Mr. Romero to Mr. Seward
The undersigned, envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of the Mexican republic, bas the honor to address himself to the honorable William H. Seward, Secretary of State of the United States, for the purpose of protesting, [Page 583] in the most explicit and formal manner, against the cession which the ex-Archduke of Austria, Ferdinand Maximilian, has made, or is about to make, to the French government of various States of the Mexican republic.
The undersigned permits himself to remind the honorable William H. Seward that at the interview which he had with him, on the 19th January last, he read to him a letter written at the city of Mexico, on the 28th December previous, the latest date from that city received up to this date in this country, in which a person well-informed and entirely trustworthy communicated the news that French agents in that city had proposed to the deluded Mexicans, who now encircle the usurper that the Emperor of the French has sent to Mexico, a settlement, in virtue of which there are to be ceded to France the Mexican States of Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon, and Coahuila, parts of those of San Luis Potosi, Zacatecas, Durango, and Chihuahua, almost the whole of Sonora, and the peninsula of Lower California, the dividing line to be formed by the river Yaqui, on the Pacific, and Panuco, on the Gulf, to their sources, and a straight line drawn from one point to the other; that, to make the cession of so considerable a part of the Mexican territory acceptable, assurance was made that France would establish in the ceded territory a military colony, which would be under its immediate protection, and which would place the rest of the country under shelter from filibustering attacks from the United States; which would, besides, produce the liquidation of the supposed debt which Mexico has with France, and would facilitate the acquisition of three hundred millions to the treasury of the usurper. It is added, also, to make so considerable a loss less sensibly felt, that the States referred to have only belonged in name to Mexico, because they have been ruled by authorities which have not respected the orders of the central government of Mexico, and which were doomed to self-destruction, either because they might fall into the power of the French or of the United States, and that in such alternative there cannot be a moment’s doubt of the preferable extreme. In the same letter assurance was given that such settlement had not been yet submitted to the usurper, and it was given out as understood that he would not fail to hesitate and even manifest opposition to it before his acceptance.
This circumstance signifies nothing, however; the usurper either has not his own will, or if he has, he cannot make it prevail when in contradiction to that of his protector. Besides, it is not to be presumed that he takes any interest in the destinies of a country which is not his fatherland, in which four years ago he was not known, even by name, to the vast majority of the nation, which he himself knew only by name, to which he has been brought and is sustained by foreign bayonets, and in which he is shedding the blood of patriotic Mexicans, who are maintaining their independence, to satiate a blind ambition for rule, which for his punishment he exercises only in appearance.
The undersigned always believed that the Emperor of the French would close up in this manner his interference in Mexico when he should become convinced that it would not be possible for him to retain the whole republic as a French colony, and had the honor so to state to the honorable William H. Seward in the communication he addressed to him the 27th December, 1862, and which the President sent to the House of Representatives among the documents relating to Mexican affairs transmitted with his message of 4th February, 1863.
That which then, however, did not exceed conjecture, although well-founded, has come to be realized with the course of time and the development of events. News received from Mexico, from an entirely trustworthy source, has been confirmed by other advices received simultaneously from San Francisco, California, and from Paris; and such coincidences, combined with other antecedents which the undersigned is possessed of in this matter, do not leave him in the least doubt that if the settlement proposed has not been ratified, it is on the point of so being.
[Page 584]This conviction obliges the undersigned, in fulfilment of the duty which belongs to him, as representative of the Mexican nation, to protest solemnly and energetically against any settlement made by the ex-Archduke of Austria, in the name of Mexico, with the Emperor of the French, or with any other government, by which he aliens or hypothecates Mexican territory, or in any manner compromises the responsibility of the native country of the undersigned.
Addressing himself to the government of the United States, the undersigned does not think it necessary to halt to prove that the ex-Archduke of Austria only represents in Mexico the Emperor of the French, by whose army he was brought to that republic and is there sustained; and that therefore any settlement made between the ex-Archduke and the Emperor of the French would have the same obligatory force on the Mexican nation as one concluded between the said Emperor and General Bazaine, commanding in chief the French forees in Mexico.
The undersigned has not thought that he should await for official notice of the conclusion of such settlement in order to protest against it. It is of such gravity and transcendency, not only to the interests of Mexico, but to those of the whole American continent, that he would consider himself to be wanting to his most sacred duties should he for a moment delay to take this step.
The undersigned thinks fit, in justification of his conduct in this affair, to remind the honorable Secretary of State of the United States of a fact slightly resembling the present, when the representatives of the French government in Mexico protested against a treaty concluded between Mexico and the United States of much less importance than the present, only because of the vague rumors, more or less founded, that they had received that it had been concluded, and before they had official notice of its execution.
After the rupture between the allied Europeans at Orizaba, and when France alone continued making war on Mexico, the minister of the United States to this republic made a treaty with the Mexican government, in virtue of which the United States were to lend to Mexico eleven millions of dollars, Mexico hypothecating in payment for such amount the unoccupied lands of the republic, the unsold national property, previously called church property, and the unsatisfied bonbs and promissory notes for national property already aliened. This treaty was signed in the city of Mexico the 6th of April, 1862; but as it did not receive ratification by the government of the United States it was not officially published, and only mere rumors, more or less founded, were circulated about its object and stipulations; notwithstanding which, the representatives of the Emperor of the French addressed to the Mexican government, under date of the 15th April aforesaid, a note, in which they said to it that they had been informed that said government had concluded or was about to conclude a treaty with a foreign government, by which were sold, ceded, transferred, or hypothecated thereto a part of the lands and public revenues of Mexico, to the whole of which lands and revenues France made claim of right, in virtue of the fraudulent claims of her subjects. With the note which the undersigned had the honor to address to the honorable Secretary of State on the 2d June, 1862, he remitted a copy of such protest.
The undersigned avails of this opportunity to renew to the honorable William H. Seward the assurances of his most distinguished consideration.
Hon. William H. Seward, &c., &c., &c.