CHAPTER XIII.
THE MASSACRE OF THE VIRGINIUS OFFICERS AND CREW.
Excitement in the United States over a Spanish Outrage of Twenty-five
Years Ago—The Virginius a Blockade Runner—Severity of the Spanish
Court Martial—Insolence to the American Consul—Indignation in the
United States—Negotiations Between Washington and Madrid—Settlement an
Unsatisfactory One to Most People—No Just Retribution Ever Made.
It was less than twenty-five years before the destruction of the Maine, that another vessel whose crew met its fate in a Spanish port in Cuba was the subject of as intense public interest in the United States as that created by the catastrophe of 1898. The hopeful progress of the Cuban revolution of 1868-78 had stimulated their friends in the United States to aid the insurgents in every way possible, by money, men and the munitions of war. Filibustering was constant and scarcely discouraged by the people of the United States, in spite of the protest of Spain. It was as a result of this condition that the terrible affair of the Virginius occurred.
The case of the Virginius had in it elements of tragedy that made it more spectacular and dramatic than that of the Maine, and American spirit was worked to an even higher tension than it is now, before diplomacy and caution averted a war between the United States and Spain. In the case of the Virginius the facts of Spanish aggression were in no way denied, but, on the contrary, avowed for a time with pride, until the authorities at Madrid subdued their people, who were making a settlement more difficult by their talk. The only controversy was as to whether or not Spain's action in the matter was within its rights. But the settlement, however it might have left the rights of the vessel still unsolved, was a rebuke to Spain, and for its execution of American citizens with scarcely a formality of law Spain has never been forgiven by those who remember it, whatever diplomacy decided as to being satisfied.
The Virginius was originally an English-built sidewheel steamer called the Virgin, and during the war between the States was one of the most famous of blockade runners until captured by a vessel of the United States. In 1870 she was sold in Washington to an agent of the Cuban Junta at New York, her name was changed to Virginius, and she cleared for Curacoa in the West Indies. From that time till her unhappy fate she was never in United States waters. At Aspinwall and in the ports of Venezuela and the West Indies she was known for three years as the most daring and the most successful of filibusters, making repeated landings on the Cuban coast with supplies of arms, ammunition, food and clothes for the insurgents who were then fighting the Ten-Years' war. In all her filibustering it was claimed, however, that the Virginius never lost her character as an American ship, though the Cuban flag was kept at the masthead whenever that practice served any good purpose.
The vessel sailed on the fatal voyage from Kingston, Jamaica, October 23, 1873, having cleared at the United States consulate as a United States vessel bound for Port Simon, Costa Rica. The commander was Captain Joseph Fry, a citizen of the United States. The cargo was made up of munitions of war for the Cuban insurgents, and the crew was part of Cuban and part of American citizens. There were also on board a number of enlisted men on their way to join the insurgent army.
It was not until October 31 that the Virginius approached the coast of Cuba to make her landing, and was intercepted by the Spanish gunboat Tornado. The Tornado had been built by the same English firm that constructed the Virginius, also for blockade running, but in the race that followed the Virginius was unable to equal the speed of her Spanish pursuer. The chase lasted eight hours. Finally, at 10 o'clock at night, the Virginius was stopped and surrendered in response to the cannon shots of the Tornado, which had come in range. The captain protested that his papers were regular and that the Virginius was "an American ship, carrying American colors and papers, with an American captain and an American crew." In response he was told that he was a pirate, his flag was lowered and trampled upon, and the Spanish flag was hoisted in its place.
During the chase after the Virginius, the passengers and crew of the fated vessel were in a state of panic. The cargo, which was made up of war material, was thrown overboard, and all persons on the vessel emptied their trunks of whatever might be considered suspicious. Almost from the instant of the capture the fate of the unfortunate men was assured, and they soon realized the extent of the danger that threatened them.
VERDICT OF THE SPANISH COURT-MARTIAL.
When the Tornado and the Virginius reached Santiago de Cuba the next day the 155 men captured were placed in close confinement and a court-martial was convened at once. The various courts-martial condemned most if not all of the prisoners to death, this summary proceeding being, as was alleged, in accordance with Spanish laws, so far at least as the character of the court and the nature of the judicial forms were concerned. The first executions were on the morning of November 4, when four men were shot, one of them being Brigadier Washington Ryan, who claimed British citizenship, as a Canadian, although he had served in the Union army during the late war. The victims were shot in the back, and their bodies were afterward beheaded, the heads displayed on spikes and the trunks trampled by horses. George W. Sherman, the correspondent of the New York Herald, tried to sketch the scene and was imprisoned for four days for his attempt. A guard kept the American consul in his house, so he could not appear to protest.
