 The "Virginius", with portraits of General Bernabé Varona and General William A.C. Ryan, executed by the Spanish Governor at Santiago de Cuba.The Graphic, 1873. | |
| Date | October 30 – November 8, 1873 (1873-10-30 –1873-11-08) |
|---|---|
| Location | Santiago de Cuba |
| Participants |
|
| Outcome | Peace negotiation |
| Deaths | 53 |
TheVirginius Affair was a diplomatic dispute that occurred from October 1873 to February 1875 between the United States, Great Britain, and Spain (then in control ofCuba) during theTen Years' War.Virginius was a fast American ship hired by Cuban insurrectionists to land men and munitions in Cuba to attack the Spanish regime, in support of the Ten-Year revolutionary war. It was captured by the Spanish, who wanted to try the men onboard (many of whom were American and British citizens) as pirates and execute them. The Spanish executed 53 men in Santiago de Cuba, but stopped when the British government intervened.
Throughout the ordeal, there was loose talk that the US might declare war on Spain. During the lengthy negotiations, the Spanish government underwent several leadership changes. US consulCaleb Cushing ended the episode by negotiating $80,000 in reparations to be paid to the families of the executed Americans. The Spanish government compensated British families through negotiation before American compensation. The incident was remarkable for the use of international diplomacy for a peaceful settlement implemented byUS Secretary of StateHamilton Fish rather than opting for a costly war between the United States and Spain. TheVirginius Affair started a resurgence in theUS Navy in the late 19th century. Until then its fleet had been inferior to the warships of Spain.
After theAmerican Civil War, the island country of Cuba under Spanish rule was one of the few Western Hemisphere countries where slavery remained legal and was widely practiced.[1] On October 10, 1868, a revolution broke out, known as theTen Years' War, by Cuban landowners, led byCarlos Manuel de Céspedes.[2] The Spanish, led initially byFrancisco Lersundi, used the military to suppress the rebellion.[3] In 1870, Secretary of StateHamilton Fish persuaded President Grant not to recognize Cuban belligerency, and the United States maintained an unstable peace with Spain.[4]
As the Cuban war continued, an international patriotic insurgency began to arise in support of the Cuban rebellion; war bonds were sold in the US to support the Cuban resistance.[5] One of the US Cuban patriots was John F. Patterson, who bought a former Confederate steamer,Virgin, at theWashington Navy Yard, renaming herVirginius.[6] The legality of Patterson's purchase ofVirginius would later come to national and international attention.[7] The Cuban rebellion ended in an 1878 armistice after Spanish generalArsenio Martínez-Campos pardoned all Cuban rebels.[8]
Virginius was a small, high-speed side-wheel steamer built to serve as ablockade runner between Havana and Mobile, Alabama, for the Confederacy during the Civil War.[9][10] Originally built asVirgin by Aitken & Mansel ofWhiteinch,Glasgow in 1864, she became a prize of the United States when captured on April 12, 1865.[9] In August 1870,Virginius was purchased by an American, John F. Patterson, acting secretly as an agent for Cuban insurgentManuel de Quesada and two US citizens, Marshall O. Roberts and J.K. Roberts.[9] The ship was originally captained by Francis Sheppherd. Both Patterson and Shepphard immediately registered the ship in the New York Custom House, having paid $2,000 to be bonded. However, no sureties were listed.[11] Patterson took a required oath attesting that he was the sole owner ofVirginius. The secret purpose of purchasingVirginius was to transport men, munitions, and supplies to aid the Cuban rebellion. For three years, the ship aided the Cuban rebellion; it was protected by US naval ships, includingUSS Kansas andUSS Canandaigua.[10] The Spanish said that it was an outlaw ship and aggressively sought to capture it.[10][11]
