Papers Relating to Foreign Affairs, Accompanying the Annual Message of the President to the First Session Thirty-ninth Congress, Part III
Mr. Otterbourg to Mr. Seward,
Sir: I have the honor to inform the department that, in conformity with instructions received from our chargé d’affaires residing here, this consulate has been directed to issue passports when required.
Enclosed I have the honor to transmit the translations (No. 1) to which I referred in despatch No. 17.
I have the honor to be, sir, most respectfully, your obedient servant,
Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State of the United States of America, Washington,
Decree.
We, Maximilian, emperor of Mexico, in consideration of the sparseness of the population in the Mexican territory, in proportion to its extent; desiring to give to immigrants all possible security for property and liberty, in order that they may become good Mexicans, sincerely attached to their new country, and having heard the opinion of our board of colonization, do decree as follows:
Article 1. Mexico is open to immigration from all nations.
Art. 2. Immigration agents shall be appointed, who will be paid by the government, and whose duty it shall be to protect the arrival of immigrants, and install them on the lands assigned them, and assist them in every possible manner in establishing themselves. These agents will receive the orders of an imperial commission of immigration, specially appointed by us, and to whom, through our minister of improvement, (Fomento,) all communications relating to immigration shall be addressed.
Art. 3. Each immigrant shall receive a duly executed title incommutable of landed estate, and a certificate that it is free of mortgages.
Art. 4. Such property shall be free from taxes for the first year, and also from duties on transfers of property, but only on the first sale.
Art. 5. The immigrants may be naturalized as soon as they shall have established themselves as settlers.
Art. 6. Immigrants who may desire to bring laborers with them, or induce them to come in considerable numbers, of any race whatever, are authorized to do so; but those laborers will be subject to special protective regulations.
Art. 7. The effects of immigrants, their working and brood animals, seeds, agricultural implements, machines, and working tools, will enter free of custom-house and transit duties.
Art. 8. Immigrants are exempted from military service for five years, but they will form a stationary militia, for the purpose of protecting their property and neighborhoods.
Art. 9. Liberty in the exercise of their respective forms of religious worship is secured to immigrants by the organic law of the empire.
Art. 10. Each of our ministers is charged with carrying out such parts of this decree as relates to his department.
Given at Chapultepec on the 5th day of September, 1865.
MAXIMILIAN.
By the Emperor:
The Minister of Improvement, (Fomento.)
Regulations.
Under article 6th of the foregoing decree we ordain as follows:
1. Under the laws of the empire all persons of color are free by the mere act of their touching Mexican territory.
2. They shall make contracts with the employer who has engaged or may engage them, by which such employer shall bind himself to feed, clothe, and lodge them, and give them medical attendance; and also pay them a sum of money according to whatever agreements they may enter into with them. Moreover, he shall deposit in the savings bank herein mentioned, for the benefit of the laborer, a sum equivalent to one-fourth of his wages. The laborer shall, on his part, obligate himself to his employer to perform the labor for which he is employed for a term of not less than five nor more than ten years.
3. The employer shall bind himself to support the children of his laborers. In the event of the father’s death, the employer will be regarded as the guardian of the children, and they will remain in his service until they become of age, on the same terms as those agreed on by their father.
4. Each laborer shall receive & book certified by the local authority, in which book his description, the statement of his place of labor, and a certificate of his life and habits will be entered. In case of a change of employer, the consent of the former employer shall be entered in this book.
5. In case of the death of the employer, his heirs, or whoever may acquire his estate, shall be bound to the laborer in the same manner in which such employer was, and the laborer on his part shall be bound towards such new proprietor on the same terms as in his former contract.
6. In case of desertion, the laborer, when arrested, shall be placed without pay on public works, until his employer presents himself to claim him.
7. In case of any injustice of the employer towards the laborers, he shall be brought before a magistrate.
[Page 476]8. Special police commissioners will watch over the execution of these regulations, and officially prosecute all violators thereof.
