Papers Relating to Foreign Affairs, Accompanying the Annual Message of the President to the First Session Thirty-ninth Congress
Mr. Romero to Mr. Seward
Mr. Secretary: Among the documents relating to Mexican affairs which I have neglected to transmit to your department, and which deserves the particular attention of the government of the United States, is a treaty, signed at Miramar, the 10th of April, 1864, between the Emperor of the French and the ex-Archduke of Austria, Ferdinand Maximilian, who assumed on that day the usurped title of emperor of Mexico.
In this treaty, of which I enclose you a copy in English, an alliance is agreed upon between the said ex-Archduke of Austria and the Emperor of the French.
I also enclose you a French copy, with English translation, of the address of Mr. Montholon, French minister near the said ex-archduke, when he was received by the latter on the 15th of June, 1864, and the usurper’s reply.
I embrace this occasion of renewing to you, Mr. Secretary, the assurance of my most distinguished consideration.
Hon. William H. Seward, &c., &c., &c.
[Enclosure No. 1.—Translation]
TREATY.
The government of the Emperor of the French and that of the Emperor of Mexico, animated with an equal desire to secure the re-establishment of order in Mexico and to consolidate the new empire, have resolved to regulate by a convention the conditions of the stay of the French troops in that country, and have named their plenipotentiaries to that effect, viz:
The Emperor of the French—M. Charles Herbet, minister plenipotentiary of the first class, councillor of state, director of the ministry of foreign affairs, grand officer of the Legion of Honor, &c.; and the Emperor of Mexico—M. Joaquin Velasquez de Leon, his minister of state without portfolio, grand officer of the distinguished order of Our Lady of [Page 605] Guadalupe, &c.; who, after having communicated to each other their full powers, agreed on the following provisions:
Article 1. The French troops at present in Mexico shall he reduced as soon as possible to a corps of 20,000 men, including the foreign legion. This corps, in order to safeguard the interests which led to the intervention, shall remain temporarily in Mexico, on the conditions laid down by the following articles:
Article 2. The French troops shall evacuate Mexico in proportion as the Emperor of Mexico shall be able to organize the troops necessary to replace them.
Article 3. The foreign legion in the service of France, composed of 8,000 men, shall, nevertheless, remain in Mexico six years after all the other French troops shall have been recalled, in conformity with article 2. From that moment the said legion shall pass into the service and pay of the Mexican government, which reserves to itself the right of abridging the duration of the employment of the foreign legion in Mexico.
Article 4. The points of the territory to be occupied by the French troops, as well as the military expeditions of the said troops, if there be any, shall be determined in common accord, directly between the Emperor of Mexico and the commander-in-chief of the French corps.
Article 5. On all the points where the garrison shall not be exclusively composed of Mexican troops, the military command shall devolve on the French commander. In case of expeditions combined of French and Mexican troops, the superior direction of those troops shall also belong to the French commander.
Article 6. The French commanders shall not interfere with any branch of the Mexican administration.
Article 7. So long as the requirements of the French corps d’armé shall necessitate a two-monthly service of transports between France and Vera Cruz, the expense of the said service, fixed at the sum of 400,000 francs per voyage, (going and returning,) shall be paid by Mexico.
Article 8. The naval stations which France maintains in the West Indies and in the Pacific ocean shall often send vessels to show the French flag in the ports of Mexico.
Article 9. The expenses of the French expedition to Mexico, to be paid by the Mexican government, are fixed at the sum of 270,000,000 francs for the whole duration of the expedition down to 1st of July, 1864. That sum shall bear interest at the rate of 3 per cent. per annum. From the 1st of July all the expense of the Mexican army shall be at the charge of Mexico.
Article 10. The indemnity to be paid to France by the Mexican government for the pay and maintenance of the troops of the corps d’armé after the 1st of July, 1864, remains fixed at the sum of 1,000 francs a year for each man.
