e used not to
refund old bonds, but to raise money for the prosecution of the new
war. Before its close this indebtedness had been swollen to over double
the figure named above, and a part of the money must have been used
directly in the war against the United States.

[3] One of the author's colleagues at Paris, the Hon. Cushman K.
Davis, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee of the United
States Senate, and among the most scholarly students of
International Law now in American public life, says in a private
letter:

"I was at first very much struck by the unanimity of action
by the South American republics in the assumption of debts
created by Spain. But some reflection upon the subject has
caused that action to lose, to me, much of its apparent
relevancy. There was in none of those cases any funded debt,
in the sense of bond obligations, held in the markets of the
world. There were two parties in the various Spanish
provinces of North and South America, one of which supported
Spanish ascendancy, and the other of which was revolutionary.
The debts created by the exactions of Spain and of the
revolutionary party alike were, mainly if not entirely,
obligations due to the people of the colonies themselves. As
to the continuance of pensions, endowments, etc., it must be
remembered that these were Catholic countries, and that these
obligations ran to a state church, which continued to be a
state church after the colonies had achieved their
independence. As to the Napoleonic treaties cited by the
Spanish Commissioners, they were mere matters of covenant in
a special case, and were not, in my judgment, the result of
any anterior national obligation."

In the negotiations Spain took high moral ground with reference to
these debts. She utterly denied any right to inquire how the proceeds
had been expended. She did not insist for her own benefit on their
recognition and transfer with the territory. She was concerned, not for
herself, but for international morality and for the innocent holders.
Some, no doubt, were Spanish citizens, but many others were French, or
Austrian, or of other foreign nationalities. The bonds were freely
dealt in on the Continental bourses. A failure to provide for the