[Translation.]
Mr. Romero to Mr.
Seward,
Mexican Legation in the United
States of America, Washington,
November 1, 1865.
Mr. Secretary: On the 21st of August last I
sent a note to your department, with the address made by the
“Nederduitsche Bond,” a democratic society of Antwerp, the 14th of
July last, to the constitutional President of the Mexican republic,
expressing the sympathy of the Belgian people for the cause of
liberty and independence in Mexico, and their regret to see King
Leopold, through personal and family motives, assisting the Emperor
of the French in his efforts to conquer that republic. I now have
the honor of transmitting to
[Page 557]
you No. 115 of the official paper of the Mexican government, dated
28th September following, containing the reply to that address of
Mr. Lerdo de Tejada, minister of foreign relations, on the 23d of
the same month, in the name of the President, showing how the
Mexicans regard the unjustifiable conduct of the King of the
Belgians.
Before concluding this note, I think it convenient to transmit you,
for the information of the government of the United States, the
English copy of a note which I addressed to my government, the 14th
of November, 1864, in regard to the policy of the Belgian government
towards Mexico, and of the answer of the minister of foreign affairs
of the 27th of January last; which documents were published in the
official paper of the Mexican government, about the end of January
last, and re-published in English by the New York papers.
I am pleased with this occasion to renew to you, Mr. Secretary, the
assurances of my most distinguished consideration.
Hon. William H. Seward, &c., &c., &c.
[Enclosure No. 1.—Translation.]
From the official paper of Chihuahua No. 115,
September 28, 1865.
Mexican Republic, Dep’t of
Foreign Relations and Government,
Paso del Norte,
September 23, 1865.
SIR: The citizen President of the republic received your letter
of the 14th June of this year, addressed to him in the name of
the Nederduitsche Bond, of which you are the worthy president,
by a resolution in general meeting, and forwarded by the
minister of Mexico in Washington.
The President has seen from your letter that an important
political and popular association of Belgium, such as the
Nederduitsche Bond, counting many thousand members, has
considered and recognized it just to protest, in the name of the
free Belgians, against the conduct and acts of its government in
recruiting troops to support the wicked and passing pretensions
of a foreign usurpation and despotism in Mexico.
You regret rightly that deceived Belgians should come to shed
their own blood and that of Mexicans only for the interest of a
stranger or a stranger’s wife; and this consideration is more
serious when we reflect that a Hapsburg and Orleans blot out the
remembrance of their humiliation and family ruin, and offer
themselves as servile instruments to another foreign power, for
the reward of an empty title and a little money.
Free Belgians should only shed their blood for Belgium; they must
not spill it, like slaves, to foster the family interests of a
master; nor can they sell it, like mercenaries, for a handful of
gold, without a patriotic sentiment. You regret rightly that a
few deluded Belgians should come to shed their blood for a
stranger, or the wife of a stranger, who are themselves the
submissive slaves of another foreign power.
The Belgian government violated the vaunted neutrality of
Belgium, and contemned the laws prohibiting its citizens from
enlisting in a foreign service, when it acted for the personal
interest of the King’s daughter, who ceased to be a Belgian as
soon as she became a stranger’s wife, and thought to act with
impunity when it became the accomplice of a strong nation in the
perpetration of a crime against a weaker one.
The duties of the Belgian government towards Mexico, against whom
she has never had, or pretended to have, the slightest cause of
complaint; the principle of the law of nations requiring every
nation to respect the independence and sovereignty of every
other; and the eternal maxims of morality, condemning a
causeless war, in which the principal and his accomplices are
responsible for all the deaths and destruction, murders and
robberies—were all disregarded by the Belgian government when it
thought to take advantage freely of the misfortunes of a feeble
nation, and had a private family interest in partaking of the
fruit of crime.
But it is commendable in Belgium, as well as honorable for the
progress of civilization and liberty, that compunctions of
conscience have raised the voices of many of her free citizens,
causing them to rebel and protest against that iniquitous
conduct.
The Mexican republic is pleased with this protest, even amid her
misfortunes and the struggles she is sustaining, and will
sustain to the end; and the citizen President charges me to
request you to express to the Nederduitsche Bond his great
appreciation of its just and worthy sentiments.
Accept, sir, the assurance of my respectful consideration.
Mr. E. Coremaux, President of the
Nederduitsche Bond of Antwerp.