Article 11. The Mexican government shall hand over to the French government the sum of 66,000,000 francs in bonds of the loan at the rate of issue, viz: 54,000,000 francs, to be deducted from the debt mentioned in article 9, and 12,000,000 francs as an instalment of the indemnities due to Frenchmen in virtue of article 14 of the present convention.
Article 12. For the payment of the surplus of the war expenses, and for acquitting the charges in articles 7, 10, and 14, the Mexican government engages to pay annually to France the sum of 25,000,000 francs in specie. That sum shall be imputed: 1st, to the sums due in virtue of articles 7 and 10; 2d, to the amount, interest and principal, of the sum fixed in article 9; 3d, to the indemnities which shall remain due to French subjects in virtue of article 14 and following.
Article 13. The Mexican government shall pay, on the last day of every month, into the hands of the paymaster general of the army, what shall be due for covering the expenses of the French troops remaining in Mexico, in conformity with article 10.
Article 14. The Mexican government engages to indemnify French subjects for the wrongs they have unduly suffered, and which were the original cause of the expedition.
Article 15. A mixed commission, composed of three Frenchmen and three Mexicans, appointed by their respective governments, shall meet at Mexico within three months, to examine and determine these claims.
Article 16. A commission of revision, composed of two Frenchmen and two Mexicans, appointed by the same manner, sitting at Paris, shall proceed to the definitive liquidation of the claims already admitted by the commission designated in the preceding article, and shall decide on those which may have been reserved for its decision.
Article 17. The French government shall set at liberty all the Mexican prisoners of war as soon as the emperor of Mexico shall have entered his states.
Article 18. The present convention shall be ratified, and the ratifications exchanged as early as possible.
Done at the castle of Miramar, this 10th day of April, 1864.
[Enclosure No. 2.]
Mr. Montholon’s speech.
Sire: I have the honor to present to your Majesty the letters which accredit me to your Majesty in the quality of envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of his Majesty the Emperor Napoleon, my august sovereign.
It is with the most lively sentiments of gratitude towards Providence that, the first among the representatives of foreign powers, I approach the throne of your Imperial Majesty—that throne which has been raised amid the acclamations of an entire people, the assurance of a new future of power and of prosperity.
The work of restoration to which your Majesty has devoted yourself is one of those which could only have been undertaken by a great soul, animated by a spirit of abnegation and the desire to do good, and attracted even by the very difficulties that it presents. France, penetrated by the grandeur of the task and the immense advantages it will yield to the whole world, will follow with the most ardent solicitude the noble efforts of your Majesty, and will be always prepared to second them.
Already, sire, the Mexican nation experiences all the value of the generous thought which has guided your Majesties to these shores, and each day will be more and more appreciated all the extent of the benefits you have conferred upon them in responding to their appeal.
The noble companion whom God has placed at your side, sire, in view of the destinies reserved to you, will contribute, by her grace, by her virtues, by the high qualities of her mind and heart, to render unalterable the attachment of the Mexican people for your august persons.
Happy in having been selected by my sovereign to be his interpreter near your Imperial Majesty, my mission will be fulfilled according to the wishes of the Emperor and to the promptings of my own heart, if I shall be able to merit the confidence of your Majesty, and to contribute to render more and more intimate the fraternal relations of friendship which should exist between France and Mexico.
Established, both the one and the other, upon the basis of national suffrage, united for the future by the community of ideas, as well as by the reciprocal interest of commercial and industrial relations, the two empires will be drawn together by natural ties in the constant accord of a frank and loyal policy.
Be pleased, sire, to permit me to lay at the foot of the throne of your Majesties the sincere desires of the representative of France for the prosperty of your reign and the future grandeur of the Mexican nation.
[Enclosure No. 3.]
Maximilian’s answer.
Monsieur le Marquis: It is with sincere satisfaction that I receive from your hands the letters of credence by which his Majesty the Emperor of the French has accredited you near my person.
I am happy to see in you the representative of a sovereign who has done so much for the future of Mexico, and towards whom, as you have remarked, this country manifests sentiments of the most sincere gratitude.