9. A savings bank will be established by the government for the following objects:
10. The employers shall deposit in said bank every month, for the benefit of the laborers, a sum equivalent to one-fourth of the wages which each is entitled to under his contract of employment.
11. The laborers can deposit in addition, in the savings bank, in money, such sums as they may desire.
12. These deposits shall bear interest at the rate of five per centum per annum.
13. At the end of his engagement, and on the presentation of his book, the laborer shall receive the entire amount of his savings.
14. If at the end of his engagement the laborer wishes to leave his money in the savings bank, he can then receive the interest accrued; or if he wishes to leave this also, it will be added to his capital, and also draw interest.
15. In case a laborer should die intestate, or without heirs, his property shall pass to the treasury of the government.
Given at Chapultepec on the 5th day of September, 1865.
MAXIMILIAN.
By the Emperor:
The Minister of Improvement, (fomento.)
[Untitled]
MAXIMILIAN, EMPEROR OF MEXICO.
Considering that there exist in the district of Cordoba, department of Vera Cruz, various rural estates which, in consequence of insolvency proceedings and other legal questions raised about the ownership of them, have been neglected in their principal parts, thereby depriving agriculture and the population of the fruits which they ought to produce;
Considering that said estates secure large sums of money by mortgage in favor of the clergy, which now belong to the public treasury by virtue of the laws of “desamortization;” and that, in consequence of the abandonment in which these estates have been left, their actual value does not, in any manner, suffice to cover these claims;
Considering that, notwithstanding the number of years that the said questions have been at issue, it has not been possible to terminate them, because the interest of the debtors is opposed to the clearing of the rights of their creditors, thereby doing much injury to the public treasury;
We decree:
Article 1. The rural estates designated as follows, and which are situated in the district of Cordoba, shall be taken possession of on the ground of public utility: Haciendas del Rosario, de San Antonio, de Ojo de Agua Grande, de Ojo de Agua Chico, de Santa Ana, de la Concepcion Palmillas, de San Francisco, de Toluquilla, rancho del Buen Retiro, hacienda de Guadalupe a la Punta, de Cacahuatal, and de San José del Corral and Venta Pasada.
Art. 2. Our minister of improvements (fomento) will order these estates to be appraised, in order that the interested parties shall receive the indemnity to which they may be entitled by the laws, as soon as it will be made clear, by legal process, what is due the public treasury upon the said estates for the moragages of the clergy, and who are the legitimate proprietors of them.
Art. 3. The same minister will appropriate the said estates to colonization, dividing them into small lote, and taking care to secure their value, in order to pay it over, as part of the indemnity due for them, to those who may be entitled to it, when the investigations mentioned in the preceding article will have been made.
Given at Chapultepec on the 5th September, 1865.
MAXIMILIAN.
By the Emperor:
The Minister of Improvements: In his absence the sub-secretary,
[Untitled]
On the anniversary of the independence of Mexico, the 16th of September, the so-called emperor Maximilian delivered the following speech:
Gentlemen: This is a family festival, a festival of brothers, which unites every one of us this day under the folds of our glorious banner. The day upon which our immortal Hidalgo, elevating with unprecedented valor his patriotic voice, united the heroes of a new Mexican era, will be forever, to the sons of our country, a day of rejoicing, because we then celebrate [Page 477] the inauguration of our nationality, because every good Mexican must renew by an oath the promise to live for the greatness, the independence, and the integrity of his country, and show himself always ready to defend it with all his heart and soul. The words of that oath are the first uttered by a good Mexican. I solemnly repeat them now. My heart, my soul, my labor, and my lawful efforts belong to you and to our beloved country. No influence in this world can make me waver in my duty; every drop of my blood is Mexican now, and if God sends fresh dangers to threaten our country, you will see me fight in your ranks for its independence and integrity. I am willing to die at the foot of our glorious banner, because no human power can wrest from me the trust with which you have endowed me. What I say must be said by every good Mexican; it must efface past rancors; it must bury party hatred. Every one must live for the good of our beloved country. Thus united, and following the path of duty, we will be strong, and the principles which form the basis of our task will infallibly triumph.