Page:American Historical Review, Volume 12.djvu/290

THE BLACK WARRIOR AFFAIR The affair of the Black Warrior was symptomatic of the pohtical conditions of its time in the United States. It may perhaps be treated as a type of the many disputes which arose during the last century over the pecuHarly Spanish methods of applying the navi- gation laws of Cuba to our shipping. It brings us into contact with the Spanish administration of Cuba in the days of an international crisis. But the various accounts of the affair that have already been written are based in all the essential points upon such docu- ments and diplomatic and private papers as have been given to the government printers for publication by the Department of State.^ As this material has for the most part consisted of reports and corre- spondence of American origin, the evidence deduced from it in arriving at a judgment on the real merits of the case presented by the parties involved is unsatisfactory, and the data furnished by it have in many particulars remained incomplete. An examination of the letter-files of the captain-general of Cuba preserved in the Archivo Nacional at Havana has brought to light many new papers which shed new light upon this historical incident. The Spanish documents bearing on the subject are supplemented by the correspondence, official and private, of Americans residing in Havana who played important roles in the affair. We now have at hand probably the most important official notes that passed be- tween Madrid, Havana, and Washington, confidential correspond- ence (sometimes carried on in the Spanish government's cipher code), which constitutes a very interesting commentary not only on the internal politics of the country, but on the main part of the foreign policy of the Pierce administration and the attitude of the European powers toward the ambitions of the latter. This present account does not purport to be a complete story of the Black Warrior Affair; it merely attempts to avail itself of certain new matter in order to fit some missing historical passages into an existing fragmentary account. ^ith these prefatory re- marks, we pass on to a review and consideration of the important events which occurred at Havana during the months of February, 'Serial 724, 33 Cong., i Sess., Executive Documents, vol. 11. 1853-1854, no. 86, pp. 306-318; Serial 790, 33 Cong., 2 Sess., Ex. Docs., vol. 10, 1S54-1855, no. 93. (2S0)