Papers Relating to Foreign Affairs, Accompanying the Annual Message of the President to the Third Session of the Fortieth Congress
Mr. Plumb to Mr. Seward.
Sir: Referring to my dispatches Nos. 65 and 77, and the correspondence inclosed therewith, I have now to transmit, for the information of the department, translations from the Diario Oficial, showing that the steps proposed to be taken by this government with regard to the funds in the hands of the agents of the bondholders, under the English and Spanish convention debts, have been carried into effect, and that the public sale therein referred to has taken place.
Translations of the final replies of the agents of the bondholders are also transmitted herewith.
I have not yet learned of any provision having been made for the payment of the principal of, or the interest upon, American claims.
I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State, Washington, D. C.
No. 1.
Department of Treasury and Public Credit.–Section 2.
By the communications which, under this date, I have addressed to Messrs. José Maria Bassoco, Raymundo Mora, and Casimiro Collado, and to Messrs. Barron, Forbes & Co., of which I inclosed to you a copy, you will be informed of what the President has determined with reference to the extinguished English and Spanish conventions.
In conformity with what is directed in said communications, you will proceed without delay to hold two public auctions, one of the titles of the extinguished English convention, and the other of the titles of the extinguished Spanish convention; the first, with the $29,649 80, which are to be delivered to you by Messrs. Barron, Forbes & Co., and the second, with the $34,184 86, which are to be delivered to you by Messrs. Bassoco, Mora, and Collado.
For the subsequent auctions there will be set apart, until the sovereign congress shall otherwise provide, a monthly sum, which shall not be less than $40,000 nor more than $60,000, which shall commence to be so set apart from the coming month of January, 1868, in the administration of sealed paper, from the product of the twenty per cent, of the federal contribution.
In case these products are not sufficient to furnish the sum designated, what is lacking will be supplied from the other funds of the treasury.
As the said sum is designed for the successive redemption of all of the titles of the foreign debt, recognized as valid and legitimate, this department will opportunely fix the partial sums to be taken from the general amount, for the redemption of the said titles, according to the categories into which they are divided.
With reference to the values and the accounts which axe to be delivered to you, you will proceed to collect the same without delay, forming afterwards the respective liquidations, which you will remit to this department as soon as possible.
The Citizen Treasurer General of the Nation.
No. 2.
Department of Treasury and Public Credit.–Section 2.
Under date of the 21st of December last, this department transmitted to you copies of the communications addressed to the agents of the bondholders under the extinguished Spanish and English conventions, requiring them to deliver into the general treasury certain funds in their possession destined for the payment of interest and redemption of said bonds, in order that by the general treasury the same should be distributed in the manner directed by the President for the redemption of this debt. At the same time the necessary instructions were given to you to proceed to hold public auctions for the sale of said funds.
The agents of the extinguished conventions opposed some difficulties for the delivery of these funds; and the change which has lately taken place in the personnel of this department has occasioned that the funds are not yet delivered, and that none of the auctions which it was directed should be held have yet taken place.
The President having again taken this subject into consideration, in council of ministers, after having heard the motives alleged by the late agents for not making immediately the delivery that was required of them, has determined, with the concurrence of his cabinet, to proceed with what had previously been ordered.
In consequence thereof, you will proceed to notify this determination to the house of Messrs. Miguel, Burch & Co., which is where there exists $34,186 86 belonging to the fund of the extinguished Spanish convention, and to the house of Messrs. Barron, Forbes & Co., who have $29,649 08 belonging to the fund of the extinguished English convention.
Immediately that they make known to you their conformity for the delivery of these funds, you will proceed, without loss of time, to hold the auctions, augmenting them with such sum as the circumstances of the treasury may permit, to the end that these auctions may be for the largest possible sum.
It will not be necessary that the material delivery of these funds shall take place, as once that the depositories have manifested that they are disposed to deliver them they [Page 424] can remain in their hands as a deposit, in order to be delivered by them to whomsoever shall acquire them in the sale, and in whose favor the general treasury will issue the corresponding orders.
It appears unnecessary to recommend to you again that, in the auction for the bonds of the extinguished Spanish convention, only those that are legitimate can be received. The auctions will take place with all the formalities of law.
This department understands that a part of said funds are in drafts due but not collected. In order that the auction may take place as soon as possible, you will lend your most efficacious co-operation to the collection of the unpaid drafts, using, if it is necessary, the compulsory faculties possessed by your office.
By direction of the President you will also demand from the said houses, or from the persons in whose possession they may be, the paid coupons and redeemed bonds, in order that they may be canceled by the general treasury, and also a detailed account of the sums which, during the time of the so-called empire, were received as interest or for the redemption of capital of the bonds of the extinguished Spanish and English conventions.
