Señor Romero to Mr. Seward
Mr. Secretary: Although I presume that you have received through the United States legation in Paris the series of documents* on the Mexican question presented in June last by the French government to its legislative body, and published in the Moniteur of the 10th and 11th of June, I take the liberty of sending you an English translation of them with this note. I enclose to you also the debate of the 13th in the legislative body on Mexican affairs, published in the Moniteur* of the 14th.
[Page 178]These documents give a new proof of the little sincerity of the French government in its pretexts for making war on Mexico.
In the ultimatum of the French commissioners, De Saligny and Rear-Admiral Jurien de la Graviére, made in January, 1862, at Vera Cruz, it was required (article 1) that Mexico should pay France twelve millions of dollars in cash and without examination, as indemnity for all claims caused by injuries to French subjects up to the 31st of July, 1861.
This was done at the same time that the French minister of foreign affairs acknowledged officially that Mexico could make no cash payment.
Now—that is, after five years’ war—when the damages to French subjects on account of it must be much greater than in times of peace, when the Emperor of the French is not treating with the national government of Mexico, which it sought to destroy and establish a monarchy upon its ruins, but with its mannikin, the so-called chief of the monarchical force established by French bayonets and supported by French gold, the Emperor Napoleon consents to receive forty millions of francs, or eight millions of dollars, as indemnity for all damages up to September, 1865, and to take that sum in paper issued by fraud, pretending it is an obligation of the nation, when he who issued it has no right to do it, or to burden the nation in any way, and which paper, despite the efforts of the French government to give it value, is so worthless that nobody would buy it in France, according to late dates, unless they got five hundred franc bonds for one hundred and seventy francs.
We cannot find out by this computation what it has cost the French government to effect the arrangement, but it must be at least four times the sum it now agrees to accept as indemnity to French subjects.
This alone shows that the object of the war made by the Emperor Napoleon on Mexico is not to obtain reparation for supposed grievances, as was pretended, but to overturn a republican government and commence a monarchical propaganda in this hemisphere.
I also take the liberty respectfully to call your attention to Mr. Jules Favre’s speech, and that part relating to the United States, of Mr. Jerome David, who was the spokesman of the French government.
I embrace the occasion to renew to you, Mr. Secretary, the assurances of my most distinguished consideration.
Hon. William H. Seward, &c., &c., &c.
- For these enclosures see enclosures to Mr. Bigelow’s despatch No. 338, page 310, vol. I.↩