Mr. Seward to Mr. Romero
The undersigned, Secretary of State of the United States, has the honor to acknowledge the reception of the note of his excellency Mr. Romero, chargé d’affaires of the republic of Mexico, which bears the date of December 20, and relates to the subject of the clearances of certain articles of merchandise at the city of New York, alleged by Mr. Romero to have been made, on account of French subjects, for the use of the French government in its war with Mexico.
In the note which the undersigned addressed to Mr. Romero on this subject, on the 15th December last, and also in an exposition of the same subject, which was made by the Secretary of the Treasury, and which was submitted to Mr. Romero, it was explained that the clearances of which he complains were made in conformity with the laws of the United States, and with the practical construction of these laws which has prevailed from the foundation of this government, a period which includes wars, more or less general, throughout the world, and involving many states situated on the American and European continents.
The undersigned, after the most careful reading of Mr. Romero’s note, is unable to concede that the government of the United States has obliged itself to prohibit the exportation of mules and wagons, for which it has no military need, from its ports on French account, because, being in a state of war, and needing for the use of the government all the fire-arms made and found in the country, it has, temporarily, forbidden the export of such weapons to all nations.
Nor is it perceived how the treaty between the United States and Mexico, to which Mr. Romero refers, bears upon the question, since the United States have not set up or thought of setting up any claim that Mexico shall be required to admit into her ports any articles of merchandise, contraband of war, which may be exported from the United States on French or any other account.
The undersigned is equally unable to perceive the bearing of Mr. Romero’s allusions to the correspondence which has occurred between this government and that of Great Britain, in which complaints have been made by the United States that Great Britain wrongfully and injuriously recognized as a public belligerent an insurrectionary faction which has arisen in this country; has proclaimed neutrality between that faction and this government, and has suffered armed naval expeditions to be fitted out in British ports to depredate on the commerce of the United States, in violation of, as was believed, the Queen’s proclamation, and of the municipal laws of the United Kingdom.
The undersigned avails himself of this occasion to renew to Mr. Romero the assurances of his most distinguished consideration.
Señor Don Matias Romero, &c., &c., &c.