Mr. Romero to Mr. Seward
Sir: The undersigned, chargé d’affaires of the United Mexican States, has had the honor to receive the note which the honorable William H. Seward, Secretary of State of the United States of America, was pleased to address to him under date of yesterday, in reply to the one which the undersigned placed in the hands of the honorable Mr. Seward, at the interview which he had with him on the nineteenth of the present month, in relation to the proposition made last year by the United States to the governments of Great Britain and France, with the object of protecting the security of the transit across the isthmus of Panama, which the government of the United States believed to be in danger in consequence of the political events which then occurred in New Granada.
The undersigned has seen with the liveliest satisfaction that, according to the expression of the honorable the Secretary of State, “the United States have not only no disposition to controvert the general views of the government of Mexico in regard to foreign intervention in the political affairs of the American states on this continent, but freely confess their sympathy with these views, as they are communicated by the undersigned to the Department of State in his note aforesaid.”
The satisfaction of the undersigned has been still the greater, upon seeing that the honorable the Secretary of State considers as a groundless fear the uneasiness which the government of Mexico felt on receiving notice of the proposition made by the United States to the cabinets of Saint James and the Tuilleries, believing that if it were accepted it would lead to a foreign intervention in the domestic affairs of New Granada; for this shows, in the opinion of the undersigned, that, although the result of such a proposition might have been that which the government of Mexico feared, the United States were very far from desiring it, and were looking for another wholly distinct.
The undersigned will with pleasure hasten to send a copy of the note of the honorable the Secretary of State to Mexico; and he does not doubt that it will be viewed by his government with the utmost and most sincere satisfaction; and that it will finally set at rest the fears which had been entertained in view of the proposition hereinbefore alluded to.
The undersigned believes it to be his duty to express to the honorable the Secretary of State how greatly he regrets that the communication which the [Page 1249] undersigned made to the United States, by order of his government, should have been received with regret by the honorable the Secretary of State, who laments that the government of Mexico should have thought itself under the necessity of making such a communication. The gravity and great importance of the question of intervention, from the favorable result of solution, which to the nations of America now depends not only the welfare but the independence itself of Mexico, the undersigned believes are motives which authorize the government of Mexico to respectfully manifest its views to the United States upon a point in which all the other nations of this continent are equally interested with themselves.
The government of Mexico must, therefore, have considered itself authorized (entitled) to make such a manifestation, especially when it was made expressing the pleasure, as heartfelt as it was sincere, with which the Mexican government had learned of the final determination of the President of the United States upon this subject.
The undersigned avails himself of this opportunity to renew to the honorable William H. Seward, Secretary of State of the United States, the assurances of his most distinguished consideration.
Hon. William H. Seward, &c., &c., &c.