No. 373.
Mr. Foster
to Mr. Evarts.
Mexico, October 15, 1878. (Received November 6.)
Sir: Since my last dispatch on current events, of the 7thultimo, there have been no further reports of new revolutionary movements, and the country continues to enjoy a reasonable amount of peace, only broken by occasional local disturbances and the assaults of highwaymen, who appear to be increasing in different localities. In the town of Atzala, in the State of Puebla, on the last Sunday of September, an outbreak occurred which had been fermenting for some weeks previously between its residents, who were mainly Protestants, and those of a neighboring village, originating in a mixture of religious and political questions. The town was attacked by the inhabitants of the adjoining Catholic villages, headed by their municipal officers, and after a skirmish the former surrendered. It is stated that twenty-seven Protestants were killed, including all of the town officers, most of them in cold blood, after surrender.
General Escobedo, the Lerdo minister of war and leader of the late revolution, is still kept in close confinement in the military prison of this city. His trial by military court has been ordered, but not yet commenced.
The contraband trade, to which I have made reference heretofore, has been one of the chief topics of discussion in the newspapers. It is acknowledged to be still prosecuted successfully, with continued injury both to the national treasury and to the legitimate commerce. It having been openly charged in various papers that prominent generals of the northern division of the federal army were largely engaged in this illicit trade, General Naranjo and two other officers of that army now in this city, sent a challenge, under “the code of honor,” to the editor of the Trait d’Union, who had been most specific in making the charge; these officers proposing to vindicate the honor of that army. The event created much comment, and has led to a judicial investigation as to the basis of the charges of contraband trade in connection with the division of the army named.
The national treasury still continues in very straitened circumstances, and current payments of salaries to all government employés are postponed, except to members of Congress and the military.
It has been announced that Señor Zamacona, who had tendered his resignation as Mexican minister to the United States, had, at the urgent request of all the members of the cabinet and other prominent public men, withdrawn his resignation, and would remain in the United States for the present.
In noticing the report published in the United States, that the next Installment on the mixed claims awards might not be paid when due, the Diario Oficial states that a considerable portion of the funds for that purpose has already been sent to New York, and that the installment will be paid promptly when due, even at the sacrifice of any other financial obligation.
A national exhibition has been ordered by the federal government, to be held from the 2d of April to the 5th of May, 1879.
Since the decree was issued, it has been proposed to make it an international exhibition and the proposition has been very favorably received by the press, but no action has yet been announced by the government. In case it should be approved by it, the exhibition already ordered will most likely be postponed till about November, 1879.
[Page 659]Congress has been in session one month, but thus far no subject of great interest has received special attention. It is currently reported that certain prominent senators and deputies have agreed upon a proposition to continue President Diaz in office for six years, and confer upon him dictatorial powers.
The subject is being generally discussed by the press, but does not receive much favor openly. The Monitor, in referring to it, says that it would be very unsafe to lay aside the republican form of government to set up a ridiculous monarchy or a military dictatorship, as it would surely bring about very serious complications with the United States, as the latter could never regard such movements with favor.
It attributes the present international embarrassments in great part to the overthrow of the previous government by revolution, and asserts that internal discord and anarchy or radical changes in the form of government would inevitably result in disaster to the nation from the intervention of its northern neighbors.
While the question of the dictatorship does not receive any very pronounced and open advocacy, there appears to be a growing conviction that some important modifications of the present constitution are required, to confer more absolute power on the Executive.
One of the most enlightened and able of the newspapers of the Liberal party, La Libertad, has boldly assumed the position—
That the constitution, of 1857 is an ideal law, made for an abstract man; it is necessary to make it a Mexican law, adapted to our present condition; that the great necessity of the country is to give more force to the central power, and endow the state with all the vigor to recover from the long and dolorous experience of a half century of civil disturbances.
