Mr. Seward to Mr Dix
Sir: I give you herewith for your information a copy of a memorandum* of a conversation which was held between the French minister and myself on the 17th instant. The substance of the affair is that the French government desires to engage the United States in an understanding with reference to proceedings for the political reorganization of Mexico, in view of the discontinuance of the French armed intervention. The French government seems to insist upon only one condition, namely, the exclusion of President Juarez from among the authorities, actual or possible, who, according to their view, should be supported by the United States and France in establishing some kind of provisional government. These views of the French government have been in every proper way urged upon our attention by Mr. Berthemy during his residence with us. Our well-considered reply in substance is, that we must continue to recognize and respect the authority of President Juarez and the republican government, and that we can in no way intervene or interfere with the people of Mexico in the regulation of their own political affairs. I feel sure that Mr. Berthemy’s residence here, although it has been so short, has still been long enough to satisfy him that even if the executive department of the government had any doubts concerning the wisdom of the decision thus announced, it could nevertheless adopt no different policy at the present moment without being dissented from in the Senate and calling forth the emphatic protest of the American people. At the same time it is not difficult for us to see that the French government attaches great importance to the suggestions which we have thought it our duty to decline.
I give you also for your information a copy of a despatch which was written to us by our consul in Mexico on the 29th day of December. These papers give us reason to apprehend that there is a conflict of policy and a division of authority among the French agents in Mexico; that some of those agents incline to withhold both troops and war material from Maximilian upon the grounds, first, that it would be incompatible with the understanding which exists between France and the United States in regard to Mexico, and, second, that it would amount to an indirect prolongation of the intervention after the departure of the French troops. Others of those agents, on the other hand, think proceedings of that sort proper and allowable.
In connection with these subjects, I have thought proper to give you a copy of a debate which occurred in the Senate on the 15th day of the present month; also a copy of an article which appeared in the New York Evening Post on the 8th instant.
I furnish you these papers in order that you may have the means of impressing upon Mr. Moustier the conviction that it is much to be desired that the proceedings of the French agents in conducting the evacuation should be prosecuted in a manner least calculated to excite distrust and jealousy in the United States. I have no doubt that this is the fixed policy of the Emperor. For this reason, as well as others, I sincerely desire to be able to bring to an end the practice of complaint and remonstrance which it has been found necessary to [Page 219] pursue since the beginning of the French intervention in Mexico, and which cannot be found more annoying to the French government than it has been unpleasant to the United States. We are earnest, as we believe France is, in the desire to begin a more cheerful and cordial chapter in the relations to the United States towards France and Mexico.
You are not expected to submit either this paper or the expositions and debates here referred to to the French government, nor to make them the occasion of a formal representation, but you will make such use of them as you find convenient, with a view to preventing, if possible, new complications in the present conjuncture.
I am, sir, your obedient servant,
John A. Dix, Esq., &c., &c., &c.
- For enclosure see correspondence with the French legation.↩