The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1859-03-14
BALTIMORE.
MONDAY, MARCH "A, 1859.

A piece of suppressed history has just come to
loht compared with the revelations ofwhch, even
the dispracefu disclosures made by the SHERMANand
other Investigating Committees of the late House of
Representatives seem TO lose their Importance and
retire into the region of merely common
Mace wrong. Those disclosures related chiefly,
if not exclusively, to abuses growing out of
the improper disbursement of the public money,
and the corrupt distribution of official
patronage. They affected only ourselves
and Government in relation to ourselves. But
this last and most startling revelation threatens to
convict Government of want of truth and fair
dealing in its intercourse with foreign powers-of
studied and persistent Misrepresentation of the
views and policy of friendly State-and Of the
suppression of documentary evidence whereby the
truth of these charges could be distinctly and tho
roughly sustained
Our readers have not forgotten the memorable
mission of Mr.. SoULE to Spain-the objects of that
mission, and the failure of Mr.. SoULE to accom-
plish any one of them. They will remember how
instead of cultvating relations of friendship and
confidence with the Spanish Court and people, that
Minister succeeded in converting his peaceful err
protesting to be actuated solely by desire to pur-
chase Cuba, contrived to render the acquisition
of that Island by any other means, than the strong
hand, absolutely and forever impossible. The
public, however has not been made aware and but
for circumstances which we are about to relate,
would, in all probability, have never known the
extent of the mischief which Mr.. SoULE succeeded,
and of the good which he failed-in accomplishing.
That is a matter which has only just now been
brought to the public knowledge A resolution
recently passed the Senate of the UNITED STATES
calling for "a copy of a letter or letters from
'HoRATIo J. PERRY, Secretary of Legation at
"Madrid, addressed in 1854 and 1855, to Mr..
"MARcY, Secretary of State, upon the subject of
Gan overture for treaty made by the Spanish
minister of Foreign Affairs; and alsoa copy of
programme of a treaty, if any, described in
"letter addressed to President PIERCE as conce-
ding immense benefits to commerce, and secu-
firing the prompt and complete protection
"of the political and religious and social
'rights of our citizens in future in every portion
'of the Spanish domnons, in consideration for
"similar benefits conceded to Spanish subjects and
"their commerce by the United States"
In compliance with this resolution of the Senate,
Mr. Secretary CAss has transmitted to that body,
copies of a correspondence, the whole of which,
with the exception of a single despatch, has been
published before, in answer to former call of the
Senate, and adds that the letters communicated,
fare the only ones on file in the Department, rea-
sting to the subject of the Senates resolution"
The programme of a treaty." which is specifically
called for by the resolution, is not among them.
Yet, that such a document was once con
"fle' in the Department, does not admit of
question How and why it should have since dis
appeared, our readers can best imagine when
they know the circumstances under which
it was communicated to this Government and the
nature of the provisions it is reported to have con-
tanned. After the departure of Mr.. SouLE
from Madrid, when Mr.. PERRY was
left in charge of the Legation, the Spanish Minister
for Foreign Affairs intimated to the latter the will
lingness of his Government to negotiate treaty
conceding all the important demands ever made
by the UNITED STATES and answering every re-
qurement-in fact-of Mr.. MARCY's instruc-
tions to Mr. SoULE. An overture or programme
of such treaty was prepared and forwarded to
Washington and is the identical document the pro-
duction of which is now called for by the Senate,
but ofwhich no trace is to be found among the re-
cords of the Department of State This fact is
so stated by Mr.. PERRY himself in a letter ad
dressed to the PRESIDENT of the UNITED STATES,
dated Madrid, April 81, 1855, and which is the
one referred to in the Senate's resolution above
quoted, and also in a communication addressed 10
the Editor of the Washington Union and publish
ed in the National Htellgencer, of September 18th.
1855. In his letter to Mr.. PIERCE, Mr.. PERRY al
ludes to the efforts of Mr.. SoULE to prevent those
friendly overtures of the Spanish Government from
reaching the Cabinet at Washington, but adds that
in spite of his exertions, 'the overtures went on
''and were put on record" With respect to the
character of those overtures, we have in addition
to the brief statement of their general scope con-
tanned in Mr.. PERRY's letter already published, the
following testimony from the venerable Editors of
The National AHelligencer, who having seen and
perused copy of the missing document are enabled
toglve the following summary of its contents. 1t
was In the form of a despatch addressed by
Mr.. PERRY to Mr.. MARCY, in the month of Sep
TENDER, 1854:
'n which Mr. Perry stated that he was satisfied from
repeated interviews with the Spanish Minister for Foreign
Affairs that convention could be made which should
guaranty the right of American citizens freedom OF ac
ton freedom of conscience and freedom of thought in all
the spanish domnons owing the existing discrimi-
mating duties and other rest lotions laid
with all the colonies well the mother country pac
ing in word the broad incipe of reciprocity en-
the two countries in the widest granting extens
privileges to mail steamers and other vessels su CHI
as they had never before enjoyed and establishing such
limited diplomatic relations between the Consuls resident
in the capital cities and the Governors Captains
OF the Spanish provinces beyond the would serve
always to protect those tights from Infringement su
ce to obtain justice for citizens without to
the home government whenever they were wroneed Mr.
Perry added in the despatch, if recollec Alright
that he had received this with such statements
as left him under the impression that required only to
be formally proposed in order to be Immediately accepted
by the Spanish government iii necessary to be
more explicit might add that according recol
lection the tenth art lie of the projected treaty contained
very ample and definite stipuatious upon the subject of
the limited diplomatic powers be conferred upon the
Captain General OF Cuba for the purpose enabling him
to directly our Consul at Havana for the settle
ment of all questions arising under the commercial or Do
intercourse carried on between the United States
and that province"
Here then we have the programme of treaty
The negotiation of which, four years ago, would
have removed every ground of complaint which,
with such painful industry Mr.. BUCHANAN has COL
lected against the Government of Spain in his last
Annual Message to Congress. That it could have
been negotiated by Mr.. SoULE if he had been so
disposed, or by Mr.. PERRY himself, if he had pos
sessed the requisite powers for the purpose, we
have the express authority of the latter fer assert
ing. Among the letters just communicated to the
Senate, was one from Mr.. PERRY to Mr.. MARCY,
in which, after communicating the fact of the re-
tirement of Mr.. LuzURIAGA from the Spanish
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he states that
the late Minister had heard cause Of our Government
ana people so often argued explained and made clear to
him, that the Interests Of the ttoo Governments, commercial
and political, had come to be particularly well understood
by him. With respect to the conclusion of a
great treaty upon those subjects, the late Minister as pre-
pared and dnrOus for it, Since my residence at Aran-
1uez he has frequently taken occasion of his
to confer with that subject In recent
interviews he said to me- in these words i oish
the U,ed htdtes all the benefit aohich they erpect to
gain By a conquest of Cuba beiere all that can be
combined aCith the true interests Of Spain that colony"
No notice appears ever to have been taken, either
by the last or the present Administration of this
liberal overture the part of the Spanish Govern
ment and the rtten evidence of the fact that such
an overture had once been made, appears to have
mysteriously disappeared from the records of the
State Department. The National I,telHgencer.
TO which we are indebted for most of tie
foregoing facts, forbears to discuss the causes
of this extraordinary state of things-but those
causes, unfortunately, not difficult to divine
There is a party in this country, and it appears
TO be the dominant party in the Government-who
do not desire to be on good terms with Spain-who
would rather have with that country than peace
.ns-