[Page 558]
[Enclosure No. 2.]
No. 290.]
Mexican Legation, United
States of America, Washington,
November 14,
1864.
The enlistment in Belgium of a legion for the support of
Maximilian and his wife in Mexico has encountered opposition
among the people and even in the legislature of that
country.
There having been published many advertisements in which recruits
were called for to be enlisted under the direction of a retired
lieutenant general, and other officers of the Belgian army, the
ministers Were questioned in the House of Representatives with
reference to the participation of the government in such an
enterprise, and several of the ministers, among them the
minister of war, denied that the administration aided directly
or indirectly in the project; but they confessed, however, that
they had permitted Belgian subjects to enter upon this
expedition without losing for this reason their nationality.
It is worthy of attention that notwithstanding this explicit
confession, and the fact, which is well known, that the
volunteers were rendezvousing in the city of Audirnad, in an
edifice which was in part a public building, as also that in the
advertisements it was stated that the government permitted
officers of the army to enlist, granting them for this purpose
two years’ leave of absence, in order to return to the country
and still hold their positions if it did not suit them to remain
in Mexico—it is worthy of attention, I repeat, that
notwithstanding all this, the House of Deputies was apparently
satisfied with the declarations of the ministers, and, taking
note of the same, without further examination of the matter,
passed to the order of the day, although not without several
deputies manifesting their reprobation of all connected with the
projected Belgian legion for Mexico.
A little before there had been in Brussels a meeting of the
citizens, which condemned in energetic terms the enlistments
alluded to, calling the attention of the Chambers to the same,
and publishing in placards the resolutions they adopted with
reference to the matter.
There have also been published two important pamphlets, which I
have seen—the one entitled “The Belgian Expedition to
Mexico—Appeal to the Chambers;” and the other, “General
Chapellé—the Belgian Expedition to Mexico, and article 92 of the
final code.” Both are very well written, and are by
distinguished members of the bar in Brussels.
In the first—after an impartial historical résumé of Mexico since the convention of London of
October 31, 1861—it is demonstrated that the Belgian government,
in its conduct with respect to the said expedition, has given
offence to our country, and violated the neutrality which
Belgium is always bound to observe with respect to all nations,
in conformity with its political constitution.
By such conduct, says Mr. Demeur, Belgium has lost the right to
invoke in the future that neutrality which is its principal
protection, and has not only incurred the enmity of a feeble
republic, such as Mexico will be for some time, but also that of
the United States, which latter fact may have consequences the
most ruinous.
The second pamphlet, written by Mr. Van Don Kerkoor, is a
powerful demonstration by legal argument that the enlistments
for Mexico, without previous and express authorization of the
Belgian government, constitute a grave crime, that the penal
code of that country punishes with death. It concludes with a
vehement appeal to the attorney general, to whom the pamphlet is
addressed, to indict and bring to trial the Lieutenant General
Chapellé and his accomplices.
As soon as I have a secure opportunity, which I expect will be
very soon, I will remit to the department both pamphlets.
I renew to you the assurances of my distinguished
consideration.
The Citizen Minister of Foreign
Relations, Chihuahua.
[Enclosure No. 3.]
No. 36.]
Department of Foreign
Affairs and of Government, National Palace,
Chihuahua,
January 27,
1865.
By your note No. 290 of the 14th of November last, the President
has been informed of what you communicate with reference to the
enlistments that have been taking place in Belgium for the
purpose of forming a legion for the support in Mexico of the
Archduke Maximilian and his wife, the daughter of King Leopold
of Belgium.
There may be added to the observations you make with reference to
this affair the fact that that government has never alleged, nor
has it pretended, to have the slightest motive of complaint
against the Mexican republic. Notwithstanding this, King Leopold
has sought to take advantage of the misfortunes of a nation that
has never done him an injury, and for the private interest of
favoring his daughter, he has sought to give her the support of
mercenary soldiers, whose purpose is to aid in overpowering the
Mexicans and to shed still more the blood of a people who defend
their independence and their liberty.
[Page 559]
It is not strange, therefore, that King Keep old, from solely a
private family interest, has been willing also to set aside the
precepts of the constitution and the interests and the opinions
of the people whom he governs.
I assure you of my most attentive consideration.
The Citizen Matias Romero, Envoy
Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of the Mexican
Republic in Washington.
