in direct antagonism with the equality of the citizen and the form of a republican government. At a later period the governments of France and Spain have both, with more or less formality, renewed the efforts which Great Britain originally made, and the same obstacles which rendered the efforts of Great Britain unavailing have attended these subsequent efforts. I am, therefore, instructed to inform you that all these matters have been fully and duly considered by the government of the United States, and that the policy heretofore adopted by the liberals in their intercourse with European powers, in relation to these negotiations for peace, has been approved and adopted by it, and that it has determined to resist any forcible attempt to impose a particular adjustment of the existing conflict against the will and sanction of the people of Mexico, and, also, any forcible intervention, by any power, which looks to the control of the political destiny thereof. This determination on the part of the government of the United States has already been explicitly, though respectfully, declared to all the powers of Europe. The government of the United States does not deny to the European powers the right to wage honorable warfare for a sufficient cause, anywhere, or against any nation; nor does it deny their right to demand redress for injuries inflicted on their respective subjects, and, if need be, to enforce such demands; but it does deny them the right to interfere, directly or indirectly, with the political independence of the republic of Mexico, and it will, to the extent of its power, defend the nationality and independence of said republic. This settled policy of the government of the United States, I believe, is well understood by all the representatives of European powers in Mexico. It is also fully understood and appreciated by the constitutional government at Vera Cruz; and, under my instructions, it becomes my duty to cause it to be well understood by all those who, from their public character and the circumstances that characterize the political condition of the republic, are charged with the responsibilities of political power and authority, in order that said policy may neither be misunderstood nor misrepresented to the prejudice of either Mexico or of the United States. I am further instructed to state, in the most explicit manner, that the government of the United States earnestly desires the pacification of Mexico, and that it will recognize and support any government that is adopted and accepted by the free choice of the people thereof, and that it will always encourage the friendly efforts of any foreign power that have for its objects such a resultnotwithstanding its resolution to abstain from all direct participation in any such mediation, and its adherence to the relations already established between it and the constitutional government of the republic. Having complied with the spirit of my instructions from the minister of the United States, I have, in conclusion, to request your acceptance of my consideration and respect. HENRY ROY DE LA REINTRIE, Special Agent United States Legation in Mexico. This communication was sent to all the representatives of foreign powers in Mexico, to wit: Mr. Dubois de Saligny, France; Mr. J. F. Pacheco, Spain; Mr. George B. Mathew, England; Mr. E. de Wagner, Prussia; Mr. Clementie, Nuncio of the Holy See; Mr. F. N. del Barrio, Guatemala; F. de P. Pastor, Ecuador. H. R. DE LA REINTRIE. Mr. Seward to Mr. Corwin. No. 16.] DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, August 24, 1861. SIR: In your despatch of the 29th ultimo, numbered 3, you call my attention to a circular from Henry Roy de la Reintre, under date of December 20, 1860, to all the representatives of foreign powers in Mexico, which purports to have been written by direction of your predecessor, Mr. McLane, and you desire to know whether this government concurs in the views and principles therein set forth. To answer this question broadly in the affirmative would be to commit it to opinions expressed by the writer of that paper concerning the merits of domestic political parties in Mexico, in transactions which, since that paper was written, have been fully completed and ended. Again, although I am very sure that this government cherishes the actual independence of Mexico as a cardinal object to the exclusion of all foreign political intervention, and is willing to take decided measures favoring that independence, as is seen in another despatch to you of this date, yet the present moment does not seem to me an opportune one for formal reassurance of the policy of the government to foreign nations. Prudence requires that, in order to surmount the evils of faction at home, we should not unnecessarily provoke debates with foreign countries, but rather repair, as speedily as possible, the prestige which those evils have impaired. Perhaps it will be sufficient for me to say that it is our wish and our purpose, so far as our action may bear upon the question, that the people of Mexico shall, in every case, be exclusive arbiters of their own political fortunes, and remain free and independent of all foreign intervention and control whatever. I hardly know how it can be necessary for the government of the United States to say this in view of the policy and principles set forth in the instructions under which your mission to Mexico was begun. The postal convention made in this city, on the 31st July, having been ratified by the Senate of the United States, now awaits ratification by the government of Mexico. I send you a copy for your information. I am, sir, your obedient servant, THOMAS CORWIN, Esq., &c., &c., &c. