I endeavored, both in my interviews and in my note, to keep out of prominence
the incidents which occurred at La Paz, although it was impossible for me
not to mention them, but I incorporated them with other abuses which have
been reported to me, and I treated the subject
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as a whole and as one of general importance rather
than of individual grievances.
My interview with Mr. Mariscal was of the most pleasant character, as indeed
all my intercourse with him official and personal has been. He apparently
appreciates the injury done to commerce by the exactions to which honest
traders are subjected by the inexorable practice of the customs authorities,
who so construe the Treasury regulations as to make, as I am assured, nearly
every invoice subject to a fine, and I am in hopes that some means may be
devised by which these enormous and vexatious exactions upon commerce may be
done away with.
[Inclosure in No. 159.]
Mr. Morgan to Señor
Mariscal.
Legation of the United States,
Mexico, January 27,
1881.
Sir: I beg now to submit to your excellency in
the form of a note what in substance I said to you in an interview, viz,
that I have been desired by my government to bring to the notice of the
government of your excellency the grievances of which citizens of the
United States trading with Mexico complain they are subjected to by the
customs officials of the several ports of the republic.
It has been represented to my government that it is common with Mexican
customs officials to visit upon the slightest shortcoming of legitimate
trade the severe penalties of ascertained crime. And it has occurred
that even pretexts for interference have been sought for, without what
would appear the slightest legitimate foundation, for giving annoyance
and producing loss to this class of persons. For instance, in the
seizure of a chess-board belonging to the master of a trading vessel, on
the ground that it was unmanifested contraband merchandise.
It has also been reported, and the report has been received with great
regret by my government, that the vigilance and severity of some of the
customs officials seem to be particularly and invidiously exercised
against American vessels and American goods.
On the 4th September last a case of goods was shipped from San Francisco
to a Mr. Ramirez at La Paz, on the steamer Newbern. The shipment was
accompanied by a consular invoice. Mr. Ramirez immediately acquainted
the collector of the port with the facts, and requested to be allowed to
take the goods upon paying the legal duties thereon. The collector not
only refused his request, but, estimating the duties at $140, told him
he could only have them upon paying triple duties thereon, $420. Mr.
Ramirez then offered to abandon all claim to the merchandise upon the
condition that he should not be troubled any further about it. This
proposition the collector would not accede to, and the matter was
referred to the courts, where it is now pending.
On the other hand, on the 27th September last, the German bark Jupiter
arrived at the same port. Among other goods the master had twenty-four
suits of men’s clothing, the legal duties on which would have amounted,
as I have been informed, to at least $475. He was permitted to sell
them, and he was not subjected to any fine or penalty.
Another German vessel, not long since, the Carolina, was in like manner,
I have been informed, permitted to dispose freely of a quantity of
stores which would have been subject to confiscation, if the same rules
had been applied to the goods as on the Newborn to which I have
referred.
Other instances, in other ports of the republic, where the customs
officials are in the constant practice of imposing ruinous fines and
penalties upon persons trading with the country, are unhappily
numerous.
I have been informed, for instance, that at Vera Cruz, merchants who had
imported codfish, into that port had been made to pay double duties
thereon, because the article had not been invoiced as “dried codfish”;
also that merchants had been fined because their invoices, although
stating what the goods which they imported were,
did not state what they were not.
The foregoing instances, taken from many of similar character, have been
selected by me, merely as illustrations of the many obstructions which
citizens of the United States who are endeavoring to carry on a
legitimate commerce with the citizens of Mexico are subjected to, and
not with the intention of conveying the idea that the abuses complained
of exist only in the places I have named, or with the view of lodging a
complaint against the officers of the ports I have named.
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It is not supposed that these exactions, and this invidious
discrimination between American traders with Mexico, and foreigners of
other nationalities engaged in trade with her, is practiced with the
knowledge of your excellency’s government which has often of late given
public expression to its desire to encourage and develop commerce with
the United States. It is rather believed by me that the acts complained
of are the result of arbitrary conduct of officials in the over-zealous
discharge of their duty, which the general government not only does not
sanction, but which it will condemn when brought to its notice.
The question is one of large public policy rather than of individual
grievances and I present it to your excellency from that point of view.
It is, in fact, of as great if not greater importance to Mexico than to
the United States, and as I feel confident that your excellency’s
government is quite as ready to protect and develop the commerce of
Mexico as it is to protect the citizens of a neighboring country trading
with her from invidious partiality and ruinous exactions, I am induced
to believe also that your excellency’s government will be able, after it
has ascertained that the abuses to which I have called its attention
have been found to exist, to cause the severe regulations of the custom
houses to be so administered as to relieve the commerce which is so
rapidly increasing in every part of the republic from the exactions and
penalties which now I am informed weigh so heavily upon it.
And I renew to your excellency the assurances of my distinguished
consideration.
