[Translation.]

Mr. Romero to Mr. Seward,

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.

M. ROMERO.

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.

S. LERDO DE TEJADA.

Mr. E. Coremaux, President of the Nederduitsche Bond of Antwerp.

[Page 558]

[Enclosure No. 2.]

No. 290.]

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.

M. ROMERO.

The Citizen Minister of Foreign Relations, Chihuahua.

[Enclosure No. 3.]

No. 36.]

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.

LERDO DE TEJADA.

The Citizen Matias Romero, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of the Mexican Republic in Washington.