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Mr. Corwin to Mr. Seward, [Extracts.] No. 4.] SIR : LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Your instructions touching Lower California, alluded to in your despatch No. 11, have not been received here. If not destroyed on their way I may hope to get them either by the Spanish steamer Union, which passes from Havana to Vera Cruz once a month, the mail from which is due here to-night, or by the British steamer which comes from Havana to Vera Cruz every month, whose mail will be due here the 30th instant. Nothing has occurred here to change the relations between Mexico and the United States since my last despatch. The liberal government still maintains its power, though its dominion is disputed by armed bands of reactionary troops in different parts of the republic. The pursuit of these robber bands in various directions compels the government to keep up a considerable military force, the expense of which has drained the last dollar from the treasury, and the government has often been compelled to borrow from individuals sums varying from $30,000 to $100,000, at enormous rates, for the purpose of moving a battalion or one or two regiments against the roving bands of the reactionary party. Many plans have been suggested by the friends of the government, and one or two by the department of foreign affairs, in conversation, for present relief of a pecuniary nature. None of these, however, were of a character which I deemed practicable, and therefore I have as yet presented to the government no proposition for a treaty which has for its basis the payment of money to Mexico by the United States. I have no doubt that any treaty which would give the present government from five to ten millions of dollars in monthly instalments of, say, a quarter of a million, would enable it to crush the last hope of the church party as well as to restore comparative safety from robber bands who infest the roads and rob travellers in all directions. Such a sum would also enable the government to arrange the foreign debt, the non-payment of the interest on which has caused the English and French ministers to discontinue diplomatic relations, till further orders, with Mexico, and which at present threatens to end in foreign intervention, which was alluded to in my despatch No. 3, under date of July 29, 1861. I am extremely anxious to obtain the views of the department on the subject proposed in that despatch, and hope to receive them by the mails of to-morrow or next day. Mr. Pickett, commissioner from what he denominates "the Confederate States," is still here. He and three southern persons, sojourning in this city, were engaged last night in rejoicing over the victory at Bull Run and Manassas Gap. The sketch of that battle in the New York Herald of the 23d of July reached here yesterday. The paper came here from Havana by private conveyance. Mr. Pickett has learned that Mexico had granted the United States the privilege of marching troops through Mexican territory to Arizona. He has informed the government here that this will be considered as offensive to the "Confederate States," as New Mexico had placed herself under the protection of those States. He has said in private conversation that "if this decree is not annulled Merico will lose the State of Tamaulipas in sixty days." By looking on any map of Mexico it will be seen that Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon, Coahuila, Chihuahua, and Sonora, all adjoin Texas or New Mexico. Tamaulipas is easily approached by her port, Tampico, on the Mexican gulf, and also by land from Texas. All the others of these States can be reached by land from Texas or New Mexico. Guaymas is the great port on the Gulf of California from and to which shipments are made for the States of Sonora and Chihuahua, and also to our territory of New Mexico, including Arizona. It is, therefore, reasonable enough to conclude that United States troops from California could be landed at Guaymas in seven days by steamers, and with a safe passage through Sonora could confront any rebel force operating in Arizona or New Mexico proper, and also be in a position to act against any fillibustering enemy which might attack any of the Mexican States bordering on Texas. It is no doubt the design of the "Southern Confederation," whenever it can, to seize all of these States, indeed, to possess itself of the entire Terra Caliente of Mexico, that being well adapted to slave labor. If Mexico should be attacked under the pretence that she had justly offended the Confederate States, by the grant of passage through Sonora, every obligation of honor would seem to require that our troops should be ready to enforce our laws against fillibustering expeditions from our territories against the territories of a nation with whom we are at peace. Such troops would at the same time be efficient to restore our lawful dominion in Texas and New Mexico. Upper California, Oregon, and Washington Territory could furnish a respectable force for all these purposes, which could be conveyed by water to Guaymas, and from thence by land, over good roads, to their proper points of operation. The States bordering on Texan and our New Mexican frontiers are very weak in population and wealth, and could be conquered by a comparatively small force. Tamaulipas has only one hundred and eight thousand of all ages, races, and sexes. The entire population of the five Mexican States above named is stated in the most reliable census to be six hundred and twenty-eight thousand, of all ages, sexes, and races, covering an area of sixty-seven thousand five hundred and sixty-three square miles. I am informed that recent discoveries of mineral wealth in Sonora and Chihuahua have invited large bodies of men from California to those two States. It is suspected that they are of a class easily induced to unite with the southern rebels in an attack on these and their neighboring Mexican States, as well as to promote southern pretensions in New Mexico and Texas. I suggest whether a prudent forecast would not invite