Señor Fernandez informs me that as it does not appear on the register of the
department for foreign affairs that Mr. Monahan has been matriculated as a
citizen of the United States, the ulterior official intervention of this
legation in his behalf would not be admitted.
[Inclosure in inclosure in No.
905.—Translation.]
The citizen judge of the district of the State of Mexico, under date of
the 4th instant, informs me as follows:
“I have received the note, under date of the 31st of last August, from
the department under your worthy charge, in which you transmit a
communication addressed to you by the department for foreign affairs,
requesting that you ask me for information relating to several acts
connected with the imprisonment of Thomas Monahan, upon which, as also
upon various motives of complaint expressed with regard to the process
which has been instituted against the said accused, the minister of the
United States of America has called the attention of the said department
for foreign affairs, asking that a judgment be rendered in the case. In
reply, I have the honor to inform you that in the first hours of the
morning of the 1st of July of the present year, at some distance from
the station of Los Angeles, on the Central Railroad, in the territory of
the State of Mexico, there was a collision between the trains marked
Nos. 1 and 2, which resulted in the death of the fireman, Michael
Slatten, who was working on the first-named train.
“Afterwards Thomas Monahan, engineer of the same, was arrested and placed
at the disposition of the fifth correctional court of the capital of the
Republic, which authority, in accordance with the law, instituted the
first proceedings, declaring the party detained a lawful prisoner under
the terms established by the federal constitution, and afterwards, in
view of the place in which the accident had occurred, ordered that the
prisoner should be transferred to this city and placed there at my
disposition, through the first political authorities of either capital,
which was done, without its appearing from the proceedings, which were
likewise forwarded to me, [Page 570] any
data from which it would appear that a judge had observed to the
prisoner that, notwithstanding that the proceedings had proved his
innocence, it was necessary on the part of the same judge to transfer
the said Monahan into the hands of the authorities of Toluca.
“Moreover, in the proceedings which were instituted against the said
engineer, there is no proof from which it would appear that he had
procured the communication of the proceedings or documents which were of
importance to him, from which appears the inexactness of the persons who
were the informants of the American minister. Neither is there any
foundation of any kind for the statement which, has been said, emanated
from me, that Mr. Monahan was detained at the instance of the lawyers of
the Central Railroad Company. And although the minister asserts (these
are bis words) that, after arrest, the prisoner is under the authority
of the officers of the Government, and that he is not to be kept in
prison at the will or caprice of the lawyer of a private corporation,
and in order to shield, if possible, another officer of that
corporation, I comply with the dignity of the office under my charge,
and my conscience as an honorable man, to protest energetically, which I
now do, against the imputation which has now been made against me, even
though it was based only on a supposition.
“The fact is that Monahan has been kept in jail without the intervention
of foreign influence of any kind, because he was being proceeded against
for a crime which, according to our laws, is punished with corporal
punishment, as it is homicide caused through fault, and it is not easy
for me, in view of the proof of the proceeding, to order in any manner
his liberation. It may happen that he will be able to establish his
innocence in the course of the proceedings, and that he will be,
consequently, acquitted; or, on the other hand, that his culpability be
legally proved, in which case he would be sentenced to undergo the
punishment due to his offense. But, for the present, nothing can be
predicted in the matter. I can only say that, in any event, I shall
respect the guarantees that, in treating of a criminal case, the federal
constitution concedes, not only to Mexican citizens, but to everybody;
and, lastly, convinced as I am of the rectitude that inspires my
proceedings, I tranquilly await the revision of these, a revision
entrusted by law to the magistrate of the circuit, and, should further
responsibility be incurred, to the supreme court of justice of the
nation.
“To the keen penetration of the functionary I have the honor of
addressing, it will be evident that it is not possible for me to be more
explicit in the present communication, because, to be so, I would be
putting myself in danger of anticipating judgment, which is prohibited
by the law.”
And I have the honor to transmit it to you for your knowledge and in
reply to your letter.
Liberty and constitution.
September 9, 1884.
J. N. GARCIA,
Official
Mayor.