_(14760898856).jpg)
CaptainJoseph Fry was made the new captain ofVirginius in October 1873.[12] Fry had served in the US Navy for 15 years before joining theConfederacy during the Civil War. Fry was promoted to commodore in theConfederate Navy. However, after that position disappeared after the U.S. victory in 1865, Fry was underemployed. In 1873 he took the job as captain ofVirginius.Virginius, moored inKingston, Jamaica by this time, needed repair, and the boilers were breaking down.[13] As most of the previous crew had deserted, Fry recruited a new crew of 52 American and British men. Many were inexperienced and did not understand thatVirginius was supporting the Cuban rebellion. Three were very young recruits, no older than 13 years of age.[12]Virginius took on 103 native Cuban soldiers that arrived on board a New York steamer. The US Consul at Kingston, Thomas H. Pearne, had warned Fry that he would be shot if captured. However, Fry did not believe the Spanish would shoot a blockade runner.[14] In mid-October, Captain Fry, accompanied by the four principal Cuban patriots,Pedro de Céspedes (brother ofCarlos Manuel de Céspedes),Bernabé Varona,Jesús del Sol, andWilliam A.C. Ryan, tookVirginius to Haiti and loaded the ship with munitions.[15] On October 30,Virginius sailed to Comito to pick up more weapons and then, on the same day, started toward Cuba. The Spanish had been warned whenVirginius left Jamaica and sent out the warshipTornado to capture the vessel.[12]
On October 30, 1873Tornado spottedVirginius on open water 6 miles (9.7 km) from Cuba and gave chase.Virginius was heavily weighted, and the stress from the boilers caused the ship to take on water, significantly slowing any progress.[16] As the chase continued,Tornado, a fast warship, fired onVirginius several times, damaging the top deck. Captain Fry surrenderedVirginius, knowing that his ship's overworked boilers and leaking hull could not outrunTornado on the open sea. The Spanish quickly boarded and secured the ship, taking the entire crew prisoner and sailing the ship toSantiago de Cuba.[17]
The Spanish immediately ordered the entire crew to be put on trial as pirates.[19] The entireVirginius crew, both American and British citizens, as well as the Cuban patriots, were found guilty by a court martial and were sentenced to death. The Spanish ignored the protest of the US vice-consul, who attempted to give American citizens legal aid. On November 4, 1873, the four principal Cuban patriots who accompanied Fry were executed by a firing squad without trial since he had already been condemned as a pirate. After the executions, the British vice-consul at Santiago, concerned that one of the patriots killed, George Washington Ryan, claimed British citizenship, wired Jamaica to receive aid from the Royal Navy to stop further executions.[20] Hearing news of the ship's capture and the executions, Altamont de Cordova, a Jamaican resident, was able to get British Commodore A.F.R. de Horsey to send the sloopHMS Niobe underSir Lambton Loraine, 11th Baronet to Santiago to stop further executions.[21] On November 7, an additional 37 crew members, including Captain Fry, were executed by firing squad.[22] The Spanish soldiers decapitated them and trampled their bodies with horses. On November 8, twelve more crew members were executed until finally, both theUSSWyoming, under the command of Civil War Naval hero Will Cushing, and HMSNiobe reached Santiago.[23] The carnage stopped on the same day that Cushing (and possibly the British Captain Lorraine) threatened local commanderJuan N. Burriel that he would bombard Santiago if there were any more executions.[23] 53 were executed at Santiago under Burriel's authority. On a lighter note in the midst of the carnage, in an interview that Burriel requested with Sir Lambton Lorraine, he attempted to shake hands with the English captain, who stood straight and exclaimed, "I will not shake hands with a butcher".
