The Marquis de Montholon to Mr. Seward
Sir: I have received the despatch you did me the honor to address to me on the 5th of this month, in which you inform me that a great part of the public property of the insurgents of Texas would be, after the capitulation and before the federal troops could have occupied the country, transported across the Mexican river Rio Grande; that the steamer Lucy Given, surrendered to the government of the United States, must have been carried off, and be now at anchor at Bagdad; and lastly, that eight hundred and twenty bales of cotton, belonging to the insurgents and collected at Rio Grande City, must, in like manner, have been transferred to the other side of the river.
I will hasten, sir, to bring these facts to the notice of the government of the Emperor, and will at the same time make report of it to his excellency Marshal Bazaine, commander-in-chief of the French forces in Mexico.
As I had the honor to inform you on the 15th June, I have called the attention of his excellency Marshal Bazaine to the facts related in the despatch which you did me the honor to address to me under date of June 12th. Even before having received my letter the marshal had hastened to inform me of the latest events occurred on the Rio Grande.
It results, from the intelligence he addresses to me at date of June 19th, that a meeting had taken place among the confederate troops at the moment of disbanding them, and that one Colonel Fisher, who had served under Juarez, having tried to get possession of some part of the materiel of the place—that is, six cannon and two forges—to put them in the hands of the Juarists, General Stoughton, in order to stop this act from happening, sent this materiel across the Mexican river. Marshal Bazaine informs me that General Mejia immediately caused it to be inventoried and placed on deposit at Matamoras, so that it may be remitted to the disposal of the government of the United States.
Marshal Bazaine also apprises me that he has given the various columns which are operating in Mexico the most precise orders, for the purpose of avoiding all that might give umbrage to the government of the United States.
[Page 439]I hasten to bring these facts to your knowledge, as a fresh proof that the authorities are in no way disposed to encourage or authorize any act of a nature to compromise the good relations which they desire to maintain with the federal authority on the frontier of Mexico.
Accept, sir, the assurance of my high considerations.
Hon. William H. Seward, &c., &c., &c.