAR] LEON, [NICARAGUA] PROTEST 9 & No- Legation of the United States. Sir/ Leon July - [26 ?] 1858 My attention has just been called to a Document in the New-York Herald of the 21st of June last, copied by that paper from the London Times, purporting to be a Declaration of President Martinez of Nica- ragua and President Mora of Costa-Rica, in which I find the following language - to wit - ' "Considering that a fresh invasion of American Filibusters, still menaces the Independence of Costa-Rica and Nicaragua in contempt of all laws that protect nations and that guarantee the lives and prop- erties of citizens in civilized countries - that this invasion, officially reprobated by the Government of the United States, is preparing in reality under its patronage as a means of definitively taking possession of Central America, if Central America refuses to surrender itself vol- untarily to the United States. That the Minister actually accredited to Nicaragua boasts in public of the premtorily proposing this ultimatum, either the legal possession of Nicaragua by the ratification of the Treaty Cass-Irizarri~ or a fresh invasion of the Filibusters already organized under thf! Amer- ican Flag. That hitherto all the official agents of the United States at Nicaragua have been the accomplices and auxilliaries of the invaders, acting as masters, and audaciously hoisting the flag of the United States in all parts, where as at San Juan Del Sur the flag of Nicaragua only ought to float, and openly menaced Central America with inevitable annexation." It is hardly necessary for me to offer any comment upon this daring and audacious calumy. It is an insult and outrage which our government in due season will know how to repel and redress. I call your attention to it now, only in corroberation of what I have previously written to your Department with respect to the deep malignity and lying propensities of this miserable race of people. In relation to that portion of the above extract which alludes to myself, I can only say that is not only false in every particular, but the very reverse has been my policy and my conduct; for so far from threatning this country in any manner whatever, I have actually reproached myself for my excessive moderation and forbearance, and have sometimes apprehended the dis- pleasure of my govermt for not administering that rebuke to the authori- ties here which their low duplicity and vile intrigues deserved. The most that I ever said touching the course of Martinas with respect to the treaty was to express my regret at the fraud which he had practised upon the public mind by impressing it with the idea that he had for- warded Treaty with his approval, to the United States, by Col. Schles- inger, when in fact it had not been. I also, on two occasions - once the Military comandant at Rivas and once to Secretary Cortez - expressed °"'A. Df. Incomplete.
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