This Government has no disposition to connive at any voluntary violation or
evasion of the laws of Mexico by citizens of the United States. When,
however, the government of that country enters into a contract with those
citizens, it is not conceived to be right or generous on its part to
withhold any reasonable facility which may be necessary toward carrying the
contract into effect. If, as is supposed to be the case in this instance,
the facility should be indispensable, that government would justly be
accountable for refusing it.
In order, however, that the character of your proceedings may not constitute
an inconvenient precedent, they will be limited to personal and unofficial
representations.
[Inclosure.]
General B. F. Butler to Mr. Fish.
Washington, February 19, 1871. (Received February
21.)
Sir: I have the honor to ask to have filed on
the archives of the State Department the inclosed protest of the agent
of the Lower California Company against the action of the Mexican consul
in forbidding the clearance from San Francisco of any vessel for
Magdalena Bay, which is the headquarters of our colony.
This action of the Mexican authorities is of the gravest import to the
Lower California Company. That company is very vigorously pushing its
colonization enterprise in order to fulfill, beyond all question, the
terms of its grant to colonize two hundred families before the 1st of
May next. This action of the Mexican consul tends to prevent this
consummation. It can hardly be possible that Mexico can refuse to let us
land with provisions upon our territory, and then complain of the
company for not fulfilling its contract by not landing. But this matter
has still graver import. We have already landed a large number of men,
whom, for the present, we must supply with provisions for their
immediate necessities, tools, seeds, materials for houses and other
comforts of life, to enable them to sustain themselves and to carry out
their enterprise. Now, if we cannot send them these supplies the
colonists may starve, and great suffering ensue. So that we present
herewith to the State Department the case of American citizens going
upon land purchased and paid for to the Mexican government, and carrying
on an enterprise in conformity with the order, decrees, and contract of
the Mexican government, and then an interference with the business
necessary to be done by Mexican agents, which will result in great loss
to the company and great wrong to American citizens; and for this we ask
the prompt interposition of our Government, as well in behalf of the
company as of its citizens who have placed dependence upon Mexican
faith.
I have the honor to be, very respectfully, yours,
Hon. Hamilton Fish, Secretary of State.
[Untitled]
Consulate of Mexico, San Francisco, January 27, 1871.
Public notice is hereby given that La Paz, being the only port of entry
at present open to foreign trade in the territory of Lower California,
the landing of merchandise or provisions at any other point of that
peninsula renders the vessel and cargo liable for infringing the Mexican
revenue laws.
ISAAC RIVAS.
State of California, City and
County of San Francisco, ss:
Whereas the foregoing attached notice or advertisement appeared in the
Evening Bulletin, a daily newspaper published in the city and county of
San Francisco, State of California, in its regular issue of Saturday,
January 28, 1871;
And whereas the effect of said notice or advertisement has been, and will
be, highly detrimental and injurious, and cause great loss and damage to
the “Lower California Company,” a corporation organized under the laws
of the State of New York, of which corporation Drake De Kay, esq., is
the secretary, agent, and attorney in fact on this coast;
And whereas the consul of the Mexican Republic refused to give clearance
to the brig Curlew, loaded with colonists and provisions and goods for
the use of and belonging to same, dispatched by said Lower California
Company in the fulfillment of the condition of the contract made and
existing between the Mexican government and I. P. Leese, in Saltillo, in
March, 1864, and revalidated on 4th May, 1866, which condition makes it
obligatory upon the said Lower California Company to introduce into the
peninsula of Lower California two hundred colonizing families before the
4th day of May, A. D. 1871;
And whereas, the said refusal of the Mexican consul has caused the
withdrawal of a vessel previously advertised to continue the work of
fulfilling the contract aforesaid, has seriously alarmed a large number
of families already prepared to emigrate to Lower California, has
prevented the shipment of a full cargo of lumber from another port to
Magdalena, on the wharf and ready for shipment, has greatly frightened
ship-owners here who were preparing to engage in the business, and has
already absolutely suspended a large number of contracts entered into
and being negotiated for the furtherance of the company’s interest, and
the compliance with the aforesaid condition, of said concession: in
fact, it has, at one blow, nullified all the effect of the elaborate and
expensive machinery organized by the Lower California Company for the
rapid peopling and development of the conceded lands of Lower
California, which system had, in the face of and notwithstanding the
opposition and discouragement offered by the governor of Lower
California, who, although referring the questions raised by him to the
decision of the supreme government, nevertheless officially stated and
repeated that he could not conform himself with the action of the
company in Lower California, thereby intimidating the agents of the
company and those colonists invited to the company’s lauds, making every
one of them feel that he went to the country at risk of life and
property, and, although so hampered, had the effect of placing in the
said territory a large number of colonists of the best class, no paupers
or persons of bad character being permitted to go there, and of day by
day, week by week, increasing the applications of families to go there,
until now some one thousand families were prepared to make homes for
themselves there, when this notice or advertisement so evidently
hostile, absolutely preventing either emigration to, or shipment of
supplies down, or produce back, stopped short the whole business,
causing incalculable loss in money and great injury and damage to the
company, also casting reproach and opprobrium upon the agents,
directors, and share-holders thereof;
And whereas the said Drake De Kay, as such agent, secretary, and attorney
of said company, as aforesaid, has requested F. I. Thibault, a notary
public in and for said city and county of San Francisco, State of
California, to make his protest and this public act thereof, and that
the same may serve and be of full force and value as of right shall
appertain;
Now, therefore, the said Drake De Kay protests, and I, the said notary,
F. I. Thibault, at the special instance and request of said Drake De
Kay, do hereby publicly and solemnly protest against the acts aforesaid,
against the said Mexican consul, against his said notice or
advertisement and the legality thereof, against the refusal of said
consul to give clearance to said vessel, against the Mexican government
and any of its agent or agents, and all persons acting by or under said
government, and against whomsoever else it shall or may concern, for all
costs, charges, losses, damages, injuries and expenses already incurred,
or to be hereafter incurred, by said Lower California Company, its
agents, directors, share-holders, and all other persons, for, or by
reason or on account of, said notice or advertisement, and the
publication thereof, the said consul’s refusal as aforesaid, and any and
all of the matters aforesaid.
Thus done and protested in San Francisco, this 30th day of January, A. D.
1871.
[Page 627]
In testimony whereof, as well the said Drake De Kay as I, the said
notary, have subscribed these presents, and I, the said notary, have
hereunto affixed my official seal this 30th day of January, A. D.
1871.
[seal.]
DRAKE DE KAY, Secretary and
Attorney-in-fact of the Lower California Company.
Before me,
F. I. THIBAULT, Notary
Public.
State of California, City
and County of San Francisco, ss:
I, the undersigned, notary public, hereby certify the foregoing act
of protest to be an accurate and faithful copy of the original on
record in my book of official acts.
In testimonium veritatis.
[seal.]
F. I. THIBAULT, Notary
Public.
