No. 471.
Mr. Morgan
to Mr. Evarts.
Legation of
the United States,
Mexico, May 4, 1880.
(Received May 20.)
No. 11.]
Sir: Your Department dispatch No. 8, April 20,
1880, has been received. I have, with great pleasure, communicated the same
to Mr. Neill, in order that he may see that his action in the case of the
three Americans murdered by a mob in the State of Michoacan is commended by
you.
In obedience to your instructions, I have, in a note of this date to the
minister of foreign affairs, requested him to inform me what steps, if any,
had been taken to bring the perpetrators of this brutal murder to justice. A
copy of my note I inclose.
I am, &c.,
[Inclosure in No. 11.]
Mr. Morgan to Mr.
Ruelas.
Legation of the United States,
Mexico, May 4,
1880.
Sir: I have been instructed by the Department
of State to express to the Mexican Government the confident expectation
on the part of the American Government that the perpetrators of the
murder of three American citizens at Anganqueo, in the State of
Michoacan, by a mob, on or about the 16th of March, 1880, would be
brought to the strictest justice according to law, and this, without
considering any question of private indemnity due to the families of the
murdered men.
[Page 746]
I beg to call your excellency’s attention to your note to Mr. Neill,
secretary of legation, of the 17th of March, 1880, in reply to his note
addressed to your excellency of the 16th of March, in which he brings to
your knowledge the facts and circumstances as he had learned them, of
the murder of the American citizens herein referred to, in which you say
that previous to the receipt of his note, the President, who had heard
of the circumstance, had already earnestly recommended the governor of
the State of Michoacan “to take with the greatest activity all the
measures within his power to discover the culprits for the purpose of
inflicting upon them prompt and exemplary punishment.”
I now respectfully ask your excellency to inform me, in order that I may
communicate the facts to my government, whether the necessary steps have
been taken by the government of the State of Michoacan to bring to
justice the violators of the public peace who in open day (and who must
therefore be well known), from the evidence which is in the possession
of this legation, as well as from the evidence which must be in the
possession of the Mexican Government, brutally murdered three peaceable
American citizens.
Your excellency will please accept the renewed assurances of my very
distinguished consideration.