As the Virginius had displayed the American colors and was chartered and cleared as an American vessel, she had a prima facie claim to protection as such, until her right should be disproved. Hence Mr. E. G. Schmitt, the American vice-consul at Santiago, was prompt and urgent in demanding access to the prisoners, with a view to protecting the rights of the vessel and any on board who might be American citizens. He was treated with great discourtesy by the provincial governor, who told him in effect that it was none of his business, and persisted in declaring that they were all pirates and would be dealt with as such. Mr. Schmitt was even refused the use of the submarine cable to consult with the consul at Kingston, Jamaica. He would thus have been left entirely helpless but for the friendly aid of the British and French consuls.
On the 8th of November twelve more men were executed, and on the 13th thirty-seven were executed, this last batch including the officers and crew of the Virginius and most of the American citizens. At 4 o'clock in the afternoon the condemned men were marched to the place of execution, passing and saluting the American consulate, where the flag was not flying from its staff.
Captain Fry was shot first, and was the only man, though the soldiers stood but ten feet away, who fell dead at the first volley. The majority of the poor fellows, as the firing continued, were wounded, and killed as they lay on the ground by the usual Spanish fashion of firing rifles in the mouths of those who were disabled. The second engineer of the Virginius was among those executed. He had made a declaration to the Spanish that he had tampered with the engines and cut down the speed of the vessel so that she could be captured, and was marched with the rest to prevent his comrades from knowing that he was to be spared. He was shot by mistake while making frantic protests and explanations, but, as he was a traitor in one way or the other, his death was the only one of all that was never regretted.
PROTESTS WERE UNHEEDED.
During all this time the consuls at Santiago were not idle, but they were helpless. E. G. Schmitt, the American vice-consul, and Theodore Brooks, the British vice-consul, made all sorts of protests that were unavailing. Schmitt was not permitted to see the prisoners before or after the court-martial, until the very end, when he reached Captain Fry and signed his protest with him. He was not permitted the use of the telegraph in order to communicate with the government at Washington by way of Kingston, Jamaica.
He wrote repeated notes to Gen. Burriel, the Spanish commander at Santiago, getting no answer to them, until at last an answer came that was more irritating than silence. Burriel told him that he should have known that the previous day was a day of religious festival, during which he and all his officers were engaged in "meditation of the divine mysteries," and could not consider temporal affairs. He also informed the consul that he might be expelled from the island for trying to embroil the United States and Spain in difficulties if he were not careful.
Then came the only bright spot in the whole affair. News of what was going on reached Jamaica, and the British gunboat Niobe, Captain Sir Lambton Lorraine, left for the scene of massacre, sailing in such a hurry that he left some of the crew ashore. The Captain landed at Santiago before his ship was anchored, and demanded that the slaughter be stopped instantly. He declared that he represented the United States as well as England, and that he would bombard the city if there was another American citizen executed. Ninety-three men were under sentence of death, many of whom were Americans, but the sentences were immediately suspended and the lives were saved. The Spanish afterward asserted that the executions were stopped because of orders received from Madrid.
The next time Sir Lambton Lorraine was in New York he was offered a reception, which he declined. He was presented, however, with a silver brick, on which were engraved the words: "Blood is thicker than water." A resolution of thanks to him was laid on the table in the House of Representatives and never passed.
AMERICAN DEMANDS FOR VENGEANCE.
When the news of all this reached the United States, public indignation rose rapidly. Mass-meetings were held demanding vengeance on Spain. President Grant sent special messages to Congress, and the state department began diplomatic negotiations. Hamilton Fish, secretary of state, declared that the Virginius, having been registered as an American vessel carrying official documents regular upon their face and bearing the United States flag, was entirely beyond the jurisdiction of any other power on the high seas in the time of peace; that if she had secured fraudulent entry or committed any other fraud against the laws of the United States it was for her to be turned over to the United States courts for punishment, and not for her to be captured and punished by some other power.
