By January of 1823, it was reported that 9 privateers had been put to sea and more were being fitted with armaments. Within a few months, Americans were reporting that the Puerto Rico privateers were capturing and condemning every vessel within their ports. The United States and Great Britain reacted very angrily to Spain's enforcement of colonial laws which commissioned these privateers and began to take steps to suppress the Puerto Rico privateers. US Commodore David Porter reported to the Secretary of the navy, the Honorary Smith Thompson that one of his squadrons under the command of Lieutenant Commander Perry was dispatched to the South side of Puerto Rico, where several armed privateers had done considerable injury to our commerce. Porter also reported to the Secretary of the Navy that a large British naval force had also just recently entered those seas.
In addition, Commodore David Porter assigned Captain John Porter to deliver a letter to the Governor of Puerto Rico and wait there for his answer. The letter, addressed to His Excellency of Puerto Rico, asked the governor to furnish papers which describe each vessel that was legally commissioned to cruise from Puerto Rico, so that the U.S. could properly recognize and respect them. Furthermore, Porter also wrote that he "must also beg your excellency to inform me how far they have been instructed to interrupt our trade with Mexico and the Columbia republic". While this may sound very polite, Porter was directly confronting the act of piracy that the government of Puerto Rico was conducting. Porter stated that his "principle motive" for visiting the seas near Puerto Rico was to suppress Piracy, and he expected the cooperation, or at least "favorable and friendly support" from Puerto Rico. The office of the Captain General of Puerto Rico Miguell De la Torre replied with a "nominal report of the privateer vessels which have been armed and dispatched" by the authority of Puerto Rico, but he was "extremely sorry" that he could not comply with Porter's request to report about their commissions. The "diplomas" they received were from His Most Catholic Majesty of Spain, and the island government was not aware of them. As for information regarding the interruption of commerce between the United States and Mexico and Columbia, Torre replied that for certain the blockade of ports along the coasts and provinces of Venezuela have been lifted, and that he believed the same to be true for Mexico. Torre remarked that the only lawful capture of vessels was of those found to be carrying implements of war to the the insurgents, of people cooperating in the rebellions. In other words, the privateers were merely patrolling the waters for "contraband traffic".
By this point, newspapers in Britain and America had already spread the word about the Lord Colingwood case and this answer clearly was not to the Commodore's liking. Correspondence continued with Puerto Rico deferring any legal authority to the government of Spain, but as President James Monroe wrote in his State of the Union address the American minister was prohibited or debarred from having access to the Spanish government. Meanwhile, the capture of vessels and "new cases of flagrant outrage" continued to occur. American citizens, living on the Island of Puerto Rico were suffering and were being threatened with death for asserting their rights to sue for damages in the courts of Puerto Rico.
Here are the words of James Monroe written in his 1823 State of the Union address on the subject:
"Although our expedition, cooperating with an invigorated administration of the government of the island of Cuba, and with the corresponding active exertions of a British naval force in the same seas, have almost entirely destroyed the unlicensed piracies from that island, the success of our exertions has not been equally effectual to suppress the same crime, under other pretenses and colors, in the neighboring island of Porto Rico. They have been committed there under the abusive issue of Spanish commissions.
At an early period of the present year remonstrances were made to the governor of that island, by an agent who was sent for the purpose, against those outrages on the peaceful commerce of the United States, of which many had occurred. That officer, professing his own want of authority to make satisfaction for our just complaints, answered only by a reference of them to the Government of Spain. The minister of the United States to that court was specially instructed to urge the necessity of immediate and effectual interposition of that Government, directing restitution and indemnity for wrongs already committed and interdicting the repetition of them. The minister, as has been seen, was debarred access to the Spanish Government, and in the mean time several new cases of flagrant outrage have occurred, and citizens of the United States in the island of Porto Rico have suffered, and others been threatened with assassination for asserting their unquestionable rights even before the lawful tribunals of the country."
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=29465
Privateering, Piracy and British Policy in Spanish America, 1810-1830 by Matthew McCarthy (Boydell & Brewer Ltd, 2013) pg. 36-37, pgs. 102-104
American State Papers: Documents, Legislative and Executive, of the Congress of the United States, Volume 1; Volume 6; Volume 23 (United States Congress, 1834) pgs. 1103-1106
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2b/1799_Clement_Cruttwell_Map_of_West_Indies_-_Geographicus_-_WestIndies-cruttwell-1799.jpg
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