562 



MEXICO. 



was denied by one Lnis de Arroyo, said to be 

 the agent of Maximilian in New York, who 

 stated in a letter, published in the papers of 

 that city in May, that " although for some time 

 present in Mexico, Dr. Gwin never had any re- 

 lations with the persons composing his Majesty's 

 Government." He also denied that any Mexi- 

 can territory had been ceded to France. Not- 

 withstanding this denial, it was subsequently 

 charged by the representative of Juarez at 

 Washington, Sefior Komero, and it is believed 

 by many, that an armed emigration from the 

 Southern States of the American Union into 

 Northern Mexico was in contemplation previous 

 to the close of the rebellion ; also that the Em- 

 peror Napoleon was cognizant of and friendly 

 to the scheme ; and that Dr. Gwin was to have 

 been his agent, first in promoting the emigra- 

 tion, and then in procuring the cession of the 

 territory to France. If any such project was 

 entertained, its consummation was effectually 

 prevented by the overthrow of the rebellion in 

 the United States, which left that country free 

 to oppose any further encroachments on Mexi- 

 can territory by foreign powers. 



Meanwhile, with the close of the war in 

 the United States, several of the Southern 

 leaders determined to leave the country and 

 settle in Mexico. Among these were Gens. 

 Sterling Price and Magruder, of the Southern 

 army, and ex-Governors Polk and Harris, who 

 went there, as pioneers or agents, in behalf of 

 such persons as had resolved to expatriate 

 themselves rather than live under the authority 

 of the United States. They were subsequently 

 joined by Matthew F. Maury, formerly director 

 of the Observatory at Washington, and who 

 had been known throughout the war as a de- 

 termined and irreconcilable enemy of the Union. 

 Instigated by their favorable reports, a number 

 of discontented citizens of the Southern States 

 emigrated to Mexico during the summer of 

 1865, where they formed the nucleus of a colony 

 of Americans. So promising appeared the pros- 

 pects of a large influx of this class of emigrants 

 that the Imperial Government in September 

 issued a decree guaranteeing to them certain 

 privileges and advantages, the most important 

 of which were the following : the introduction, 

 free of duty, of their seeds and instruments of 

 labor, machinery, etc. ; naturalization imme- 

 diately after their arrival, if it should be de- 

 sired ; grants of lands at low rates, and even 

 donations of lands, should the emigrants be 

 without the means ef purchasing, and their 

 capital be needed to establish them successfully ; 

 exemption from conscription in the military 

 service during the first years of their residence 

 in the country ; assistance by the Government 

 to colonies destitute of private capital ; and 

 authority to bring negroes in the capacity of 

 free apprentices, engaged by contract for a cer- 

 tain number of years, upon conditions which 

 the Imperial Government will regard as suited 

 to the age and sex of the apprentice, and which 

 will establish the respective rights of proprietor 



and workman. This last privilege, which, in its 

 practical operation, amounts to the establish- 

 ment of slavery, was brought to the notice of 

 the United States Government 'by Sefior Eo- 

 mero, in the following words : 



It is really an extraordinary thing, and almost in- 

 comprehensible, that when slavery has received a 

 death-blow in the only country that could revive it , 

 and when it has been shown by facts that its exist- 

 ence is an evil, social, moral, and political, there can 

 be in the world a usurper who, without having estab- 

 lished his authority in the country he tries to domi- 

 nate over, should attempt to reestablish that odious 

 system for the purpose of strengthening himself, 

 merely changing the name for the purpose of delud- 

 ing the worm. 



As this system of labor might be taken for what in 

 Mexico is called peonage, and as that may be con- 

 sidered here as an institution equivalent to slavery, 

 I think it expedient to show to you that on some 

 estates in the tierras calientes, to the south of Mexico, 

 there has in fact been, through the abuses of the pro- 

 prietors, and the influence they enjoyed, something 

 that might be compared in its practical effects with 

 what the ex-Archduke of Austria has now established 

 in his aforesaid decree ; but such abuses, besides being 

 restricted to a very narrow district, were never sanc- 

 tioned by the Mexican laws, and the national govern- 

 ment of that republic has taken especial care to cor- 

 rect them and root them out. It was reserved for the 

 ex-Archduke of Austria to sanction such an abusive 

 practice by a law which, if it goes into force, will be 

 executed throughout the whole extent of the Mexican 

 territory. 



To encourage still further emigration from 

 the Southern States of the American Union, 

 Maximilian soon after appointed Maury, who 

 had previously been made an honorary council- 

 lor, imperial- commissioner of colpnization, and 

 Gen. Magruder chief of the land office of coloni- 

 zation. The former immediately issued several 

 circulars, couched in persuasive language, in one 

 of which, besides praising the climate and soil 

 of Mexico, he eulogized the " wise and mild 

 rule of Maximilian," Avhom he declared to be 

 " beloved by the imperialists and respected by 

 all." The empire, he said, was continually 

 gaining ground, many important works of in- 

 ternal improvement were in progress, and 

 property and life were daily becoming more 

 secure; but as a curious corollary from this, 

 he advises emigrants " at first to establish them- 

 selves in villages, as well for mutual conveni- 

 ence as for protection against the bands of law- 

 less marauders, who are ever ready to pounce 

 upon the helpless farmers." After advising 

 settlers to select lands lying along the slopes 

 bordering on the tierras calientes or low lands 

 of the coast, he gives the following information 

 respecting the progress of Southern emigration 

 in Mexico : 



Bryant from Arkansas has established a colony in 

 Chihuahua. Mitchell, of Missouri, another on the 

 Rio Verde, in the Department of San Luis Potnsi. 

 Terry, of Texas, another in Jalisco. They rent ;it 

 first, with the privilege of purchase in the mean time 

 at a stated price. 



Then there is the fine colony of Carlotta, near C< 

 dova, where the lands were abandoned. There \\rre 

 a number of haciendas in that neighborhood that 

 were indebted for more than they wore worth to the 

 Church, and which, by the Juarez Government, were 