You will also exact the same data from the persons who are or have been the agents of the bondholders under the extinguished French convention.
I communicate the same to you for your most punctual compliance.
The Citizen Treasurer General of the Nation.
No. 3.
Department of Treasury and Public Credit.–Section 2.
Although article 1 of the law of the 30th of November, 1867, provided that the auctions for the redemption of the interior debt of the nation should commence in the month of March proximo, the citizen President, desiring that the same shall commence even before the date fixed, in order to manifest in this manner his desire to pay the creditors of the treasury as early as possible, has been pleased to direct that the first of these auctions shall take place on the 12th instant, to which shall be assigned the sum of ten thousand dollars, and in which shall be received only certificates of an amount less than one thousand dollars, of those issued by the liquidating bureau of the national floating debt, in conformity with the provisions of article 16 of the law of the 19th of November, 1867.
The President also desires that, on the 10th instant, there shall take place the first auction for the redemption of the bonds of the extinguished English and Spanish conventions, to which the communication of this department of the 1st instant refers, assigning for this auction a fund of $90,000, including the $73,000 and a little over, which exist in the hands of the late agents of said bonds.
You will take care that this fund of $90,000 shall be divided between the bonds called Spanish and English, in proportion to the amount represented by the total of each one of those two classes of bonds.
In this way there will be applied in the present month $100,000 to the redemption of the public debt, and the President expects that in the subsequent months there can be applied to this object an equal or a greater sum.
The Citizen Treasurer General of the Nation.
No. 4.
General Treasury of the Nation.–Section 2, No. 48.
In compliance with the supreme order which, under this date, you have been pleased to address to me, that on the 10th instant the first auction, with the fund of $90,000 for the redemption of the bonds of the extinguished English and Spanish conventions, shall take place, I have directed the printing and posting of the respective notices; but for the greater accuracy of this general treasury in the auctions, I beg [Page 425] that you will be pleased to ask from the department of foreign relations, and remit to this treasury, the marginal record which remains there of the bonds placed in circulation belonging to the said conventions, as without the same it will not be easy to distinguish the good from the false, that are, perhaps, in circulation.
I also beg that you will be pleased to resolve whether in the auction there is to be taken into account only the value of the principal of the bonds, or if the interest is to be calculated and added thereto; advising me of the date up to which the same is to be reckoned.
The Minister of Treasury and Public Credit.
No. 5.
Department of Treasury and Public Credit.–Section 1.
There has been received in this department your official note of this date, No. 48, in which you request that this department shall ask from that of foreign relations, and remit to the treasury, the marginal record which remains there of the bonds, which were placed in circulation under the extinguished English and Spanish conventions, in order to distinguish the legitimate from the illegal; and you inquire whether, in the auction of said bonds, which is ordered for the 10th instant, there shall be considered only the value of the capital which they represent, or if the interest shall be capitalized, and up to what date this shall be calculated.
I have to-day asked from the department of foreign relations the marginal records you desire, and immediately that they are received they will be sent to the treasury.
With respect to the inquiries that you make, I have to state that the President directs that the unpaid interest on the bonds sold shall be capitalized, computing the same up to the date of the auction.
The Citizen Treasurer General of the Nation.
No. 6.
Notice.
In a supreme order of to-day the minister of treasury and public credit says to me, among other things, as follows:
“The President also desires that on the 10th instant there shall take place the first auction for the redemption of the bonds of the extinguished English and Spanish conventions, to which the communication of this department of the 1st instant refers, assigning for this auction a fund of ninety thousand dollars, including the seventy three thousand dollars and a little over, which exist in the hands of the late agents of said bonds.
“You will take care that this fund of ninety thousand dollars shall be divided between the bonds called Spanish and English in proportion to the amount represented by the total of each one of those two classes of bonds.
“In this way there will be applied in the present month one hundred thousand dollars to the redemption of the public debt, and the President expects that in the subsequent months there can be applied to this object an equal or a greater sum.”
Of which I hereby notify the holders of bonds of the extinguished English and Spanish conventions, who may wish to have their bonds redeemed, to the end that they may meet at this general treasury on the 10th of the present month, at ten o’clock in the morning, when the auction will commence.
No. 7.
To the Collector of the Maritime Custom-house at Vera Cruz:
The auction of the sum of ninety thousand dollars, in favor of the bonds of the extinguished English and Spanish conventions, has just take place. Forty-eight thousand six hundred and fifteen dollars was adjudicated for the bonds of the first, at twenty-eight and seven-eighths, and at twenty-nine per cent., and $41,385 for those of the second, at thirteen, and thirteen and one-eighth per cent.
