No. 223.
Mr. Foster
to Mr. Evarts.
Mexico, May 28, 1877. (Received June 8.)
Sir: In a call which I made at the foreign office on the 24th instant, in giving to Mr. Vallarta the information contained in General Ord’s report of Colonel Shafter’s crossing at Piedras on the 3d ultimo, transmitted with No. 385, of the 2d instant, Mr. Vallarta referred to the apparent impunity extended to the Lerdist chief, Valdez, by the American authorities in Texas, whose hostile crossing of the Rio Grande is referred to in my dispatch No. 537 of to-day. I answered Mr. Vallarta that I knew nothing of the facts alluded to except as I had seen them in the dispatches sent by the Mexican authorities to the government here as published in the official journal; but I presumed the American military and civil officers were pursuing the same course toward the partisans of Mr. Lerdo as they observed last year toward General Diaz, in which case there ought to be no cause of complaint on the part of the existing government here. It was to be borne in mind that General Diaz was permitted to remain undisturbed in Brownsville for a considerable period while the revolution of which he was the recognized head was progressing in Mexico; that there was good reason to suppose that at that time he was conspiring with his partisans across the frontier and making contracts with American citizens for arms and other munitions of war ‘u that he crossed into Mexican territory and engaged in an armed expedition against the recognized authorities, arid was afterward driven across the border into American territory, and thence returned to Mexico unmolested by the officials of the United States. It did not appear that greater immunity had been afforded thus far to the partisans of Mr. Lerdo.
[Page 406]Mr. Vallarta replied that Valdez was not engaged in legitimate warfare, but purely in a system of plunder, kidnapping, and outlawry.
I answered that I supposed the American authorities were not responsible for such acts committed on Mexican soil by Mexican citizens; but our officials had complained that among General Diaz’s partisans in the recent revolution there were chiefs guilty of outrages upon American citizens similar to those which he (Mr. Vallarta) charged against Valdez; and I cited some of the acts of Cortina in Tamaulipas, and Trias in Chihuahua.
It may not be amiss, however, for me to suggest in this connection that our authorities on the frontier be enjoined to observe strict impartiality in the Mexican conflict, and see that the neutrality laws are not violated.
I am, &c.,