I do not hesitate to believe that the bonds of friendship and the fraternal relations which unite France to Mexico will find in you a faithful interpreter; and, on my part, I will see with pleasure these ties drawn closer and closer between the two empires and the two peoples.
[Enclosure No. 4.—Translation.]
(El Iris, Tampico, June 9, 1864.)
The regency of the empire has pleased to order the solemn publication of the act forwarded from Miramar by the Mexican commission charged to offer the votes of the Mexicans and the crown of the empire to his Imperial and Royal Highness the Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian of Austria, which says verbatim as follows:
[Page 607]At the palace of Miramar, near Trieste, on the tenth day of the month of April, 1864, being present in the reception room, his Imperial and Royal Highness the Archduke Maximilian of Austra and his august spouse, her Imperial and Royal Highness the Archduchess Carlota, accompanied by the Princess of Metternich, Countess Zichy, Lady of Honor to her Majesty the Empress of Austria, with the functions of Chief Lady of the Bedchamber of the Archduchess; the Countess Paula Kollatues, Canoness of the Chapter of Noble Ladies of Savoy; the Marchioness of Maria de Villa, Countess Zichy; his excellency M. Herbet, minister plenipotentiary of the first class of his Majesty the Emperor of the French on mission from the Department for Foreign Affairs; his excellency Count O’Sullivan de Grasse, envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of his Majesty the King of the Belgians near the court of Vienna; M. Hypolite Morier, captain in the line of the French navy, and in command of the frigate Themis; and his excellency the Count Hadik de Tutak, actual privy councillor, Gentleman of his Imperial, Royal, and Apostolic Majesty, preceded by the grandmaster of the ceremonies Marquis José Cerio, Gentleman of his Imperial, Royal, and Apostolic Majesty, and Gentleman on service of their Imperial Highnesses, who also were present at the audience; the president and other members present of the deputation charged to offer the vote of the Mexicans adopting monarchical institutions and inviting his Imperial and Royal Highness and his successors to occupy the throne, to wit: the most excellent D. José Maria Gutierrez de Estrada, Knight Grand Cross of the royal and distinguished Spanish order of Charles III, formerly minister for foreign affairs, and minister plenipotentiary of Mexico to various sovereigns of Europe; the most excellent Don Joaquin Velasquez de Leon, Commander of the imperial order of Guadalupe, former minister of finance in Mexico, and formerly minister plenipotentiary to the United States; Don Ignacio Aguilar, Commander of the order of Guadalupe, formerly minister of government and judge of the supreme court of the nation, and Don Adrian Woll, general of division, Commander of the orders of Guadalupe and the Legion of Honor, and M. de José Hidalgo, Commander with the decoration of the American order of Isabel the Catholic, of the Pontificate of Pio IX, and of that of Jerusalem, Grand Officer of that of Guadalupe, and Knight of that of San Silvestre; D. Antonio Escandon, Commander in the order of Isabel the Catholic, Knight of the order of St. Gregory, and of José Maria de Landa, Knight of the order of St. Gregory; and there were also introduced the Mexican gentlemen D. Francisco de Paula, Arrangoiz and Berzabel, Commander with the decoration of the royal American order of Isabella the Catholic, and of the Pontificate of St. Gregory, and Knight of that of Guadalupe of Mexico, formerly minister of the treasury; D. Tomas Murphy, Commander of the imperial and royal order of Francis Joseph of Austria, and formerly minister of Mexico to England; Colonel Don Francisco Facio, formerly chargé d’affaires at London, and consul-general at the Hanseatic Cities; D. Andrea Negrete, formerly chargé d’affaires at Belgium, and now chargé d’affaires and consul general at the Hanseatic Cities; D. Isidore Diaz, formerly minister of justice and of government; D. Pedro Escandon, Knight of the Legion of Honor, and formerly secretary of legation; Colonel D. José Annero Ruiz, Commander of the order of Isabella the Catholic, and Knight of that of Guadalupe, now consul at Marseilles; Doctor of Presbytery D. Ignacio Montes de Oca; Doctor D. Pablo Martinez del Rio, Knight of the order of Guadalupe; D. Fernando Gutierrez de Estrada, Knight of the order of St. Gregory; D. Ignacio Amor; D. Pedro Ontiveros, commanding battalion; D. Joaquin Manuel Rodriguez, commanding battalion. His excellency the president addressed to his Highness the Archduke the following allocution:
“Sir, the Mexican deputation has the happiness again to find itself in your august presence, and experiences unutterable gladness on reflecting on the motives which conduct it hither. In effect, sir, the good fortune falls on us to inform you, in the name of the regency of the empire, that the vote of the notables—by which you have been designated for the crown of Mexico—ratified this day by the enthusiastic adhesion of an immense majority of the country, of the municipal authorities, of the corporate bodies, consecrating that unanimous proclamation, has come to be, as well by its moral importance as by its numerical value, a truly national vote.
