Mr. Clayton to Mr.
Hay.
Embassy
of the United States,
Mexico, January 16,
1902.
No. 1237.]
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the
receipt of the Department’s No. 613, of the 7th ultimo, inclosing a copy
of a letter from the Secretary of the Interior, and of a dispatch from
the United States consul at Ensenada, in relation to the enforced
enlistment in the Mexican army of Francisco Cuero, an Indian from the
Campo Indian Reservation in California.
Following your instruction above mentioned, I addressed a note to the
foreign office, copy inclosed, suggesting that Cuero be discharged from
the Mexican army.
I also inclose copy and translation of Mr. Mariscal’s reply stating that
the department of war had been requested to discharge Cuero, if
possible, and copy and translation of a further note stating that his
discharge had been ordered.
I have, etc.,
[Inclosure 1.]
Mr. Clayton to
Mr. Mariscal.
Embassy of the United States,
Mexico, December 24, 1901.
Mr. Minister: Referring to our conversation
of Saturday last relating to the enlistment into the Mexican army of
the Indian, Francisco Cuero, and to the report of the jefe politico
of the northern district of Lower California, a copy of which was
transmitted to this embassy in your excellency’s note of the 31st of
August last; from the facts before me, including those contained in
said report, it appears that the said Cuero is the son of the chief
of an Indian tribe located at the Campo Indian Reservation in
California. It also appears that when he enlisted into the Mexican
army he was not a Mexican citizen, nor was he of that legal age
which authorized him to manage his own affairs; and although,
strictly speaking, he is not an American citizen, he is a domestic
subject of the United States.
Without referring to the question of involuntary enlistment, I repeat
the suggestion I made to your excellency during the aforesaid
conversation, and which seemed to receive your excellency’s
favorable consideration, that perhaps the best way to dispose of the
question would be for your excellency’s Government to kindly
discharge from the army the soldier, Francisco Cuero.
I renew, etc.,
[Inclosure
2.—Translation.]
Mr. Mariscal to
Mr. Clayton.
Department of Foreign Affairs,
Mexico, January 3, 1902.
Mr. Ambassador; I have had the honor to
receive the note of December 24 last in which your excellency is
pleased to ask that the soldier, Francisco Cuero, be discharged from
the Mexican army because of his being the son of a chief of an
Indian tribe residing in California and not a Mexican citizen.
In reply I have the pleasure to say to your excellency that on this
date I have requested the department of war to accede to the wishes
expressed by the embassy unless there should be some particular
circumstance which may not permit it.
I renew, etc.,
[Page 792]
[Inclosure 3.]
Mr. Mariscal to
Mr. Clayton.
Department of Foreign Affairs,
Mexico, January 10, 1902.
Mr. Ambassador: Referring to my note of the
3d instant, I have the honor to inform your excellency that the
department of war, in official communication of the 7th instant,
advises me that it has ordered that the soldier, Francisco Cuero, be
immediately discharged from the company fija norte of Lower
California.
I renew, etc.,
