No. 337.
Mr. Foster
to Mr. Evarts.
Legation of
the United States,
Mexico, January 10, 1878.
(Received February 1.)
No. 660.]Sir: Referring to your dispatch No. 432, of the 7th
ultimo, making inquiry whether any of the assailants of the Rio Grande City
jail had been arrested, tried, or punished in Mexico in accordance with the
penal code, I have to report that, in a call which I made at the foreign
office on the 26th ultimo, I directed Mr. Vallarta’s attention to the
inquiry, and left with him a copy of your dispatch.
Under date of the 7th instant I received from Mr. Vallarta to-day a “verbal
note,” of which I inclose a translation, in reply. The greater portion of
the note is occupied with the demand made by Governor Hubbard, of Texas, for
the extradition of the parties referred to; but in its conclusion Mr.
Vallarta states that he has no information of the arrest, trial, or
conviction of the criminals under the penal code, but that he has asked for
reports from the authorities of Tamaulipas on the subject.
I also inclose a copy of my note acknowledging the receipt of Mr. Vallarta’s
of the 7th instant.
I am, &c.,
[Inclosure 1 in No.
660.—Translation.]
Mr. Vallarta to Mr.
Foster.
[Verbal note.]
Department of Foreign Affairs,
Mexico, January 7,
1878.
The Secretary of Foreign Affairs has the honor to inform Mr. John W.
Foster, Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States, that he has
examined the note which the Department of State, under date of December
7 last, addresses to him, instructing him to make inquiries as to
whether all or any of the assailants of Rio Grande City have been
apprehended, tried, and punished in conformity with the penal code, of
which note Mr. Foster informally delivered a copy to the Secretary of
Foreign Affairs in the conference of the 26th of December last.
[Page 540]
The Secretary of Foreign Affairs, complying with the desires expressed by
Mr. Foster, can inform him that the Government of Mexico, for very
special reasons, already placed, through the medium of its legation,
within the knowledge of the Government of the United States, ordered the
extradition of the criminals of Rio Grande City and their delivery to
the American authorities; that this act, entirely voluntary on the part
of Mexico, as the criminals were Mexicans, and wrongly interpreted by
the Governor of Texas, R. B. Hubbard, gave occasion not only for this
official to ask the delivery by Mexico of other criminals, also
Mexicans, as a duty imposed upon it by the treaty of extradition, which
Mr. Foster knows to be inexact, but for him to pretend to demand it in
the most improper terms, going so far as to intimate that the Mexican
authorities were either unable to comply with the treaty or were
animated by a spirit of hostility towards American citizens, or perhaps
both; finally, that this conduct of Governor Hubbard, concerning which
instructions have already been given to the Mexican legation in
Washington, obliged the government not to insist upon the orders which
it had issued for effecting the extradition of the criminals, very
justly fearing that a concession in every respect gratuitous would be
considered in the future as a duty, as was done at that time,
notwithstanding the clear and explicit text of the treaty of extradition
which binds the two neighboring republics.
Concerning the judicial proceeding which may have taken place
subsequently in respect to the criminals, as the latter, according to
the laws of the country, were consigned to the local authorities, which
latter have not communicated their decision to the government, the
Secretary of Foreign Affairs finds himself for the present unable to
transmit to Mr. Foster the reports which are asked of him by the
Department of State; but as they have already been asked of the
authorities of Tamaulipas, they will be brought to the knowledge of Mr.
Foster as soon as they are received in this department.
[Inclosure 2 in No. 660.]
Mr. Foster to Mr.
Vallarta.
[Unofficial.]
Legation of the United States,
Mexico, January 10,
1878.
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the
receipt to-day of your excellency’s verbal note of the 7th instant,
relating to the Rio Grande City jail assailants, and to state that I
will forward a copy thereof to my government for its information.
I improve this opportunity to reiterate to your excellency the assurances
of my distinguished esteem.
