[Inclosure B.—Translation.]
congratulations of the diplomatic corps to the
president of mexico.
The diplomatic corps presented itself yesterday at 1 p.m. to congratulate
Mr. Lerdo. The minister of Spain, in the name of his companions,
said:
Excellent Sir: The foreign diplomatic corps,
that united with your excellency a few months ago in lamenting the
affecting loss of the eminent republican who was suddenly snatched from
among his fellow-citizens, and who left as a precious legacy the
tranquil exercise of the law, comes to-day to congratulate you on the
honorable testimony of esteem and confidence which you have just
received from the Mexican people, elevating you more than by election,
by acclamation, to the supreme post that you occupied yesterday, by the
creditable and serene ministry of the constitution.
The country is confident that, by the impulse of your enlightened and
discreet administration, and by the peace that happily is commencing, it
will rise from its present prostration; and the diplomatic corps,
fervently and sincerely desiring the realization of the sanguine hopes
entertained by the country, complies now with the duty of friendship, by
expressing its hearty and loyal desires that the United States of
Mexico, entering into the harmonious intercourse with all nationalities,
may win among them the rank, the respect, and the consideration to which
it has a right, as a free people, a people of culture, and on account of
its abundant although unexplored elements, and the hospitable character
of its sons; that by this means and the blessings of peace, and the
guarantees offered by the administration of justice, the republic may
find a natural reciprocalness of interests in emigration, and the aid
that foreign capital can lend to the development of the national
industries.
A manifestation so much the more proper and sincere on our part when,
perhaps at this moment, the Mexican people, through their legitimate
representatives in the Congress of the union, respond to the initiative
of your government to authorize the executive power, in order to duly
correspond to friendly nations, to appoint diplomatic representatives
near those governments that have them accredited to this; which act,
being ostensibly a proof of a cordial understanding and reciprocal
friendship, will necessarily influence efficaciously in the realization
of the desires for the prosperity of Mexico, and the consolidation of
the interests of all the peoples already expressed.
Your advent to the first magistracy of the nation has been, excellent
sir, the inauguration of an era of peace; the country designates you-not
only as the personification of its hopes, but as a symbol of its future
welfare. May God, who has protected with his favor your provisional
steps to power, illuminate your privileged intellect and assist your
efforts, that, utilizing the blessings of labor that will be obtained by
peace, and the observance of the laws that protect and guarantee it, and
securing friendly relations and social fraternity at home and abroad,
necessary to the life of civilized peoples, you may give assured
independence, and that prosperity and aggrandizement to which your
beautiful country legitimately aspires.
reply of president lerdo.
Gentlemen: With true esteem and sincere
gratitude I receive the expression of the benevolent sentiments that the
diplomatic corps has been pleased to manifest to me.
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The vote of my fellow-citizens honors me
excessively; but also imposes on me sacred duties. One of the most
interesting, and one that will be pleasant to fulfill, is the
maintenance of the friendly relations which unite the republic of Mexico
with those foreign nations which you so worthily represent; because, in
effect, it is of great interest among nations to live not only in
harmony, but in friendly union, for the object of aiding in the great
work of extending the limits of civilization.
The initiative that the government has sent to the national Congress to
establish legations in Spain, in the German Empire, and in Guatemala,
will prove to you its desire to strengthen the relations, by means of
Mexican representatives, who will take to those governments the sincere
expression of the sentiments that animate the people of Mexico.
One of the principal duties of the government is to develop the great
material and moral elements inclosed within the republic; and I will
comply with it with the more zeal when the objects to which it leads are
not only of notorious interest to internal improvement, but of great
importance in cultivating foreign relations and in the encouragement of
emigration.
I beg you again, Messrs. Ministers, to accept my just acknowledgment,
which is the more sincere when in the fulfillment of your high duties
you have shown yourselves personally animated toward the government of
the republic by the most cordial sentiments, which, without any doubt
whatever, are reciprocated by the society of Mexico.
