I avail of this opportunity to renew to you, Mr. Secretary, the
assurance of my most distinguished consideration.
Hon. William H. Seward, &c., &c., &c.
Memorandum.
Whatever were the causes which led to the war between France and
Mexico, when it occurred it assumed the character of a war
between two sovereign and independent nations. In such a war the United States had no right
to interfere, for, in accordance with established principles of
international law, the federal government was in duty bound to
observe a strict neutrality. But after the occupation of the
city of Mexico by the French, their real policy and intentions
were unmasked. New tactics were at once adopted, which changed
the entire aspect of affairs.
Former grievances were lost sight of; claims for indemnities and
spoliations ceased to be the order of the day. Assisted by a few
leading and influential Mexicans, France set to work to remodel
the political status of the country, and succeeded in organizing
an imperial party, representing the minority, in opposition to
the republican party, representing the majority. Hostilities
ensued between the two, and civil war was
inaugurated. In his last annual message to Congress, President
Lincoln, alluding to the situation of affairs in Mexico, took
this view in declaring that civil war was
still raging in that country.
This change of policy on the part of France changed the position
of the United States in reference to the Mexican question. The
war assumed a new form, and, from one waged between two nations,
degenerated into a struggle for supremacy between two parties.
If the French considered themselves justified in maintaining by
force of arms one of these parties, the United States had
undoubtedly the right to give their support to the other.
International law no longer compelled them to observe a
neutrality.
What was the result of this state of things? Simply that the
imperial party, supported by French bayonets, and countenanced
by other European governments, who suffered the newly-proclaimed
sovereign of Mexico to contract loans and enlist soldiers in
their midst, obtained the ascendancy over an adversary who was
fighting, and still continues to fight, alone, unaided even with
the moral support of the United States.
The United States have always proclaimed themselves to be the
protectors of their sister
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republics on the American continent What
hopes can the latter entertain of their future security when
they see a great republic, of which they are the feeble
imitators, assisting with indifference to the spectacle of a
handful of foreign soldiers successfully progressing, on her
very borders, in the work of erecting a government framed and
fashioned on the European plan? What will be their reflections
when they discover that the United States have nothing but words
to offer to friends steadfast in their attachment from motives
both of interest and sympathy?
If, through the instrumentality of the United States, a republic
should be reared and fostered on the frontiers of France or of
Russia, would these nations be indifferent to the event and
accept the situation? Unquestionably not. For similar and more
cogent reasons the United States cannot suffer the
establishment, on the confines of their territory, of a monarchy
created and maintained by foreign arms.
The United States have no more co-operated in safeguarding and
perpetuating republican institutions in Mexico than the
diminutive States of Central America, who have thought it
sufficient to protest against this interference and encroachment
on the part of European powers. But what may seem a matter of
satisfaction to the pride of those states cannot be regarded in
that light by so great and formidable a nation as the United
States. The question at issue cannot remain in suspense; the
United States must pursue one course or another—either to
interfere actively in behalf of republican principles, and
against the French occupation in Mexico, or to recognize
Maximilian, and concede forever to European nations the right of
an armed intervention in the domestic concerns of the republics
on the American continent. Let the United States make this
sacrifice, for they will then at least be spared, in the eyes of
the world, the ridicule and mortification of not possessing the
requisite energy to handle and settle a question of paramount
interest to themselves, and in which the right is incontestably
on their side.
