Papers Relating to Foreign Affairs, Accompanying the Annual Message of the President to the Second Session of the Fortieth Congress

Mr. Plumb to Mr. Seward

New Orleans, March 7, 1867.

Sir: In the absence of any advices myself, I take the liberty of enclosing here with slips from this morning’s papers of this city, containing some late information of interest from Mexico, at hand by a steamer which arrived here from Vera Cruz yesterday.

From these present and previous public advices it appears that there were at Vera Cruz, on the 24th ultimo, the Magenta iron-clad, (said to be one of the largest iron-clads in the French navy,) carrying the flag of Admiral La Ronciere le Nury, and the iron-clad frigates Magnanime and Flandre; and that on the 25th there arrived the war steamer Megere, and on the 26th the man-of-war Castiglione, from France. Although the transports with troops are rapidly leaving, it does not appear that any of the iron-clads have yet left.

From all the advices it appears that Maximilian has left the city of Mexico, and is now wandering somewhere in the country in the condition of a petty partisan chieftain. The statement that he has six thousand Austrian and French troops, is from an ex-confederate source, and is a gross exaggeration, as is also, I presume, the statement that he has any idea of attempting to cut his way through to Texas. The account in the Crescent is entirely from a confederate point of view.

The rapid reoccupation of all points by the liberals as fast as they are evacuated by the French, indicates the probability that by this time the capital is again, or very soon will be, in the possession of the national forces.

I have a letter to-day from Mr. Chase, our consul general at Tampico, under date of 11th ultimo. He reports all quiet in that quarter. Should the French hold on to the port of Vera Cruz for a time, it will throw a very large commerce into the ports of Tampico and Matamoros, which latter is practically Browns ville and Brazos Santiago.

Mr. Chase reports 11 feet of water on the bar at Tampico, which is a return towards its favorable character in former times.

The importance of regular communication between this place (New Orleans) and Tampico, at once, by means of a gunboat assigned for that service, is very great. Were such communication established, the Mexican government, I do not doubt, would at once put on a courier from Tampico to the city of Mexico, and also to San Luis Potosi, and thus communication with all points of the interior could be maintained, whatever may be the condition of affairs at Vera Cruz and on the line from that place to the city of Mexico.

I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

E. L. PLUMB.

Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State, Washington, D. C.

From the New Orleans Crescent]

Important from Mexico.–Political and personal.–What a resident there says.

March 7, 1867.

From Major John Edwards, successor of Governor Allen as editor of the Mexican Times, who arrived yesterday in the steamer Cortes, we learn the following facts in relation to Mexican affairs:

The major says that the evacuation of Mexico by the French is a fixed fact. Of the army of occupation, which numbered 24,000, there remained, at the sailing of the steamer Cortes, but 6,000. Marshal Bazaine, true soldier as he is, remained in the rear of his evacuating army, and brought up everything with completeness and despatch.

A word in favor of Marshal Bazaine may not be amiss. Wherever an American came to him, wherever a confederate appealed to his sympathy, he was a generous soldier, always giving help and encouragement. At least a dozen families, unable to leave Mexico, were furnished free transportation by the marshal.

Immediately upon the withdrawal of the French army from the city of Mexico, the liberals, under Porfirio Diaz, invested the city, captured Pueblá, Orizava, Cordova, and Paso del Macho, waiting until the last of the French had left Vera Cruz, before attacking the most vital and most necessary town in Maximilian’s broad empire.

The taking of these towns by the liberals does not mean relinquishment of the contest by the imperialists. The emperor Maximilian, at the head of 8,000 well-equipped troops, 6,000 of which are Austrians and French, has marched towards San Luis Potosi with the avowed intention of giving battle to the forces of Juarez, whenever and wherever met. If successful, he will demand and obtain terms for his foreign followers, and for those Mexicans who adhered to his standard. If unsuccessful, he will make the best fight in his power, and cut his way to the Rio Grande.

Military proscription is rampant. The French, as a body, must 1eave Mexico, or be ruined morally and pecuniarily. In Sonora, Tamaulipas, Sinaloa, Michoacan, and Puebla the foreigners in a body have been proscribed and banished. There is no love for the people of the United States, and the only sympathy for them at all is because they are presumed to represent opposition to the French, and to have expressed dislike to them.

The settlement of Cordova is among the things of the past. The departure of General Price, which has been duly chronicled, will be followed by almost all who were associated with him at Cordova.

Judge Perkins has gone to Paris, France. Governor Harris left two weeks since for Havana. General Shelby still remains in Cordova, and probably will remain for several months to come. He is still the same kind, generous, whole-souled man he ever was; and no one from the United States ever asked for bread and received a stone, or for a fish and received a serpent.

