Jasper Republican, Volume 2, Number 15, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 December 1875 — The United States and Spain. [ARTICLE]

The United States and Spain.

Washington, Dec. 14. The present distinctive point at issue between the United States and Spain is stated in non-officiaj, unusually well-in-formed, circles to be as follows: The United States ask: 1. That in future all American citizens in Cuba accused of violation of law shall be tried by civil courts, and not by military tribunals, with all the rights in such cases as are secured by the seventh article of the treaty of 1795; and 2. That all sentences, where American citizens have heretofore been tried by military tribunals, shall be annulled. Spain in some degree concedes the claim of the United States to the first proposition, agreeing that in future American citizens accused of violation of law shall be tried by the ordinary tribunals, with the right to be heard by counsel, to summon witnesses,and employ all other necessary safeguards to the accused, but with the reservation that all such trials shall be according to the law of 1821, which provides for more expeditious proceedings than those of civil courts for common crimes in time of peace. She also offers to revise all sentences passed by court-martial on American citizens, where it shall be satisfactorily shown that such sentences were in violation of established law. This reply is unsatisfactory to the United States, which takes the ground that American citizens accused of crime cannot be tried by court-martial, but are entitled to trial before the civil tribunals only, as secured by treaty stipulation, without such reservation as is proposed by Spain.