No. 422.
Mr. Foster
to Mr. Fish.
Mexico , March 23, 1875. (Received July 22.)
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your dispatches numbered 190, 192, and 197, relating to the assault upon the Protestant church at Acapulco and the murder of the American citizen, Henry Morris. I shall endeavor to conform my action to the views expressed therein.
You will allow me respectfully to suggest that, referring to your dispatch No. 192, while Morris did not come to his death “by an act of a person in authority,” his murder might have been prevented had not the authorities omitted the precautions necessary to protect the church against the assault, which I am informed was premeditated and had been repeatedly threatened. I have every reason to believe that no judicial punishment will ever follow this murder, and if the government is not pecuniarily responsible, it is probable the crime will remain entirely unavenged.
The consul at Acapulco informs me that nothing has been done toward the arrest or punishment of the criminals since my last dispatch on the subject.
I called upon Mr. Lafragua today, to inquire if the government had any further information upon the subject, and learned from him that it had not. In answer to my inquiry, he also stated that no federal troops had been sent to Acapulco, and no further measures had been taken by the government. Our conversation was quite lengthy, and on my part as decided as I felt justified in making it, but it developed no facts of importance beyond those stated in my previous dispatches. Mr. Lafragua stated to me that the reason why no troops had been sent to Acapulco was because they could not, in the present grave condition of the country, be spared from this city and the central portion of the republic. He again reiterated the determination of the government to do all that was possible to secure the punishment of the murderers of Morris.
I did not in the conversation hesitate to express my disappointment at and disapproval of the inaction and apparent indifference o the governor of Guerrero and the local authorities of Acapulco, and my well-grounded fear that no adequate punishment would be inflicted upon the criminals.
The consul at Acapulco has informed me of the arrival at Acapulco of the United States steamer Saranac.
I am, &c.