No. 222.
Mr. Seward to Mr. Foster.

No. 390.]

Sir: Your dispatches Nos. 528, 529, and 530, as well as your unofficial and confidential letter of April 28, and your telegram of May 7, [Page 404] have been received and carefully considered. They present clearly the extraordinary condition of affairs in Mexico.

The Government of the United States in its dealings with the Mexican Republic has aimed to pursue hot merely a just but a generous and friendly course. While earnest to guard and protect the rights of its own citizens and the safety of its own territory, it does not seek to intervene in political contests or changes of administration. It is accustomed to accept and recognize the results of a popular choice in Mexico, and not to scrutinize closely the regularity or irregularity of the methods by which presidents are inaugurated. In the present case it waits before recognizing General Diaz as the President of Mexico until it shall be assured that his election is approved by the Mexican people, and that his administration is possessed of stability to endure and of disposition to comply with the rules of international comity and the obligations of treaties.

Such recognition, if accorded, would imply something more than a mere formal assent. It would imply a belief that the government so recognized will faithfully execute its duties and observe the spirit of its treaties. The recognition of a president in Mexico by the United States has an important moral influence which, as you explain, is appreciated at the capital of that republic. It aids to strengthen the power arid lengthen the tenure of the incumbent, and if, as you say, the example of the United States in that regard is one that other nations are disposed to follow, such recognition would not be without effect, both upon the internal and the external peace of Mexico. You justly remark, that in fifty years there have been about sixty changes of administration in Mexico, and it may be added that those administrations have been longest lived that were most faithful and friendly in the discharge of their treaty obligations to the United States.

When the recent revolution resulted in placing General Diaz in the position of chief magistrate, this government learned with satisfaction that he was desirous that the obligations of Mexico, under the treaty of July 4, 1868, between the two countries, should be faithfully observed, and that he had accordingly sanctioned the prompt payment of the installment of two hundred and fifty thousand five hundred and one dollars in gold.

But it is a subject of grave regret that in other respects the customs of friendly intercourse and the obligations of treaties have been neglected, disregarded, or violated. Doubtless, in many cases, the central government was powerless to prevent these infractions. But they are such as this government cannot allow to pass without remonstrance, nor without insisting that it is the duty of a friendly power to use the means at its disposal to check or repress them. There have been raids and depredations upon the Texan frontier theft, murder, arson, and plunder; violation of post-offices and customhouses; incursions by armed men to destroy life or property; cattle-stealing has become a profitable occupation; military officials posted to protect the frontier are said to have protected the robbers; forced loans have been demanded, and American citizens have been compelled to submit to unjust and unequal exactions. Within the past few weeks the guides of an American commander have been seized and carried into the interior, with threats of summary execution; and a consul of the United States, in gross violation of international comity, has been imprisoned. For each and all of these acts, many of them committed, if not with the sanction at least in the name of the Government of Mexico, not one single man, so far as is known to this government, has been punished.

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It is not difficult to believe that General Diaz and his minister of foreign affairs earnestly desire friendly relations and recognition on the part of the United States, and it is gratifying to receive the assurances unofficially made through you that they are disposed to adjust and rectify these complaints and grievances, and are not unwilling to consent to some arrangement for concerted action between the military commanders of the two countries on the frontier for the preservation of peace and order and the protection of life and property. It is natural that Mexican statesmen should urge upon you the argument that the restoration of official relations between the two governments would open the way toward such an adjustment. But it is natural, on the other hand, that the Government of the United States should be disposed to believe that some guarantee of such an arrangement should be made the condition precedent to any recognition, rather than to trust to the possibility that it may ultimately follow.

In continuing your present unofficial and informal communications with the Mexican Government, you may present these views, in whole or in part, at your own discretion, not failing, however, to let it be clearly understood that while the Government of the United States seeks amity and cordial relations with their sister republic, they prefer to await some evidence that their friendship will be reciprocated.

I am, &c.,

F. W. SEWARD.