Mr. Wharton to Mr. Ryan.

No. 30.]

Sir: Referring to instruction No. 244 of 19th January, 1888, I transmit a copy of a further statement in the matter of the Howard 0. Walker claim against Mexico, as there set forth.

If no reply has yet been returned to the presentation of the claim then made, you will again call the attention of the Mexican Government to the facts in the case, and ask for a statement of its conclusions in the matter.

I am, etc.,

Wm. F. Wharton.
[Inclosure in No. 30.]

Mr. Walker to Mr. Blaine.

Sir: Published in a volume on foreign relations, for the year 1884, you will find the report of my case, to which I respectfully beg to call your attention.

Two years ago I visited the city of Washington and employed the firm of Morris & Hamilton to present my papers to the State Department and formulate a claim for false imprisonment against the Mexican Government. This was done by these gentlemen and Mr. Bayard sent all the papers here to our minister, who communicated his instructions from Washington to Señor Mariscal, Mexican minister on foreign relations, who, up to this date, had not seen fit to make any reply, and will not unless pressed to do so by your Department.

Mr. Bayard wrote me (and his letter is among my papers left with the Department) that my case was well known to the Department, and that as soon as I was cleared by the Mexican courts, and not until then, he would take up my case. I was cleared by all the courts and accorded by them the right to collect damages, yet nothing whatever was done by Mr. Bayard, and I now appeal to yon, as the representative of my rights as an American citizen, to look into my case and if you find that I have just cause for reclamation, to see that my rights are respected. If I have not, I am willing to withdraw my case, but in the opinion of many leading lawyers, with [Page 601] whom I have discussed my case, it is one of the most just and aggravated ones ever submitted to your Department.

For a number of years it has been a common saying here that Americans practically have no rights which the Mexican Government will respect, and my experience thus far bears out the truth of this remark. If this is the case, I desire to know it, if not, I respectfully insist on having such protection of my rights and person as my Government extends to its citizens abroad.

In order that you may have some personal knowledge of me, I beg to refer you to the Hon. Samuel B. Churchill, of Louisville, Kentucky, Senator Beck, of the same State, Mr. Van Rensselaer Cruger (corner Church and Fulton streets, New York), Mr. A. G. Bradstreet, banker (35 Pine street, New York), Hon. Alexander Badlam, San Francisco, Cal, and Capt. Joseph D. Hoff, U. S. consul at Vera Cruz, who can give you any information you desire about me personally.

Very respectfully, yours,

Howard C. Walker.