No. 465.
Mr. Evarts
to Mr. Foster.
Washington, March 1, 1880.
Sir: I have to acknowledge the receipt of your dispatch No. 1101 of the 5th ultimo, in relation to the imprisonment of citizens of the United States by Mexican custom-house authorities under the “contraband laws” of the republic, for slight clerical errors in invoices.
The Department is pleased to note the emphatic position taken by you upon this subject, and it is hoped that you will continue to energetically press upon the Mexican Government the justice and importance of a [Page 737] more liberal construction by its officials of the law in question or a modification of its obnoxious features. A too rigid application of the law cannot but injuriously affect the commercial interests of both countries, and if persisted in, after friendly remonstrance, could not fail to produce a feeling of irritation at a time when the best endeavors of the two governments are and should be directed to developing the largest measure of international good-will and removing every cause of difference.
I am, &c.,