page_title: Itata incident
section_title: Return to US
hierarchical_section_title: Itata incident / Return to US
caption_attribution_description: Official White House portrait of William Howard Taft
context_page_description: The Itata incident was a diplomatic affair and military incident involving the United States and Chilean insurgents during the 1891 Chilean Civil War. The incident concerned an arms shipment by the Chilean ship Itata from the United States to Chile, to assist insurgent Congressionalist forces in the war. The Itata Incident was one of the causes of the Baltimore Crisis and is one of the reasons that Benjamin Harrison was not reelected to a second term as President of the United States.
context_section_description: After its surrender, the Itata was brought back to San Diego with its crew. The Harrison Administration appointed William Howard Taft, the US Solicitor General (and later U.S. President), and Los Angeles-based federal prosecutor Henry Gage (later Governor of California), to investigate the Itata and prosecute its crew and suppliers.
  Following his investigation, Gage declined to prosecute the crew, stating his belief that the federal government had made an error regarding the matter. He also stated that he believed that the arms shipment constituted private property, and was outside of the federal government's direct jurisdiction.
  Taft prosecuted the cases against the arms and against the ship, but the US government lost in each instance in the courts.
  Ultimately, the Chilean congressionalists succeeded in their ouster of the Balmaceda administration and, in 1901, the Chilean steamship company, which had chartered the Itata to the congressionalist authorities, brought a case against the United States for the ship's detention, claiming the ship had acted on behalf of the legitimate provisional government. The United States and Chilean Claims Commission ruled that the seizure had been justifiable and that the US authorities had had probable cause in holding the Itata at San Diego.
caption: Official White House portrait of William Howard Taft in the Blue Room, 1911, oil on canvas by Anders Leonard Zorn (1860–1920), White House Collection.
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