Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1851-12-13

also send for your information copy of despatch
which thought proper address Mr. A. f. Owen the
Consul Of the United States Havana the subject OF
obtaining permission for the families Of the deceased to
to the United States the remains of those of the late
Lopez expedition who executed who otherwise per-
shed in Cuba transmit at the time, another de-
spatch from this Department to Mr. Owen, dated the 18th
utmo. The Consul has been instructed to furnish to his
Government ample information in regard to the
tragic which took place in the island You
will of course not fail communicate all the informa-
ton within your reach which may have any bearing on
the subject and especially in relation to those Anne
rcans who have been sent who may hereafter be sent
as criminals to Spain. Their families and friends may
say the whole American people, are interested in their
fate
Your dispatches No. inclusive have been received
at this Department.
am, sir, respectfully your obedient servant,
j. ]. CRITTENDEN Acting Secretary.
d. NJ. BARRIHGER, Esq, &c., Madrid.
Mr.. Criuenden to Mr.. Olcen.
DEPARTMENT OF STATE,
WASHINGTON, SEPTEMBER 20, 1851.
SIR Frequent applications have been made and others
no doubt will be made the Department of State pray
ing for the nterposton of the Government to enable the
families of those who lately executed in Havana to
procure the mortal remains of their deceased relations
for decent interment in their native land.
Those who make this appeal amongst the most vr
Of citizens and their private grief deserves and
commands general respect and sympathy.
Having been just called by the President to assume the
temporary charge of this Department. becomes one OF
my first duties to call your special attention to the natu
raj wishes this subject of the parents, relatives and
friends of the Americans who fatally connecting them
selves with Gen. Lopez in his late attempt Cuba were
captured and shot at Havana
Those who met this fate were mostly inexperienced
youths who have evidently been entced and begued by
false lures and misrepresentation but it is not doubted
that they animated at the same time by impulses
which, under proper circumstances, would have done
them honor and secured for them the appreciation of the
world
They were unquestionably the,dupes Lopez Span
ish subject and individuals, whose motives this
the time, indeed have the disposition, to cr
ticize The lives of these victims have atoned for all the
foies they committed and the royal authority Of Spain
against whom all their acts aimed has exercised
terrible retribution upon the invaders.
The most of the victims know very young, and
venture to declare conviction that they had not
the remotes idea of the crime they committing but
influenced rather by misguided enthusiasm for
liberty than by any criminal motive. Had they indeed
comprehended the cruel receptions really practised
Them and which many of them discovered only when it
too late they would have embarked in the i'll
fated the criminal enterprise the catastrophe of which
has rendered necessary this appeal from their surviving
families
will no longer dwell on those melancholy events my
principal object in calling your attention to the subject at
all being request you to receive with kindness all those
persons who may visit Havana this sad business, and
to furnish them with every facility private and Official
that will aid them in performing the mournful duty that
carries them thther.
do not permit myself for moment to suppose that
the Colonial Government will consider these wishes,
efforts may be pleased to make to effect their ac-
complishment either offensive improper Their in
dgnaton against the late invaders Of Cuba trust and
believe is now buried in that untimey grave to which
gallant but deuded have been doomed
Their Wondering bones have long since ceased to be fit
objects of resentment.
| am, sir, sc.
J. J. CRITTENDEN, Acting Secretary
A. F. OWEN, U. S. Consul, Havana.