Weekly North Carolina standard., 1858-01-13
FROM GENERAL WALKER TO
PRESIDENT BUCHANAN.
WASHINGTON. Jan. 4

address you letter relating the manner in which
emgrated from California to Nicaragua, the events
which followed my presence in Central America, and
the unjust and illegal acts by which was forced for
fine to abandon my adopted country. EIF{7 IA
In that letter stated facts which I defy my enc
mics to controvert; and then hoped your excellen-
cy would take steps for the punishment of the griey
GUS offences against right. justice and public law
committed by United States officers in the seizure Of
a Nicaraguan vessel in Nicaraguan port. Com
mander Davis has, however gone unrebuked so
far am informed for his violation Of information
al law and of the Constitution of the United States
and it grieves me to say that again obliged to
approach you with a complaint against another and
yet higher officer of the United States Navy.
In approaching you as q supplicant for justice
know that it is necessary for to remove errone.
GUS impressions which have been made on your
mind concerning my conduct in connection with
Nicaraguan affairs. Corrupt and malignant persons
have surrounded your Excellency and poured into
your false stories concerning events in Central
America.
And now, to you, the President of the United
States, directly charge and stand ready to prove
what say, that your officers of the Navy not only
by irresponsible statements through the press, but
also in official communications, have misrepresented
facts and falsifed events Feeling and believing
do. that you would not willingly wrong any indi-
vidual, no matter how humble. am satisfied that
your Annual Message to Congress, is the result of
incorrect information; and trust and confidently
expect, that when the truth is placed before you,
your judgment will acquit me of the grave charges
brought against me. .'...,
Permit me, then, if you please, before proceed
to call your attention to the conduct of Commodore
Pauding to deny most unequivocally, that have
ever been engaged at any time in any manner
with any unlawful expedition against Nicaragua.-
In your message to Congress you seem to imply
that my first departure from San Francisco ille
gal, for you say "when it was first rendered proba-
bic that an attempt would be made to get up anoth.
er unia~fu expedition against Nicaragua" With
all Difference beg leave to repeat what said in a
previous letter and to again inform you that left
San Francisco in May, 1866, with the sanction and
approval of the Federal officers of the port and that
the Captain of the cutter sent his sailors to
bend the sails which carried US from California to
Central America. Allow me, ALSO to suggest that
the Government of the United States recognized and
legalized the immediate results of the emigration
from California in the reception of Padre Vigil as
Minister from the Republic of Nicaragua Not only
was the first expedition, it has been called to
Nicaragua entirely lawful in its origin, but all its
consequences were marked by strict adherence to
law and justice. Some have told you know, that
| am man without faith and without money" but
from the beginning to the end of my career in Mic
aragua, l challenge the world to produce single
violation of public fath-a single deviation from the
great principles of public right and public Justice
On the contrary, the Americans in Nicaragua have
always maintained the faith and honor of their race
in the midst of alsehood and treachery on the part
OF their enemies-n the face of countless hosts ar.
rayed against them-no less than in the presence of
famine and of pestilence Our conduct in the midst
OF trials and of dangers is sufficient answer to the
eP'thets which have been hurled against us and
when the passions and prejudices of the present
have died away We calmly await the judgment of
posterity on conduct.
But an officer of the United States Navy forced
US to become exes from Nicaragua; and let me re-
mind you of the fact that from the moment we
n0fo cnSIxu
gality and injustice of the act and declared our in
tention to return to the land whence we had been
wrongfully brought.
Everywhere-before the functionaries of the Gov
ernment-in the presence of assembled multitudes
OF the sovereign people-we declared that no effort
should be unused in order to regain the rights wres
ted from us by fraud and ilIegality
10 you suppose that if We had been conscious of
any violation, or intended violation of law, we
would thus have proclaimed our objects and inten-
right or OF conspirators against public justice to
herald their acts on the of the streets and
publish their wrong doings in the market place?
would We have violated the public conscience of
this nation by calling on the people to disregard
their own enacted statues? No. Mr.. President let
all your District Attornies exhaust their energy and
their ingenuityet them attempt to pervert the law
to purposes for which it never was intended-they
cannot make good the charges which have been
made against u.s.
COnVCt
me of a breach of the neutrality laws; but a iury
OF the country rendered verdict of mot guilty."
almost withou. leaving the bar. Again like effort
would be crowned with a like result.
After long effort and much patient endurance, we
at length sailed from Mobile for San Juan de Mica.
ragua on the 14th day Of November last. The yes.
sci IN which we sailed regularly cleared by the
Collector of the Port and a special Inspector was
ABOARD to examine the cargo and the passengers
our rights, too. as Nicaraguans acknowledged,
LOT the Collector refused to clear the Fashion with
captain Fayssoux commanding, on the ground that
ne was citizen of the United States
win regular register and clearance we suppos-
ed when once on the high were beyond the
possible interference OF any United States authority,
for even if We were admitted bellieerents against a
power with which the United States was at neace
the owners of the neutral vessel had clear right to
carry warlke persons well as contraband of war;
subject only to the risk of capture by the enemys
cruisers. We did not for a moment imagine that
naSal oncers would undertake to place restraints
American commerce in the absence of Federal law
and OF Congressional authority. The Difference too
We know your Excellency has for the Constitution
OF the United States precluded the supposition that
any orders had been issued to detan or capture an
American vessel whose papers showed she was en-
Satisfied as we were of the entire legality of our
voyage, we did not hesitate to enter the port of San
Juan de Nicaragua, although we knew U. S. soop-
ofwar was present in the harbor. But we had
io"aou oeioTe We were subjected 10 series
OF illegal and insulting acts of the commander of the
Saratoga These acts have been detailed in two let
ters addressed by me to Commodore Paulding, and
now on file, presume, in the Navy Department
While we were being embarrassed by the action
of the Saratoga we had not been idle. Col Ander.
son, who had served his native country throughout
the Mexican war; at the head of fifty men had as
cended the river and gained possession of the
which in the last century had for days
defed the genius of the proudest naval name in
British annals Nnf nm h,< h. lol