The Spanish minister of foreign affairs at that time was Admiral Polo de Bernabe, father of the new Spanish minister who succeeded Dupuy de Lome. He wanted to submit the matter to arbitration, and Secretary Fish replied to him that the "United States was ready to refer to arbitration all questions properly subjects for reference, but that the question of an indignity to the flag of the nation and the capture in time of peace on the high seas of a vessel bearing that flag and having also the register and papers of an American ship, is not deemed to be one referable to other powers to determine. A nation must be the judge and custodian of its own honor."
Most of the men were executed after protests to Madrid began to be made. Madrid mobs made a demonstration against the American minister, General Sickles. November 4, Secretary Fish cabled Sickles: "In case of refusal of satisfactory reparation within twelve days from this date close your legation and leave Madrid." Ten days later, when the executions were over, he telegraphed: "If Spain cannot redress these outrages, the United States will." Ten days after that he wired: "If no settlement is reached by the close of to-morrow, leave." Next day Spain became tractable and war was averted.
By his conduct in Madrid at that time General Sickles made many friends of those Americans who wanted to see energetic action, and many enemies among those who wanted peace at any price. It was alleged afterward that the latter influence became dominant, and that his recall from that post was the result of their work to punish him for his energy that was not always diplomatic in its forms.
SETTLEMENT OF THE TROUBLE.
The terms of settlement of the trouble were that the Virginius should be surrendered to an American warship, with the survivors of those who had been captured with her, and that on December 25 the United States flag should be saluted by the Tornado. The surrender was made in the obscure harbor of Bahia Honda, December 16, the Spanish having taken the Virginius there to avoid the humiliation of a surrender in Santiago or Havana, where it should have been made. Captain W. D. Whiting, the chief of staff of the North Atlantic Squadron, was appointed to receive the surrender of the Virginius, and the gunboat Dispatch was sent to Bahia Honda with him for that purpose. Lieut. Adolph Marix was the flag lieutenant of the Dispatch, the same who was afterwards the judge-advocate of the court of inquiry on the Maine disaster. The Virginius was delivered with the flag flying, but she was unseaworthy, and, struck by a storm off Cape Hatteras, was sunk on her way to New York. The salute to the flag that had been arranged was waived by the United States because the attorney-general gave an opinion that the Virginius had no right to fly the American flag when she was captured.
Major Moses P. Handy, afterwards famous as a journalist, was present at the surrender of the Virginius to the American men of war in the harbor of Bahia Honda, and gives a graphic account of the circumstances attending that ceremony. In concluding the tale he says: "The surrender of the surviving prisoners of the massacre took place in the course of time at Santiago, owing more to British insistence than to our feeble representation. As to the fifty-three who were killed, Spain never gave us any real satisfaction. For a long time the Madrid government unblushingly denied that there had been any killing, and when forced to acknowledge the fact they put us off with preposterous excuses. 'Butcher Borriel,' by whose orders the outrage was perpetrated, was considered at Madrid to have been justified by circumstances. It was pretended that orders to suspend the execution of Ryan and his associates were 'unfortunately' received too late, owing to interruption of telegraph lines by the insurgents, to whose broad and bleeding shoulders an attempt was thus made to shift the responsibility.
"There was a nominal repudiation of Borriel's act and a promise was made to inflict punishment upon 'those who have offended,' but no punishment was inflicted upon anybody. The Spanish government, with characteristic double dealing, resorted to procrastination, prevarication and trickery, and thus gained time, until new issues effaced in the American mind the memory of old wrongs unavenged. Instead of being degraded, Borriel was promoted. Never to this day has there been any adequate atonement by Spain, much less an apology or expression of regret for the Virginius massacre."
The amount of money paid to the United States government for distribution among the families of American sufferers by this affair was $80,000. And that is the extent of the reparation made for the shocking crime.
The Virginius, although the most conspicuous, was not the only American victim of Spanish misgovernment in Cuba during the Ten Years' war. In 1877 the three whaling vessels, Rising Sun, Ellen Rizpah, and Edward Lee, while pursuing their legitimate business under the American flag, outside of Cuban waters, were fired upon and detained for days, with circumstances of peculiar hardship and brutality. The United States government investigated the outrage with care, and demanded of Spain an indemnity of $19,500. The demand, however, was not enforced, and the sum of $10,000 was accepted as a compromise settlement.