The Minister of Foreign Affairs to the French Minister in Washington.
Monesieur le Marquis: The minister of the United States addressed to me on the 1st instant the note of which you will find a copy annexed. In the answer, of which a copy is also given, which I sent by the Emperor’s command to this communication, I felt bound to declare to Mr. Bigelow that, always ready to reply to demands for explanations addressed to us in a friendly mariner, we could not think of responding to interpellations expressed in a threatening tone relative to vague allegations founded on equivocal documents. At the same time I took the opportunity afforded by the communication of the minister of the United States, to remind him that, as observers of a scrupulous neutrality in all the internal questions which may agitate or divide the American Union, we were entitled to rely on the exact and loyal reciprocity promised to us on his part with regard to the affairs of Mexico. We do rely on it, in fact, and yet we are unable to conceal from ourselves that there is some difficulty in conciliating certain recent facts and manifestations, of which we cannot mistake the character, with the assurances we have received.
We know that our expedition, its consequences, the establishment of a monarchy in Mexico, have been viewed with displeasure in the United States; we have been told this, and we regret it. But a displeasure does not constitute a grievance, a sentiment does not create a right; and the peace of the world would be exposed to continual dangers if each State, in its relations with its neighbors, were to conduct itself solely to suit its own conveniences or preferences. In a free country par excellence, like the United States, it should be known that the liberty and the right of each—State or individual—have for limits the liberty and right of others.
I have not here to justify our expedition to Mexico. Obliged to do ourselves justice, we went to Mexico to seek the satisfaction which had been obstinately refused us. We yielded to a necessity of the same nature as that which had, at another epoch, conducted the American arms to the capital of Mexico. The Union exercised the rights of victory in all their plenitude by annexing a new State. France does not go so far; we shall leave Mexico without acquiring an inch of soil, and without reserving to ourselves any advantage not common to all other powers. After our formal declarations [Page 695] on this subject, and the categorical denials we have opposed to all contrary allegations, we are dispensed from replying to the persistent rumors of territorial cessions, by means of which endeavors are made to keep up irritation against us in the United States. The semblance of a government against which we made war disappeared at our approach. Far from pretending to dispose of the country, we invited and encouraged it to dispose of itself.
In a communication which Mr. Bigelow did me the honor to address to me on the 12th June last, he was pleased to acknowledge that the success of republican institutions in Spanish America had not been such as to encourage the United States to attempt propagating them otherwise than by example, and that, in fine, any government which should be acceptable to the Mexicans would satisfy the United States. There is no reason to be astonished, therefore, that Mexico, enlightened by disastrous experience, should endeavor, under a system better adapted to its instincts, to escape from the anarchical chaos into which it had been plunged by an interminable series of revolutions.
A movement took place in the sense of monarchical ideas in favor of a liberal prince, belonging to a dynasty certainly illustrious among all, but attached to us by no bond, and with which we had just been at war. The Archduke Maximilian, called by the suffrages of the country, and proclaimed emperor, now exercises the sovereign rights conferred on him by the Mexican nation. No other constituted power exists on Mexican soil. An ex-President, flying from village to village, is no more a head of a government than a few bands of guerillas, pillaging and infesting the high roads, are armies. Can the cabinet of Washington be ignorant of that state of things? It has itself, during four years, contested the character of a regular power to the government residing at Richmond. Are we not allowed to ask by what signs it recognizes in the person of M. Juarez the attributes of sovereignty?
Our right, resulting from injury done to our interests, took us to Mexico. We are unwilling to leave anarchy behind us, because we do not wish to have fresh wrongs to avenge, or interests again compromised to defend. We have already withdrawn some of our troops, and we shall recall them all gradually, according to the re-establishment of order and the pacification of the country. We look forward with the sincerest wishes to the day when the last French soldier shall quit Mexico. Those whom our presence disturbs or incommodes may contribute to the approach of that moment. There can be no doubt that excitements from outside keep up agitation. Let those encouragements cease; let them allow that unfortunate country, weary of anarchy, to become tranquil and organize itself under a government calculated to heal the wounds inflicted; order and tranquillity will soon be established, and the term assigned for our occupation will be greatly abridged. But the fact should be well borne in mind that we are not in the habit of hastening our steps on account of haughty injunctions or threatening insinuations.
You will have the goodness, Monsieur le Marquis, to take in the full meaning of this despatch, and to communicate those explanations to the federal government. They have for object, and we desire that they should have for effect, to clear up the situation and remove all doubts as to our intentions. We hope for a reply in the same spirit of frankness and conciliation that has dictated our own language. It is not worthy of two great nations to allow anything equivocal to subsist between them, and their governments would incur a severe blame in history, and a grave responsibility at the present time, if, in default of preliminary explanation, they were to abandon to the chance of circumstances and unforeseen incidents the maintenance of their good relations and the preservation of peace. Confident in the straightforward common sense of the American people and the enlightened sagacity of its government, we are unwilling to believe that temporary impulses can, against all that is common to us both in old reminiscences, against present interests and future prospects, prevent a truly solid and durable basis for the alliance between the two countries.
Receive, &c.,