The contest in Mexico will probably last four months or more. At the end of that time Maximilian will be in Texas, not because he has not made a heroic fight, and many friends, but because the fight was made too late. For this, and this alone, he will be forced to leave the country. With him there will leave some of the wealthiest and most influential men of Mexico.

The condition of the country is worse than has been known for 20 years. The main thoroughfare between the city of Mexico and Vera Cruz is interrupted about every 15 miles, and everything the unlucky passengers possess is taken with a quiet shrug of the shoulders, and a polite declaration that “No le importa,” which means that it makes no matter to me.

Personalities.—Beverly Tucker, who is proscribed in the United States, recently travelled from San Luis Potosi to the city of Mexico, and was robbed five times. The first time they took his money, the second time his clothes; the third time they tried to get his money, but because he had none they struck him on the head with a sabre, and his son, who was with him, received a terrible wound just over the right temple, which came near putting an end to his sight, if not his life. The fourth time, the stage in which he had taken passage was attacked and robbed in the streets of the city of Mexico; and twenty leagues beyond, towards Vera Cruz, the stage was again stopped, and Beverly Tucker was robbed for the fifth time.

Governor T. C. Reynolds, of Missouri, will remain in the city of Mexico and see the issue of affairs there. General T. C. Hindman will leave in two weeks for the United States, where it is his intention to practice Jaw in Memphis, or merchandise in New York.

With the evacuation of Mexico by the French the rest of the foreigners think it best to leave the country; and those of all nationalities are leaving as fast as steamers will bear them from Vera Cruz.

The great idea in the Mexican mind is to get rid of foreigners, nolens volens; and whether it is the French this year, or the people of the United States next, it makes but little difference to them.

[From the New Orleans Daily Picayune, of March 7, 1867.]

Important from Mexico.–Movements of the French Army.–The French fleet at Vera Cruz.–The Liberals occupy the country.–The custom-house at Vera Cruz.

The steamship Cortes arrived at this port yesterday afternoon from Vera Cruz, Saturday, the 2d instant. She entered the mouth of the river and passed up this side of Fort Jackson Tuesday evening, but was compelled to come to anchor on account of the dense fog. She brings a large number of passengers, and letters and papers as late as due, except the Verdad, of Vera Cruz, which did not issue on the morning of the 2d on account of its press breaking down.

The waters of Vera Cruz and the adjoining harbor of Sacrificios were lively with French shipping, taking on troops, provisions, and ammunition of the expeditionary corps. The work of embarcation goes on rapidly. There were but few troops at the grand rendezvous of Paso del Macho, the upper terminus of the railroad, when our informants came down. They were in nearly the last convoy. The army moved down all the way from the city of Mexico in perfect order, and made a splendid appearance. Their discipline was remarked and admired by all. The zouaves carried 42 pounds weight on their shoulders, besides their muskets. Two stragglers are reported to have been caught and beaten by the liberals, but afterwards released. Nor was there much disorder among the retiring imperialist families. Everything was conducted with perfect military discipline. Marshal Bazaine arrived at Vera Cruz on the 28th. General Castagny commanded the rear guard, and passed through Orizaba on the 26th. He had arrived at Paso del Macho, and was expected down at Vera Cruz soon after the Cortes sailed.

So fast as the imperialists left the country the liberals occupied it. They were in possession of Puebla, Orizaba, Cordova, and all the table lands. They stood ready to occupy Paso del Macho and the railroad when the French shall have left. They were, also, surrounding: the valley and swarming over the whole country. The movements of Maximilian and of the belligerents in the field are summed up in our letter from Orizaba.

On the 27th was published, at Vera Cruz, the following, by order of the French consulate:

Article 1. The execution of the convention, signed at Mexico on the 30th of July last, will be suspended until the French and Mexican governments are in accord. Each of these two governments reserves to itself, absolutely, whatever it considers its rights relative to the aforesaid convention.

Art. 2. The French agents will remit the administration of the maritime custom-house at Vera Cruz to the Mexican agents the 1st of March next, after the exchange of a proces-verbal and accounts rendered.

Art. 3. The Mexican administration of the custom-house at Vera Cruz shall pay at the end of each month, counting from the 1st of March next, the sum of $50,000 in specie, into the hands of an agent of France, specially designated, or in default of him, into the hands of the French consul at Vera Cruz, which sum shall be taken into consideration in the definitive settlement of the accounts between the two governments.

Art. 4. This arrangement will be immediately executed, and shall remain in force until the two governments are in accord relative to the convention of the 30th of July, conform ably to what is said in article 1, without prejudice to the customary exchange of ratification to which the present arrangement shall be submitted.

