The impression among those best informed upon subjects of this nature
prevails that the emperor, convinced at last of the unsatisfactory
results which the present situation promises for the country, goes with
the object of extending propositions to President Juarez. The main
desire of his majesty is to obtain guarantees for those who as partisans
have been compromised in his service, and to resign his position in
favor of the liberal party.
Enclosed, No. 2, is a copy of the protest addressed to this government by
the foreign representatives against the recent contribution of one per
cent., to which no reply has been returned by the office of foreign
affairs up to the present hour. Aware of the result so far attendant
upon the action of the diplomatic corps, I have refrained from the
expression of any opinion which might positively influence the course of
citizens of the United States, and, the more, as the decree imposing
this contribution affects American interests chiefly where it applies to
the issue of licenses or patents, the tax upon which has never been
greater than one-fourth of the amount collected upon capital or large
mercantile establishments.
The liberals are fast closing in about the capital. Diego Alvarez
occupies Cuernavaca with between 4,000 and 5,000 troops from the State
of Guerrero, and has pushed his advance into the valley within a
distance of four leagues from this city. On the road to Vera Cruz the
forces of the same party are stationed at three leagues from Mexico.
Since the withdrawal of the French army every courier to the coast has
been intercepted, and the wires of the telegraph are cut to the
interruption of the regular and usual communication with the port of
Vera Cruz.
Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State, Washington, D. C.
[Translation.]
Maximilian, Emperor of Mexico.
Wishing to be present at the operations of the army in the interior,
and to obviate, meanwhile, delay in the despatch of the business of
the government, we decree:
Article 1. During our journey into the
interior, the minister, with the convenience of the president of the
council of ministers, will despatch the business of their respective
branches.
Art. 2. The president of the council of
ministers will despatch alone, or in council with his colleagues, as
he may deem convenient, matters of gravity and importance.
[Page 362]
Art. 3. The minister, the council of state,
and all the authorities and functionaries, civil and military, of
the empire, will comply with the orders of the president of the
council of ministers.
Art. 4. The despatch of the business of the
government will be done in our name.
Art. 5. Neither laws nor decrees shall be
abrogated or issued except in urgent cases, on hearing the president
of the council of state, and the respective section of the same
council, should the urgency of the case permit. The laws and decrees
shall be issued in our name, and shall be signed by the president of
the council of ministers, and countersigned by the minister of the
respective branch, upon his responsibility.
Art. 6. We reserve to ourselves the
business of our house and court, with others which our instructions
express.
Our ministers are intrusted with the execution of this decree so far
as it appertains to each of them.
MAXIMILIAN.
Given in Mexico,
the 12th of
February, 1867.
By the
emperor:
JOSEPH MARI, The Minister
of Interior.
[Translation.]
Mexico,
February 9, 1867.
The undersigned, representatives of the friendly powers, residing in
Mexico, have the honor to address his excellency the minister of
foreign affairs, to inform him that a decree bearing date of the 1st
of this month was published the same day in the imperial journal,
which imposes an extra tax of one per cent. on city and country
property, on manufacturing establishments, and on all commercial and
financial affairs where a capital of more than $1,000 is invested,
with the hard condition to those concerned who reside in the capital
or in the valley that even though the property is situated in other
departments, they are to pay tax on it in the capital, when the tax
is also assessed and paid in the places where the property is
located.
Although this tax is called general, the undersigned cannot consider
it as such on account of particular circumstances that caused its
imposition.
The minister of finance, who advised the emperor to this, says
plainly in the preamble to the decree it is intended as a substitute
for a forced loan exacted a few days before, but not carried out,
because of the resistance offered, and the government did not wish
to resort to coercion, so repugnant to its policy.
This declaration of the minister of finance leaves no doubt about the
expression forced loan, from which foreigners
would have been exempt as substituted by this extra tax so as to
reach everybody. In fact, they are the same thing under different
titles.