our government to raise in California and Oregon a force which should pass, from Guaymas through Sonora, to our possessions in New Mexico and Arizona, for the purposes suggested above. ფი into A contract has been concluded here with the government for carrying the mail from New York city to Vera Cruz, via Havana, twice a month, and so twice a month from Vera Cruz to New York; a subsidy of fifty thousand dollars per aunum is given for the service. This subsidy is quite mall, but if a subsidy from our government, in proportion to its interest in the line, compared with that of this government, is granted, we may hope the enterprize will immediate operation. If this, however, should fail, another expedient might be adopted. I understand boats run regularly from New York to Havana three times a month. If the government could put a despatch boat on the line between Havana and Vera Cruz to meet the boats from New York at Havana, this would give us a mail three times a month. This boat, if armed, might supersede the necessity of keeping an armed ship at Vera Cruz, and render valuable service in the protection of our commerce in the Gulf. Something should be done to render the commerce between the United States and this country certain and more frequent. My latest despatch from the department is dated 24th June, 1861, and latest reliable news is dated the 11th July. It is now within three days of the 1st of September. The mail from Washington, if sent by steam to Vera Cruz, could easily reach this city in thirteen days. I have this day concluded a postal treaty with Mr. Lerdo, the minister appointed ad hoc, which will be submitted to the State Department to-morrow. I have no doubt it will be approved by that department and sent to congress for ratification at its second meeting, which is to open next Monday. I hope to conclude with the same minister an extradition treaty, which can be ratified during the coming month. I have heretofore urged the necessity of having consuls on the Gulf, especially at Vera Cruz, the most important, whose fidelity and ability should be beyond even suspicion. The vice-consul at Vera Cruz has served many years there in that capacity, under Mr. Pickett. Mr. Pickett is now here, the agent of the "Confederate States." I know nothing against Mr. Rieken. I am sure some strange accident has happened that important despatch to which you allude in your despatch No. 11. Why is not Mr. Dunnell at his post? That at Vera Cruz is one of the most important consulates, just now, in our service. Very respectfully, &c., Hon. W. H. SEWARD, Secretary of State, Washington. THOMAS CORWIN. Mr. Seward to Mr. Corwin. No. 17.] DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, September 2, 1861. SIR: Your despatch of the 29th July last, numbered 3, has just now been received. The account of Mexican complications which it gives is painfully interesting. The President greatly desires that the political status of Mexico as an independent nation shall be permanently maintained. The events you communicate alarm him upon this point; and he conceives that the people of the United States would scarcely justify him were he to make no effort for preventing so great a calamity on this continent as would be the extinction of that republic. He has therefore determined to authorize and empower you, and you are hereby authorized and empowered, to negotiate a treaty with the republic of Mexico for the assumption by the government of the United States of the payment of the interest, at three per cent., upon the funded debt of that country due to Mexican bondholders, the principal of which is understood to be about! sixty-two millions of dollars, for the term of five years from the date of the decree recently issued by the government of Mexico suspending such payment, provided that that government will pledge to the United States its faith for the reimbursement of the money so to be paid, with six per cent. interest thereon, to be secured by a specific lien upon all the public lands and mineral rights in the several Mexican States of Lower California, Chihuahua, Sonora, and Sinaloa, the property so pledged to become absolute in the United States at the expiration of the term of six years from the time when the treaty shall go into effect, if such reimbursement shall not have been made before that time. This course is rendered necessary by circumstances as new as they are eventful, while the Mexican crisis seems to admit of no delay. The President therefore accepts the responsibility, and will submit his action in the premises to the consideration of the Senate of the United States, so soon as that body shall be convened, for the constitutional sanction, without which the treaty when made would be of no effect. It must be understood, however, that these instructions are conditional upon the attainment of consent on the part of the British and French governments to forbear from resort to action against Mexico on account of her failure or refusal to pay the interest in question until after the treaty shall have been submitted to the Senate, and, if ratified, then so long thereafter as the interest shall be punctually paid by the government of the United States. I shall immediately instruct our ministers in London and Paris to apply to the British and French governments for their consent to the terms thus indicated. You will see at once the importance of urging the Mexican government to give its best efforts to the support of these applications. I am to be understood, moreover, as giving you not specific but general instructions, to be modified as to sums, terms, securities, and other points, as you may find necessary, subject to approval when made known to me. Other matters discussed in your despatch will be treated of in distinct papers I am, sir, respectfully, your obedient servant, THOMAS CORWIN, Esq., S., S., Sr. WILLIAM H. SEWARD. |