No. 439.
Mr. Foster
to Mr. Fish.
Mexico, June 5, 1875. (Received June 29.)
Sir: The last session of the seventh Congress of the union was closed on the 31st instant, and primary elections will be held on the last Sunday of this month for senators and deputies of the new Congress, which convenes on the 16th of September next. In my dispatch No. 293, of the 25th ultimo, I referred to the application of the executive to Congress to confer upon it “extraordinary faculties.” As I had anticipated in my dispatch, Congress conferred the powers asked for by the executive, by a vote of 114 against 27. The concession continues in force until one month after the assembling of the new Congress. Before its adjournment Congress passed all the appropriations necessary for the various branches of the public service; among others, one of $300,000 jointly for the national exhibition in this city and the international exhibition at Philadelphia in 1876.
The question of the constitutional power of the federal supreme court to inquire into the proceedings and decide upon the legality of the decisions of the electoral colleges and other electoral bodies has been an exciting topic for more than a year past in the courts, in Congress, with the executive, and in the newspapers. In a suit which was brought up from the State of Morelos, the supreme court decided against the legality of the election of the governor and certain members of the legislature of that State, and granted an “amparo,” or protection, to owners of estates against the collection of taxes levied by said authorities. The governor proceeded to collect the taxes notwithstanding the decision, whereupon the supreme court, in accordance with a provision of the federal constitution, called upon the executive for an armed force to compel compliance with its decision.
[Page 926]The president declined to respond to the application of the supreme court; and for a time an open rupture between these two co-ordinate powers of the government was seriously threatened, but which happily was avoided. At the time, the president of the supreme court, Hon. José M. Iglesias, published an able argument on the question, involving also the principles of state rights and federal sovereignty; which was followed by an animated discussion by jurists and the public press. It was understood that President Lerdo dissented from the views of the president of the supreme court. At the recent session of Congress a law was passed forbidding and rendering it incompetent for any authority or body to revise or sit in judgment upon the decisions of the electoral colleges or other electoral bodies.
The president of the supreme court, considering said law as a direct assault upon the body of which he was the head, and as both unconstitutional and subversive of the judicial department of the government, tendered his resignation; but at the earnest solicitation of many public men he has consented to withdraw it, and has contented himself with entering his protest against the law upon the records of the supreme court. Mr. Iglesias bears the reputation not only of an able jurist and an incorruptible judge, but is one of the most highly esteemed and useful of the public men of Mexico, and his withdrawal from the service and the support of the government could not fail to be a public calamity. Among the most important of the acts of the last session of Congress were the concessions granted to various projected railroads. In my dispatch No. 226, December 23, 1874, I referred to the contract made by the executive with the International Railroad of Texas, of which Hon. E. L. Plumb is the representative in this country, and submitted to Congress at its session in December last. This contract has been ratified by Congress and is now a law. It will be made the subject of a separate dispatch. The contract celebrated by the executive with Mr. David Boyle Blair, for the construction of a railroad from Guaymas, through the State of Sonora, to the frontier of Arizona Territory, in the direction of Tucson, has also been ratified by Congress, and has now the full force of a law. The terms of this concession are set forth in my dispatch No. 226, December 23, 1874. Mr. Blair is a resident of San Francisco, and is understood to represent joint American and English interests.
A concession was granted to a Mexican organization to construct a railroad from the city of Matamoras to the bar of Jesus Maria, a new port in the State of Tamaulipas, on the Gulf of Mexico; and also to another Mexican company for a railroad to connect the city of Oaxaca with the Mexico and Vera Cruz Railroad. Among other acts passed by Congress are a concession for a line of coast steamers between the Mexican ports on the Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of California, and a law to encourage immigration, a copy of which latter will be forwarded to the Department as soon as officially promulgated. The government official newspaper continues to publish reports of engagements between the federal troops and small bands of guerrillas in the States of Michoacan, Guanajuato, and Queretaro, with uniform success on the part of the government. The railroad from Vera Cruz to Jalapa, a distance of seventy-one miles, has been concluded, and is now open to the public.
Owing to the steep grades, it is only designed to use locomotives on a small portion of the line, the cars being drawn the greater distance by mules.
I am, &c.,