The Monitor, the most prominent of the Liberal papers, answers that the fault is not with the constitution or the principles of government, but with the men who administer it, the officials in power. It says:
It is necessary to bear in mind that the first enemies which the Mexican people have to their liberties are the authorities, with rare and honorable exceptions. From the high functionaries down to the lowest agents of the police, from the illustrious men who guide the ship of state to the obscure village alcalde, all appear inspired by the same despotic spirit of abusing power, of oppressing the weak, of harassing the helpless, sometimes by the barefaced use of brute force, at others by means of chicanery and subtlety, very ingenious it may be, but which reveal the want of respect for society which they profess, who ought to be the faithful guardians of its rights.
The Libertad replies:
Did these authorities fall down from the skies for us? No; they spring forth from society, and are the genuine products of our vicious constitution; they are the scrofula which reveals the mortal poverty of our temperament. * * * Respect for individual rights; but what tree of bur fields bears this fruit?
Is there not observed the hatred for the lives of others and the contempt for liberty which every Mexican abandoned to his own instincts possesses? * * * The violation of the guarantees of the constitution and the outrage of the law arise from the fact that when the legal precept is not in consonance with the necessities of life, arbitrary power and despotism are the only regimen possible in societies like ours, barely emerging from the embryo state.
The Monitor responds:
If our people are backward, if they are incapable of exercising the liberties which the fundamental law grants them, the remedy is very simple—to take away from them these liberties; to give them a legislation adapted to the necessities of their backward condition, and to sacrifice the individual to society. * * * No one more than we recognizes the deplorable state of our society; but what is the remedy? To take a backward step, under the pretext of placing the law in harmony with our practical necessities? Upon what basis could such a reaction be effected? Shall we suppress popular suffrage, which is nothing more than a farce? Then who will govern, and with what titles?
Shall we establish a military dictatorship like that of Santa Anna in his last epoch? [Page 660] Shall we suppress all the artificial rights laid down in that constitution which is never observed, and deliver society over to the arbitrary will of a supreme ruler? * * * While that may happen, we will continue employing our rhetoric in order to secure the observance of that constitution which is not observed, in order that the evils which are noticed may be reformed, always in a liberal sense, and, above all, in order that the rights which are laid down in that instrument may be profoundly respected by the little sultans who exercise authority in the name of the people.
The Trait d’Union, which has been one of the most hopeful and ardent supporters of the present administration, has recently been forced to acknowledge that the condition of affairs is very gloomy. Its editorial of to-day says:
In the midst of all the uncertainty of the moment, a fact exists which we witness with pain, but which cannot be denied. This fact is the discouragement which has taken possession of many who, yesterday, were still full of faith and hope in the future. Whatever may be the political opinion which they entertain, whatever the sympathies which they may have for General Diaz, it is difficult to shake off the impression of discouragement and sadness, casting a glance over the events of the (presidential) year just closing. If it were necessary to give it a name, it must be called the year of disappointed hopes and of fruitless enterprises. * * * Unquiet and discouraged. Mexico looks upon the future with an uncertainty which every day aggravates. The spirit of party revives, want of confidence is more wide spread than last year, business languishes, labor is paralyzed, the fountain of resources begins to fail, and such are the sufferings of the country that he is not an alarmist who has fears for the public peace.
An effort has been made to create the impression that the contraband trade, already referred to, is mainly carried on over the Texas frontier, and the press of this city has gone so far as to publish charges of complicity on the part of the officers of the Regular Army of the United States.
I have heretofore transmitted to the Department the statement of the Mexican minister of finance that it is carried on, not only on the Rio Grande frontier, but in other parts of the country. Just as I close this dispatch, I notice that the Occidental of Mazatlan, on the Pacific coast, in discussing the subject, says:
If in the States of the republic where the contraband exists there are employés as greedy and avaricious as those at Mazatlan, we will have discovered one of the causes of the contraband trade.
And again it says:
Never has there been in said custom-houses such a number of employés as now, and, nevertheless, the contraband trade has never been so scandalous as at present.
These confessions as to the character of the custom-house officials of Mazatlan may throw some light upon the outrages which have been perpetrated at that port upon the American vessels the Dreadnaught, Montana, and Eustace, which have been made the subject of dispatches to the Department.
The treasury statement for the month of September shows the cash receipts of the government to have been $769,595.36 and the cash disbursements $769,573.50.
I am, &c.,