The Camden Journal

THE REY ABDUCTION.

As the abduction of Juan Francisco Rey, alias Garcia, which produced such tremendous excitement in New Orleans, is likely to become an affair of national importance, we present our readers with a succinct statement of the facts. Rey was jailer in Havana, where two prisoners were confined, Civillo Villaverde, for some political offence, and Vicente Fernandez, a bankrupt. He fled with them to the United States, and the Captain General of Cuba, it is alleged, communicated to Don Carlos de España, the Spanish Consul at New Orleans, a wish to re-capture him.

Rey was put on board the Mary Ellen, commanded by Capt. McConnell, and carried back to Havana, and was said to be thrown into prison. The citizens of New Orleans, believing him to have been secretly and forcibly abducted, became greatly excited. Proceedings were instituted against the Spanish consul and others, before Justice Bright, on the part of the State, and before Commissioner Cohen, on the part of the United States. A well planned scheme of villainy was disclosed in the investigation before these officers and the trial continued in a crowded Court Room for about two weeks. The witnesses were contradictory, and it is said many were bribed. It appears that an individual named Llorente induced Rey to change his lodgings, and introduced the Consul as a physician. The Consul visited him in the absence of his landlord, and succeeded in gaining his confidence. Rey was inveigled to the Consul's house, and there induced to sign a certain paper, witnessed by the Consul and Llorente. A passport was given him to Vera Cruz, where it was supposed the Mary Ellen was bound. The Mary Ellen sailed for Havana, and as the quarantine laws were in operation, Rey was transferred to the Andrew King, an American vessel. The news of the excitement in New Orleans had preceded the vessel, and General Campbell, the American Consul at Havana, officially demanded permission of the Cuban authorities to visit and hold a conference with Rey.—The Consul was accompanied by a Spanish officer and a file of soldiers to the ship. Rey, under the influence of fear of the soldiers, told the Consul he had left N. Orleans voluntarily. He was taken from the ship and conveyed to prison, and in the meantime managed to send to General Campbell two letters, stating that he was forced to say he had left New Orleans voluntarily under threats, but the truth was, that he was forcibly abducted therefrom, and prayed the protection of the American Government. The Consul, upon the reception of this startling intelligence, applied again for permission to see Rey. Three days after, he was informed that no interview with the prisoner could be allowed. Such was the position of affairs when the Falcon sailed, which brought a large pile of despatches for our government from the consul. Their contents are not yet known. News has been confirmed by the Adam Gray, which has since arrived. Commissioner Cohen decided that the Spanish consul should enter into a bond of $5000, conditioned for his appearance at the next term of the Circuit Court of the U. States, and his colleagues, Llorente, Egles, Marie, and Capt. McConnell were ordered by Justice Bright to give bail for their appearance before the First District Court; to answer to the charge of assault and battery and false imprisonment of Juan Francisco Rey, an American citizen. The Spanish Consul, after hearing the decision, presented a protest, in which he denied the right of the court to adjudge a case against a foreign Consul.

Questions may spring out of the proceedings, between the two governments, which can only be decided by the highest tribunals, and which may lead to a hostile conflict. There is no higher duty of a government than to protect the personal liberty of its citizens, and doubtless the American government will take every necessary step to vindicate the supremacy of her laws within her territorial limits.