“By this glorious title, and sustained by the promises of the third of October, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, which have caused such well-founded hopes to spring up in the country, we now present ourselves to solicit from your Imperial Highness the full and definitive acceptance of the Mexican throne, which will become a bond of union and a source of prosperity to that people, subjected for so many years to very rude and terrible trials. So great have they been, that it would infallibly have succumbed beneath the burden of its calamities, without the aid of any one of the great empires of Europe, without the eminent qualities and admirable self-negation of your Imperial Highness, and lastly without the freedom of action which you are indebted for to the noble sentiments of your august brother, worthy head by a thousand titles of the illustrious house of Austria. Honor and gratitude to these two princes. Honor and gratitude also to the glorious nation which, at the call of its sovereign, has not hesitated to pour out its blood for our political [Page 608] redemption, thus creating between the one continent and the other a new fraternity in history, when until now this history has only shown to us in Europeans nothing but conquerors. Honor and gratitude to that emperor, great and generous, who, making a French interest of all the interests of the world, has in a few years, in despite of passing obstacles, had the glory and the fortune to raise the flag of France, always feared, hut always sympathetic, on the confines of the distant empire of China, and on the remote frontiers of the far-off empire of Mexico. Honor and gratitude to such people and to such princes, is the cry of every true Mexican. By conquering the love of the people, you, sir, have learned the difficult art of governing them. Therefore it is that, after so many struggles, our country, which experiences an imperious necessity for union, will one day owe to you the inappreciable blessing of having conciliated the hearts of the Mexicans, whom public calamities and the blind waywardness of passion had divided and separated, but which only awaited your beneficent influence, and the exercise of your paternal authority, to show themselves animated by the same identical sentiments.
“A princess, who by her graciousness alone, no less than by her virtues and her high intelligence, is already queen, will without doubt understand, from the elevation of the throne, to draw together all minds into perfect union for the general improvement of the country. To see these benefits realized, Mexico with filial confidence places in your hands the sovereign and constituent power which must rule its future destinies, and assure its glorious hereafter, promising to you in this solemn moment of alliance a love with limit and happiness unchangeable.
“It is promised to you, sir, because, catholic and monarchic, through an uninterrupted tradition of ages, it finds in your Imperial Highness an offshoot worthy of the Emperor Charles the Fifth and the Empresss Maria Theresa, the symbol and the personification of those two great principles, bases of its primitive existence, and under whose protection, with institutions and appliances that the current of time has made necessary in the government of society, may some day be placed in the high position you are called to occupy among the nations—in hoc signo vinces.
“These two great principles, Catholicism and monarchy, introduced into Mexico by the noble and knightly people who discovered it, eradicating the errors and dissipating the gloom of idolatry, to these principles, which trained us for civilization, we shall owe this time also our safety; revived as they have been by our independence, and, as they are now, by the smiling hopes hound up with the nascent empire. On this day, which would not be a day of happiness if it were not also a day of justice, our thoughts involuntarily turn to the historic times, and to the series of glorious monarchs, among whom excel in splendor the illustrious ancestors of your Imperial Highness. Nations as well as individuals should, in their hours of joy, salute with affectionate thankfulness the ancestors who no longer exist; and it is for us, sir, a glory we are ambitious of, to cause this just gratitude to shine forth at the very moment when our unhoped-for good fortune equally attracts to us the astonished regards of the world. In opening to you, sir, our wishes and our hopes, we do not say, we cannot say, that the undertaking is easy; the founding an empire never was so—never will be.