I inform you on account of the importance that it is to the commerce to know the result of these auctions, to whom you will communicate the same, also sending this notice abroad.
Day after to-morrow an auction will take place for the interior debt.
Result of the auction held to-day for the sale of $90,000 to the bondholders of the extinguished English and Spanish conventions.
ENGLISH CONVENTION.
| R. Cancino sold, at 28⅞ per cent | $100,940 00 | = | $29,146 42 |
| The same, at 29 per cent | 67,133 03 | = | 19,468 58 |
| Total | 168,073 03 | = | 48,615 00 |
SPANISH CONVENTION.
| F. Macin sold, at 13¼ per cent | $58,440 00 | = | $7,743 30 |
| C. Kemoylen sold, at 13⅛ per cent | 45,937 50 | = | 6,029 29 |
| R. Cancino sold, at 13 per cent | 128,625 00 | = | 16,721 25 |
| C. Moctezuma sold, at 13 per cent | 38,500 00 | = | 5,005 00 |
| P. Cardeña sold, at 13 per cent | 45,278 16 | = | 5,886 16 |
| Total | 316,780 66 | = | 41,385 00 |
RESUMÉ
| English convention | $168,073 03 | = | $48,615 00 |
| Spanish convention | 316,780 66 | = | 41,385 00 |
| Total | 484,853 69 | = | 90,000 00 |
Gain, $394,853 69.
No. 8.
Sir: By your communication of the 3d instant we are informed that, by virtue of the order of the minister of the treasury, which you insert, we have to make the delivery of the funds of the English convention, be the same in money or in drafts, as likewise the accounts of the convention.
From the literal tenor of the order it appears that our conformity has to be manifested, and that “it will not be necessary that the material delivery of the funds should take place, as once that the manifestation is made by the depositories of their being disposed to deliver them, they can remain in their possession.”
But as, notwithstanding these terminant dispositions, your office understands that [Page 427] we are to proceed with the delivery, we have respectfully to indicate to you that, as determined in the meeting of the creditors, the owners of these funds consider themselves prejudiced by the delivery referred to, and they have instructed us to make it in their name only under the unavoidable necessity of obeying orders which the government of the republic has not been pleased to revoke, notwithstanding our repeated solicitations.
We have the honor to be your bedient servants,
The Treasurer General M. P. Izaguirre.
No. 9.
The treasurer general has transcribed to Mr. Miguel Buch the supreme order of the 1st instant, relative to the delivery of the funds of the Spanish convention.
As the said supreme order has been published in the “Diario Oficial,” and in it it is stated that immediaiely that the agents manifest their conformity for the delivery of the funds he will proceed to hold the auctions, we fear that the Spanish government and our constituents may believe that we have not fulfilled the duty imposed upon us by the trust which we have accepted.
That circumstance obliges us to reproduce the expositions in which we have sustained the subsistence of the Spanish convention, and endeavored to convince the supreme government that the fund which exists in the agency belongs, in full dominion, to the creditors who have received it, by means of their attorney, in part payment of interest due for nearly eight years.
For the same reasons it is proper for us to reproduce, also, the solemn protest which we made in the second memorial, dated the 4th of January last, that we had not been, and that we are not, conformable to the delivery of the fund, and that, if the committee submits to the disposition of the supreme government, it is under compulsion and the pressure of the several orders they have received, and in all cases holding in reserve the rights which they represent.
In order to cover at all times our responsibility, we beg that you will be pleased to direct that there be issued to us, from the department under your worthy charge, certified copies of the present and of our previous expositions.
We also beg that you will be pleased to direct that the said expositions be published, in order that in the publication that has been made the documents may appear complete.
Wherefore we beg that you will accede to our petition, in which we will receive justice.
The Citizen Minister of the Treasury.
No. 10.
In reply to your official note dated the 3d, in which you insert the supreme order of the 1st instant, relative to the delivery of the funds belonging to the creditors under the Spanish convention, I have to make known to you that the said funds are at your disposal, but not because there is a conformity to their delivery, as not only the permanent committee but the agency have protested before the supreme government that if the delivery is made it is only under the pressure and compulsion of the supreme orders that they have received.
The net sum which exists in my possession, deducting a trifling charge prior to the note of the 21st of last October, is $33,984 86, and I have to request that in disposing of the same you will do so in one sum, as for special, reasons it will not be possible for me to make the several payments to which you refer
The Treasurer General.