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.
[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,