“The only thing we will assure you of is that the difficulties of to-day will to-morrow be your glory; and we will even add, that, in the work undertaken, the hand of God is manifestly revealed. When, with the progress of time, our hopes are satisfied and our predictions are verified, when Mexico appears prosperous and regenerate, then, reflecting that Europe sent to save us its brave battalions to the peaks of Anahuac and the shores of the Pacific, at a time when Europe itself was filled with apprehensions and danger, neither Mexico nor Europe, nor the world, nor that other world which will survive us, and which is called history, will doubt that our safety, procured contrary to all human probability, was not the work of Providence, and your Imperial Highness the instrument selected by it for its consummation. But not through thought of the hazarded fortunes of our country would it be possible forus to forget, sir, that in this hour of our rejoicing, the saddest gloom prevails in other places. We well understand, and our sympathies respond to the sense, that the Austrian land, and chiefly Trieste, your favored residence, will be inconsolable in your absence, but will be consoled by the recollection of your beneficence, and the splendid reflex of your glory.
“After having had the inappreciable fortune to hear from the lips of your Imperial Highness the words of hope that your definitive acceptance will become a reality, deign, sir, to grant us this distinguished and ineffable good fortune to be the first Mexicans who reverently greet you in the name of the country as the sovereign of Mexico, the arbiter of its destinies, and the trustee of its future; the whole Mexican nation, which waits with unspeakable impatience to possess you, will receive you on its privileged soil with a unanimous shout of welcome and of love. But for a soul like yours, sir, this brilliant spectacle, which would be a recompense to others, will only serve to inspire you with new spirit, and strengthen your confidence.
[Page 609]“The reward will come at a later day, and will be providential, like the undertaking achieved. There will be no reward more enviable than that your Highness will receive by coming boldly and respected to Mexico at no distant day; and in truth you could not experience a purer joy than to have founded on the voicanic soil of the Montezumas a powerful empire that will in a short time combine for its splendor and your glory the fruitful influence of that native genius with which Heaven has gifted our American land, with all of the perfection which the justly valued European organization can offer.
“The last conviction, sir, that with us crowns such happy presages, is that Mexico, that sends its acclamations to you from beyond the seas, and the whole world that gazes on you, will not long wait to learn that your Imperial Highness has not in vain had before your eyes, from your infancy, on the triumphal arch placed in front of the palace of your ancestors, that inscription, well worthy of them, and which takes by surprise the admiration of the traveller: ‘Justitia regnorum fundamentum’—Justice the foundation of empire.”
His Highness deigned to reply in these terms:
“Gentlemen: A deliberate examination of the acts of adhesion which you have come to present to me gives me confidence that the voice of the notables of Mexico, which brought you a short time since to Miramar, has been ratified by an immense majority of your countrymen, and that I can consider myself from this time by good right as the chosen one of the Mexican people. Thus is accomplished the first condition set forth in my reply of 3d of October last. I also indicated another to you at that time, to wit, that relating to securing the guarantees necessary, that the nascent empire should be able calmly to devote itself to the noble task of establishing on a solid basis its independence and wellbeing. We count to-day on those securities—thanks to the magnanimity of the Emperor of the French, who, in the course of the negotiations which have had place on this subject, has shown himself to be constantly animated by a spirit of loyalty and good-will, the record of which I shall always treasure in my memory.
“On the other hand, the august head of my family has consented to my taking possession of the throne which has been offered to me.