The initial press reaction to the capture ofVirginius was conservative, but as news of executions poured into the nation, certain newspapers became more aggressive in promoting Cuban intervention and war.[24] TheNew York Times stated that if the executions of Americans fromVirginius were illegal, war needed to be declared.[25] TheNew York Tribune asserted that actions of Burriel and the Cuban Volunteers necessitated "the death knell of Spanish power in America."[25] TheNew York Herald demanded SecretaryHamilton Fish's resignation and the recognition by the US of the Cuban belligerency.[25]The National Republican, believing the threat of war with Spain to be imminent, encouraged the sale of Cuban bonds.[26] The American public considered the executions a national insult and rallied for intervention. Protest rallies took place across the nation inNew Orleans,St. Louis, andGeorgia, encouraging intervention in Cuba and vengeance on Spain.[27]
The British Minister to the United States, SirEdward Thornton, believed the American public was ready for war with Spain.[28] A large rally in New York'sSteinway Hall on November 17, 1873, led by future Secretary of StateWilliam Evarts, took a moderate position, and the meeting adopted a resolution that war would be necessary, yet regrettable, if Spain chose to "consider our defense against savage butchery as a cause of war...."[29]
On Wednesday, November 5, 1873, the first news from the US Consul-General inHavana,Henry C. Hall, informed the US State Department thatVirginius had been captured.[30] There was no knowledge that four Cuban patriots had already been killed; Secretary of State Hamilton Fish believed theVirginius was just another ship captured aiding the Cuban rebellion.[30] On November 7, Cuba headed the agenda of US PresidentUlysses S. Grant's Cabinet meeting as news came in of the deaths of Ryan and three other patriots.[31] The Cabinet agreed that the executions would be "regarded as an inhuman act not in accordance with the spirit of the civilization of the nineteenth century."[32] On November 8, Fish met with Spanish minister DonJosé Polo de Bernabé and discussed the legality of the capture ofVirginius.[33]
On November 11, Grant's Cabinet decided that war with Spain was not desirable, but Cuban intervention was possible.[34] On November 12, five days after the event, Fish received the devastating news that 37 crew members ofVirginius had been executed.[35] Fish ordered US Minister to SpainDaniel Sickles to protest the executions and demand reparations for any persons considered US citizens who were killed.[35] On November 13, Fish formally protested to Polo and stated that the US had a free hand on Cuba and theVirginius Affair.[35] On November 14, Grant's cabinet agreed that if US reparation demands were not met, the Spanish legation would be closed. An exaggerated report came into the White House that more crew members had been shot. In reality, twelve crew members had been executed.[36] On November 15, Polo visited Fish and stated thatVirginius was a pirate ship and that her crew had been a hostile threat to Cuba.[37] Fish, although doubtful of the legality of the ship's US ownership, was determined to advocate the nation's honor in demanding reparations from Spain.[38]
On the same day, a cable from Fish arrived in Spain for Sickles demanding the return ofVirginius to the US, the release of the crew that had escaped execution, a salute from Spain to the US flag, punishment for the perpetrators, and reparations for families.[39]
Negotiations in Spain between Sickles and Minister of State José de Carvajal became heated, and progress towards a settlement became unlikely.[40] The Spanish press openly attacked Sickles, the US, and Britain, intending to promote war between the three countries.[41] As the Sickles-Carvajal negotiations broke down, PresidentEmilio Castelar decided to settle theVirginius matter[42] through Fish and Polo in Washington.[43]
OnThanksgiving Day, November 27, Polo proposed to Fish that Spain would give up theVirginius and the remaining crew if the US would investigate the legal status of its ownership.[44] Both Fish and Grant agreed to Polo's offer and that the Spanish salute to the US flag would be dispensed with ifVirginius was found not to have legal US private citizen ownership.[44] On November 28, Polo and Fish met at the State Department and signed a formal agreement that included the return ofVirginius and crew and an investigation by both governments of the legal ownership ofVirginius and any crimes committed by the Spanish Volunteers.[45]
