[Translation.]
Mr. Romero to Mr. Hunter
Mexican Legaton in the Unted
States of America, Washington,
January 28, 1866.
Mr. Acting Secretary: I have the honor to
inform you that I have just received the reply of my government to
my communication of October, 1865, relating to the so-called grants
of French agents in Mexico to citizens of this country, of which I
spoke in my letter of the 21st instant.
In accordance with what I said on that occasion, I now have the honor
to send to your department, for the information of the government of
the United States, copies of two notes addressed to me on that
subject by Mr. Lerdo de Tejada, minister of foreign relations of the
Mexican republic, dated at Paso del Norte, the 26th of December
last, and numbered 415 and 416.
I embrace this occasion to renew to you, sir, the assurances of my
distinguished consideration.
Hon. William Hunter, &c., &c., &c.
[Page 575]
[Untitled]
No. 416.]
Department of Foreign
Relations and Government, Office of Relations,
American Section, Paso del Norte,
December 26,
1865.
In your notes numbered 503, 516, 520, 523, 526, and 527, dated
the 17th, 21st, 24th, 26th, and 27th of October last, and their
enclosures, you informed me of the attempts of the usurper
Maximilian to bribe persons of influence in that country, and
even public men, by means of grants, particularly that for a
company to establish a “Mexican express,” in which company
figures Mr. Clarence A. Seward, ex Assistant Secretary of State,
nephew of the Secretary of State, and a prominent citizen of New
York, in the three-fold character of trustees, secretary, and
counsellor.
You also informed me of the bad effect on the interest of our
country this connexion of Mr. Clarence A. Seward’s name with the
said company had, causing light-thinking persons to believe
that, because of his official and parental relations with the
honorable William H. Seward, this circumstance interpreted the
ideas and sympathies of that distinguished statesman, and even
of the government of the United States, as in favor of
Maximilian’s usurpation.
You finally informed me of what you had said about the nullity of
those grants, published in the newspapers of that country, and
what you had said about them in various interviews with citizens
of that republic, and the note you addressed to Mr. Seward on
the subject on the 27th of October last.
I have given an account of all this to the citizen President of
the republic, who approves of your diligent and enlightened zeal
in this business, and has no doubt but you will continue to act
with the same energy and interest.
I mentioned to you, in another note, that you could publish or
not what I had communicated to you about the nullity of
Maximilian’s grants, and about the falsehood of Mr. Courcillon,
who styles himself president of the company, in saying he had
obtained the President’s approbation.
I assure you of my attentive consideration.
Citizen Matias Romero, Envoy Extraordinary and
MinisterPlenipotentiary from the Mexican Republic at
Washington City, D. C.
[Untitled]
No. 416.]
Department of Foreign
Relationsand Government, American Section, Paso del
Norte,
December 26,
1865.
In your note of the 24th of October last, No. 520, with its
enclosures, you communicated to me what the consul general of
the Mexican republic in New York had published in the papers of
that city, at your request, about the nullity of the pretended
grants of Maximilian to a company trying to be organized, to
establish a “Mexican express,” and what Mr. Eugene de
Courcillon, as president of the above company, had published in
the same papers in answer to the Mexican consul.
The declarations of the congress and government of the Mexican
republic have been very frequent and explicit concerning the
nullity of authoritative acts the French agent in Mexico and
French intervention have pretended to enforce. In the war kept
up by the intervention and Maximilian against the independence
and sovereignty of Mexico, they can exercise no legitimate
authority in the country because their acts have no foundation
by right, and are only enforced by abuse of power and use of
foreign bayonets. So the legitimate authorities of the republic
have never recognized, nor will they ever recognize as valid,
any acts whatever of the intervention and the French agent,
Maximilian, because they have no principle of law nor any source
of legitimate authority to pass them.
In this publication Mr. de Courcillon says, that after obtaining
the pretended grants from Maximilian, in May last, he had an
interview with the President of the republic, at Chihuahua, and
he said he had no objection to make to the formation of a
“Mexican express” company, nor to its pretended grants.
It is to be presumed that this assertion of Mr. Courcillon would
appear very unlikely at once to every person of common sense.
The President has instructed me to tell you he said no such
thing to Mr. Courcillon; that he did not speak with him in
Chihuahua; does not know him; never spoke with him anywhere, nor
ever had any intercourse with him by writing, nor in any other
way, at any time or place, directly or indirectly.
I think I can also assure you, from reliable sources, that Mr.
Courcillon has not been in Chihuahua since May last, and it
appears, also, he never was in Chihuahua at any previous
period.
I assure you of my very attentive consideration.
Citizen Matias Romero, Envoy Extraordinary
and MinisterPlenipotentiary of the Mexican Republic at
Washington D. C.
