320 



DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENCE AND FOREIGN RELATIONS. 



Mexican steamer Orizaba by the rebels, under 

 the plea that she was manned by citizens of the 

 United States, as additional proof of the iden- 

 tity of the political interests which exist be- 

 tween the insurgents of this country and the 

 partisans of the French cause in Mexico. 



In a communication, dated July 4th, Minister 

 Romero adduces further evidence of Mexican 

 complicity with the rebels, and states that the 

 commander at the post of Bagdad, a Belgian, 

 informed Gen. Slaughter that he had secret in- 

 structions to permit the introduction of all the 

 arms and munitions of war that might be de- 

 sired, and that they should pass freely for the 

 use of the Confederacy. 



He also asserts that there was in Monterey 

 an agent of the Confederacy accredited to the 

 agents of the French so-called Imperial author- 

 ities, and that Gen. Mejia, the French agent in 

 Mexico, had promised Gen. Slaughter that he 

 would do every thing that he could in his favor. 

 He also shows that the trade which the Con- 

 federate States were carrying on with Mexico 

 and other countries through the ports of Mexi- 

 co, was carried on with the consent of the 

 French agents in Mexico. To all these state- 

 ments Mr. Seward promises to give all the at- 

 tention they are entitled to. 



July 8. Minister Romero communicates 

 statements and letters relating to the schemes 

 of Gwin for organizing a colony in Mexico un- 

 der the protection of France, and showing that 

 Gen. Bazaine, in command of the French forces, 

 had authority to lend him all needed assistance. 

 Gwin writes, after the surrender of Lee : " The 

 startling news from the United States has made 

 the blood of every Southern man and sympa- 

 thizer run cold with horror. No one will be 

 safe in our native country. I thank Providence 

 my lot has been cast elsewhere, and that very 

 soon I will have a home for my wife and chil- 

 dren where they will be safe from oppression." 



Mr. Seward writes to Minister Bigelow, July 

 13th, enclosing these letters, and requests him 

 to present them to M. Drouyn de Lhuys, and 

 frankly informs him that the sympathies of the 

 American people are already considerably ex- 

 cited in favor of the Republic of Mexico, and 

 they are disposed to regard with impatience 

 the continued intervention of France in that 

 country ; that any favor shown to the proceed- 

 ings of Dr. Gwin by the titular Emperor of 

 Mexico or by the Imperial Government of 

 France, with reference to those agents, will 

 tend greatly to increase the popular impatience, 

 because it will be regarded, perhaps justly, as 

 importing danger to, or at least as a menace 

 against the United States. If these statements 

 .are to be. believed, Mr. Seward assumes, with 

 the sanction of the President, that the Emperor 

 of France has deserted his position of neutral- 

 ity. 



Respecting the French occupation documents 

 are very voluminous, commencing as far back 

 as March 25, 1865, and ending with December 

 4, 1866. 



Mr. Seward, in a letter to Mr. Bigelow, dated 

 September 6, 1865, says the intense popular 

 interest which was awakened by a civil war of 

 vast proportions during the few years past, has 

 tended in some degree to moderate the solicitude 

 which the situation of our foreign affairs was 

 calculated to create ; but that interest is now 

 rapidly subsiding, and it may be reasonably 

 anticipated that henceforth the Congress of the 

 United States and the people in their primary 

 assemblies will give a very large share of their 

 attention to questions of an extraneous charac- 

 ter, and chief among these is likely to be that 

 of our relations toward France with regard to 

 Mexico. Nor does it seem unwise to take into 

 consideration the fact that the presence . of the 

 two military forces of the two nations some- 

 times confronting each other across the border 

 has a tendency, which both of them may well 

 regret, to produce irritation and annoyance. 

 The French Government has not shown itself 

 inattentive to this inconvenience hitherto, while 

 this Government has been desirous to practise 

 equal prudence ; but the time seems to have 

 come when both nations may well consider 

 whether the paramount international peace 

 and friendship do not require the exercise of 

 thoughtful and serious attention to the political 

 questions to which I have thus adverted. 



November 6, the Secretary of State addresses 

 Minister Bigelow, and represents that the pres- 

 ence and operations of the French army in 

 Mexico, and its maintenance of an authority 

 there, is a cause of serious concern to the 

 United States. Nevertheless, the objection 

 of the United States is still broader, and in- 

 cludes the authority itself which the French 

 army is thus maintaining. That authority is in 

 direct antagonism to the policy of this Govern- 

 ment and the principles on which it is founded. 

 Every day's experience of its operations only 

 adds some new confirmation of the justice of 

 the views which this Government expressed at 

 the time the attempt to institute that authority 

 first became known. 



The United States have hitherto practised 

 the utmost frankness on that subject. They 

 still regard the attempt to establish perma- 

 nently a foreign Imperial Government in Mex- 

 ico as disallowable and impracticable. For 

 these reasons they could not now agree to com- 

 promise the position they have assumed. They 

 are not prepared to recognize or pledge them- 

 selves hereafter to recognize any political in- 

 stitutions in Mexico which are in opposition to 

 the Republican Government with which we 

 have so long and constantly maintained rela- 

 tions of amity and friendship. The Secretary 

 says in closing: "It is hardly necessary to say 

 we should not be dwelling so earnestly upon 

 this branch of our political relations if it had 

 not been our conviction that these relations at 

 the present moment supersede those of com- 

 merce in the consideration of the American 

 people." 



Mr. Bigelow, under date of November 30 