Foreigners being exempt from that species of contribution by virtue
of the law of nations, and treaties in force between their
respective governments and Mexico, relative to forced loans and
extra taxes, the representatives of the friendly powers have, on
previous occasions, protested against similar imposts on their
countrymen, though imposed then, as now, on the condition that they
were but for a single time; and they have
been frequently renewed, and on this occasion twice within three
months. The subjects of the nations whose representatives have the
honor to address the minister of foreign affairs on this occasion
have had recourse to their legations to claim the protection that is
due them.
Urged by the necessity of granting it to them by reason of the short
time fixed for the payment of the first half of the assessed quota,
the undersigned are pleased to hope that the imperial government
will be kind enough to consider immediately their representations
against a measure that largely involves the interests of their
countrymen settled in Mexico.
A large portion of the foreign commerce is now in a precarious
condition, owing to the system adopted for the imposition of the
patent tax, which is not calculated upon the amount of the effective
capital possessed by the proprietors of commercial establishments,
but for the inhabitants of the capital, in relation to the place
where they reside, and to the kind of business in which they are
engaged. The result is, that merchants having only $10,000 capital
pay for $40,000, by reason of the place where they live—that is,
they pay four per cent., when those having $40,000, but living in a
place less advantageous for their business, pay only one per
cent.
In spite of the injustice of this system of taxation, instead of
reforming it, as was hoped, the government increased it in 1866 by
one per cent., so that merchants now pay two per cent. for their
patent right.
Laying aside this considerable overcharge, and not considering the
troubles of the country, and the complete stagnation of business,
that under more favorable circumstances constitutes the prosperity
of a nation, article four of the decree cited requires, not the one
per cent., but “the triple of the quota that each would have paid
per year for single tax, and not double, in conformity to the last
qualifications that served for the payment of the last third of the
year 1866.”
[Page 363]
That the minister may judge of the injury of such a tax, we will
mention the case of a Spanish subject who keeps a grocery and liquor
store. He represents a capital of $5,000, as assessed by the board
of 1865, for that purpose. That man will have to pay the imperial
government in 1867, if not exempted from the extra tax, and if no
new tax is imposed, as we fear there may be, for the remaining 10
months of the year, the following sums:
| 1st. Patent right, payable every two months |
$120 |
| 2d. For his house, two per cent, every three months |
24 |
| 3d. For shop doors, three per cent |
120 |
| 4th. Patent of registry |
23 |
| 5th. Three times the tax of one per cent |
90 |
| Making a total of |
377 |
which sum represents the third of his effective capital.
The position of property-holders who have real estate in the
departments held by the dissidents is still more embarrassing than
that of persons in trade. They not only have suffered, and still
suffer in the present state of affairs, incalculable losses from the
civil war, but the rebel authorities compel them to pay present and
back taxes, established by the republican government, besides
exactions and forced loans imposed by their military chiefs much too
often, so that these proprietors, who certainly ought to be
protected in person and property by the government, are abandoned by
it, though involuntarily and by vis major,
and are compelled to pay double taxes, which will certainly involve
them in ruin at no distant day.
If the imperial government, from circumstances known to all, cannot
act justly towards them, extending a hand to protect them and
preserve their interests, how can it exact from them, without
violating those principles of equity and justice which they have for
a motto, the payment of taxes, and even extra taxes, like those that
occasion the present remonstrance.?
The undersigned, deeming it their duty to protest against an impost
so injurious to their countrymen, have the honor to make the
preceding statement and remonstrance to his excellency the minister
of foreign affairs, in order to persuade the imperial government to
take the necessary steps to relieve foreigners of this extra
tax.
The undersigned embrace the occasion to renew to his excellency the
assurance of their most distinguished consideration.
MARQUEZ DE LA RIBERA, Spanish
Minister.
A. DANO, French Minister.
A. MAGNUS, Prussian
Minister.
F. HOORICKS, Belgian Chargé d’
Affaires.
F. CURTOPASSI, Italian Chargé d’
Affaires.
B. DE LAGO, Austrian Chargé d’
Affaires.
B. T. C. M1DDLETON, English Chargé d’
Affaires.
His Excellency Thomas Murphy,
Minister of Foreign Affairs &c., &c.,
&c.