This manifesto is dated at the city of Mexico, February 22, and signed by the French minister, Dano, and by Mr. Murphy, the imperial minister of finances.

[From the Evening Picayune, New Orleans, March 7.]

Letter from Orizaba, Mexico.–Movements of the French and native belligerents.

Orizaba, Mexico, February 21, 1867.

The French army’s rearguard is still here, waiting for transports. General Castagnay is in command of it.

From this point Marshal Bazaine despatched a letter to Maximilian, again inviting him to go out with the French army. The letter was not replied to.

Maximilian at the head of an army of 5,000 men, with 25 pieces of artillery, moved out of the capital on the I6th, and toward Queretaro. Two skirmishes occurred on the way, the liberals retreating and flying in every direction. A sergeant was shot at the side of the emperor. He will unite at Queretaro with Miramon, and have a combined force of 16,000 men at that place.

There is no doubt but that Miramon was worsted by Escobeda, but to what extent has not transpired.

The Mexican Times (American) compares Miramon’s movements with those of Sheridan. The paper has made another turn: imperial—then liberal—then imperial again.

Generals Chacon (imperial) and Corona (liberal) met somewhere near Altenqueque, when a sharp fight ensued, resulting in the rout of Corona, and the loss of prisoners and guns.

Wires have been cut between the capital and Puebla, and the latter city submerged by destruction of the canal. Liberals are in force on the road between the two places; in fact, they hang on the rear of the retreating French and occupy every evacuated town.

There is a liberal force near this place and at Cordova, waiting the moving of the French, when they will, if strong enough, possess themselves of them.

A complete understanding exists between the liberals and the French; no collisions occur, and the French move in security without guards.

This city has an imperial garrison of 1,000 men, sufficient, it is believed, to hold the place unless the troop should prove treacherous.

Many Americans have accepted transportation and free passage to the States from the French marshal. French authorities have lately been specially kind to Americans.

A. B. C.

Maximilian in Mexico.

The French have left Mexico. The liberals have occupied the country as fast as they retired, and still Maximilian remains behind. He is said to have moved out of the capital, in the uniform of a Mexican general, at the head of a few thousand troops, to re-enforce Miramon, who had sustained a slight reverse. Whatever may be the issue of these ignoble conflicts in the interior, it would appear that Maximilian is cut off from the world, for some time to come at least, without any chance of escape. His enemies, the liberals, encircle him on every side, the north, the south, the east, and the west, and his fate depends on the small chance of winning innumerable petty conflicts in the field, and thus propping up day by day a tottering throne. The first act of the Mexican empire is over; the curtain has fallen, and all is dark behind the scenes. What further developments this inimitable historical comedy or tragedy is yet to unfold. lie hidden beyond the reach of human ken.

Strange are the destinies to which men are born. Ferdinand Maximilian Joseph is, next to the family of his elder brother, Emperor of Austria, the heir of all the glories and honors of the house of Hapsburg. He will not be 35 years old till the 6th of July next. He was married on the 7th of June, 1840, to Charlotte Marie Amelie, the richest heiress of Europe, the accomplished daughter of Leopold, King of the Belgians, and granddaughter of Louis Philippe, King of the French. The nuptials were the most brilliant ever celebrated in Europe, and were succeeded by fete after fete, to which none others have been compared. To-day she, the descendant of two famous lines of kings, is a lonely occupant of the palace of Miraraar, on the Adriatic; he, the descendant of a long line of emperors, is playing the part of a Mexican chieftain, at the head of a few thousand leperos, in the interior of Mexico.

Maximilian was the flower of the reigning family of the Hapsburgs, and of all the sons of the Archduchess Sophia, was the most brilliant, spirited, and beloved by the people of Vienna. Highly educated, he filled successively the difficult positions of governor of Lombardy and chief of the Austrian navy, with an industry, wisdom, and success which are above all praise. What could have induced him to accept the empire of Mexico was the mystery of mysteries at the time. Perhaps, as some say, it was pecuniary trouble, for he had been a princely spendthrift; perhaps it was an overgrown ambition o’erleaping itself “to fall on t’other side;” perhaps it was the romantic yet laudable belief that the descendant of Ferdinand and Isabella, the patrons of Columbus, could consolidate the empire of the New World, and give an impulse to civilization that should be felt throughout all future ages, and make his name, like that of his ancestors, immortal. However that may be, it is even a still greater mystery why, after the empire has confessedly collapsed and all these dreams must now be over, he should remain behind and degenerate into a Mexican partisan chieftain.