Mr. Seward to Señor Romero
Sir: Referring to your communication of the 30th of March last, in which you transmit, for the information of the department, a letter received by you from Colonel Enrique A. Mejia, requesting, in the name of General Escobedo, commanding the army of the north, a return: of certain arms, munitions, and artillery alleged to belong to the republican government of Mexico, taken into the possession of the military authorities of the United States, and to your request to have the matter investigated, and to your communication of the same date desiring a similar investigation of the alleged taking by the military authorities of the United States of certain goods said to belong to the republic of Mexico, I have the honor to communicate to you the fact, as gathered from official reports of the commanding officer of the department of the gulf to the War Department, and the conclusions to which this department has arrived, after a due examination of the same.
The capture of Bagdad, far from being a legitimate operation of a belligerent power, or in the interest of a belligerent power, is stated to have been simply a buccaneering scheme, set on foot by four designing persons at Clarksville, Texas, taking to their aid some colored soldiers of the United States service, without either the permission or sanction of the officers of their command. The sole object of the expedition seems to have been the pillaging of the town, as was evinced by the action of the parties conducting it. Immediately after the capture, the plunder was transferred to the Texas side of the river, the town remaining in charge of one Crawford, without, as it is reported, any troops under his command. The arms, munitions, and artillery captured in this expedition becoming unsafe in the absence of any troops to hold the town, they were transferred to the Texas side of the river and the town was abandoned. Thereupon they were taken by the military authorities of the United States and subsequently restored to the original owners.
As regards the goods which you state to have been sequestrated by the military authorities of Clarksville, your informants seem to have been in error as to the true nature of the affair. The goods were seized by the custom-house officers of Clarksville for a violation of the revenue laws. The title to them was litigated in a civil court between the original owners, Messrs. Droege, Oetling & Co., and the officers of the Mexican republic who brought them into port, and [Page 218] they were adjudged to the former. Under these circumstances the executive government of the United States could not change the decision of one of the legally constituted courts of the country, but must refer any further claim to the goods to the proper course of justice, which, in this case, would be an appeal from the judgment of the court.
I avail myself of this opportunity to reiterate to you my expressions of the most distinguished consideration.
Señor Don M. Romero, &c., &c., &c.