The threat of war between the two countries had been averted through negotiations, but the time and place of the surrender of theVirginius and the remaining crew remained undetermined for several days.[46] On December 5, Fish and Polo signed an agreement thatVirginius, with the US flag flying, would be turned over to the US Navy on December 16 at the port ofBahía Honda.[47] Sickles, having lost the confidence of Grant and Fish, resigned on December 20, 1873.[48] On January 6, 1874, after advice from Fish on a replacement for Sickles, Grant appointed eminent attorney and Spanish scholarCaleb Cushing as Minister to Spain.[49]
On December 16,Virginius, now in complete disrepair and taking on water, was towed out to open sea with the US flag flying to be turned over to the US Navy. US Captain W.D. Whiting on boardUSS Despatch agreed with Spanish CommanderManuel de la Cámara to turn overVirginius the following day.[50] On December 17, at exactly 9:00 a.m.,Virginius was formally turned over to the US Navy without incident.[51] The same day, after an investigation, US Attorney GeneralGeorge H. Williams ruled that the US ownership ofVirginius had been fraudulent and that she had no right to fly the US flag; however, Spain had no right to captureVirginius and her crew on the open sea.[52]
At 4:17 a.m., on December 26, while under tow byUSS Ossipee,Virginiusfoundered offCape Fear[53] en route to the United States.[54] Her 91 remaining crewmen, who had been held as prisoners under harsh conditions, were handed over to Captain D.L. Braine ofJuanita and were taken safely toNew York City.[55]
On January 3, 1874, Spanish PresidentEmilio Castelar was voted out of office and replaced byFrancisco Serrano.[56] Cushing, who had replaced Sickles as US Consul to Spain, stated that the US had been fortunate that Castelar, a university scholar, had been President of Spain, given that his replacement, Serrano, might have been more apt to go to war over the affair.[57] Cushing's primary duty was to get Spanish reparations forVirginius family victims and punishment of Burriel for the 53 Santiago executions.[58] Cushing met Serrano in May on June 26,Augusto Ulloa.[58] On July 5, Cushing, now well respected by Spanish authority, wrote to Fish that Spain was ready to make reparations.[59] In October, Cushing was informed that President Castelar had secretly negotiated reparations between Spain and Britain that totaled £7,700, but black British citizen families were given less money.[60] On November 7, Grant and Fish demanded $2,500 from Spain for each US citizen shot, regardless of race.[60]
On November 28, 1874, Fish instructed Cushing that allVirginius crew members not considered British would be considered American.[61]
Spanish Consul Antonio Mantilla, Polo's replacement, agreed with the reparations. Grant's 1875 State of the Union Address announced that reparations were near, quieting anger over theVirginius affair.[61] Reparations, however, were put on hold as Spain changed governments on December 28,from a republic back to a monarchy.Alfonso XII became King of Spain on January 11, 1875.[61]
On January 16, Cushings met with the new Spanish state ministerCastro, urged settlement before the US Congress adjourned, and noted that reparations would be a minor matter compared to an all-out war between Spain and the US.[62]
Under an agreement of February 7, 1875, signed on March 5, the Spanish government paid the US an indemnity of $80,000 for the execution of the Americans.[63] Burriel's Santiago executions were considered illegal by Spain, and President Serrano and King Alfonso condemned him.[64] The case against Burriel was taken up by the Spanish Tribunal of the Navy in June 1876. However, Burriel died on December 24, 1877, before any trial could occur.[65]
In addition to the reparation, a private indemnity in St. Louis was given to Captain Fry's financially troubled family, which had been unable to pay rent and had no permanent place to live.[66]
When theVirginius affair first broke out, a Spanishironclad—theArapiles—happened to be anchored inNew York Harbor for repairs, leading to the uncomfortable realization on the part of the US Navy that it had no ship capable of defeating such a vessel. US Secretary of WarGeorge M. Robeson believed a US naval resurgence was necessary. Congress hastily issued contracts to construct five new ironclads and accelerated its repair program for several more.[67]USS Puritan and the fourAmphitrite-class monitors were subsequently built as a result of theVirginius war scare.[68] All five vessels would later take part in theSpanish–American War of 1898.