“Now, then, I can fulfil the conditional promise which I made you six months since, to declare here, as I do solemnly declare, that with the aid of the Almighty I accept at the hands of the Mexican nation the crown which it offers to me. Mexico, according to the traditions of that new continent, full of strength and of a hereafter, has exercised the right it has, thus to give to itself a government in conformity with its wishes and its wants, and has staked its hopes on an offshoot of that House of Hapsburg which, three centuries ago, established on its soil a Christian kingdom. I appreciate at its full value such a demonstration of confidence, and shall take care to respond to it. I accept the constitutional power with which the nation, whose organ you are, has seen fit to invest me; but I will only hold it for the time requisite to create regular order in Mexico, and to establish wisely liberal institutions; so that, as I announced to you in my address on the 3d October, I shall hasten to establish monarchy upon the authority of constitutional laws as soon as the pacification of the country may be completely effected.
“The strength of a power is, in my opinion, much better assured by the permanence than by the uncertainty of its limits; and I aspire to place in the exercise of my government those who, without detriment to its prestige, may guarantee its stability. We will prove, as I hope, that liberty well understood is perfectly reconcilable with the empire of order. I shall comprehend how to respect the first, and to cause the second to be respected. I shall exhibit no less vigor in ever maintaining the flag of independence, that symbol of future greatness and prosperity.
“Great is the undertaking confided to me; but I have no doubt of carrying it through, trusting in divine aid and the co-operation of all good Mexicans. I will conclude, gentlemen, by assuring you anew that my government will never forget the gratitude it owes to the illustrious and friendly monarch whose aid has made the regeneration of our beautiful country possible.
“In fine, gentlemen, I announce to you that, before setting off for my now home, I shall only remain long enough to go to the Holy City to receive from the venerable Pontiff the benediction so precious to every sovereign, but doubly important to me, who have been called to found a new empire.”
The president replied, saying:
“Possessed by feelings that cannot he exceeded, and penetrated with delight ineffable, we receive, sir, the solemn yes which your Majesty has just uttered. This full and absolute acceptance, so ardently desired, and looked for with panting expectations, is the happy prelude, and must be, with God’s help, the sure pledge of the salvation of Mexico, of its new birth, and of its future greatness. On the same day our sons will raise to Heaven offers of thanksgiving for this truly prodigious redemption. There remains to us one duty, [Page 610] sir, to fulfil—the duty of laying at your feet the love of the Mexicans, their gratitude, and the homage of their fidelity.’’
These last words spoken, the mitred abbot of Miramar and Lacroma, Monsieur George R.c.c., with mitre and crook, assisted by Friar Tomas Gomez, of the order of Franciscans, and Doctor D. Ignacio Montes de Oca, presented themselves to witness the oath which the emperor spontaneously took in these words:
“I, Maximilian, emperor of Mexico, swear to God on the Holy Evangels to promote by all means in my power the welfare and prosperity of the nation, to defend its independence, and maintain the integrity of its territory.”
Their majesties were three times saluted with cheers: “Long live the emperor! long live the empress!” given by his excellency Señor Gutierrez de Estrada, and repeated with enthusiasm by the assemblage. They then retired to await the hour set for the Te Deum, which was solemnly chaunted in the chapel in presence of their majesties, the deputation and suite, at which act the emperor also wore the insignia of Grand Master of the Mexican order of Guadalupe. Meantime, at the moment the emperor took the oath, the imperial Mexican standard was hoisted on the tower of the castle, and the frigate Bellona, of the imperial and royal Austrian navy, gave a salute of twenty-one guns, which was repeated by the castle at Trieste, and by the French frigate Themis.
Thus closed the solemn act by which the Archduke of Austria, proclaimed emperor of Mexico by the free and spontaneous choice of that people, became invested with the sovereignty which he will transmit to his illustrious descendants, or to princes called to rule by the law of succession which his majesty may deign to sanction.
To perpetuate the memory of this great event, this act is extended, by order of his excellency the president of the deputation, in duplicate, and signed by him and other members of the same deputation before mentioned, and authenticated by me as secretary, and will be transmitted to the department of foreign affairs and to the archives of the imperial house.
Joaquin Velasquez de Leon,
Ignacio Aguilar,
Adrian Woll,
Josè Hidalgo,
Antonio Escandon,
J. M. de Landa,
Angel Yglesias y Dominguez, Secretaries.