268 



DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENCE AND FOREIGN RELATIONS. 



a lengthy communication to the Marquis de 

 Montholon, reviews the position assumed by 

 the United States in protesting against the ac- 

 tion of the French Government in Mexico. 

 April 6th, M. Drouyn de Lhuys communicates to 

 the Marquis de Montholon the fact that " the 

 emperor has decided that the French troops 

 shall evacute Mexico in three detachments, the 

 first being intended to depart in the month of 

 November, 1866 ; the second in March, 1867, 

 and the third in the month of November of the 

 same year." 



Information reached the Department of State 

 of a movement, having for its object the enlist- 

 ment of Austrians for embarkation to Mexico, 

 and on the 16th and 19th of March Mr. Seward 

 calls the attention of Mr. Motley, the United 

 States Minister to Austria, to the fact, and urges 

 the earnest and emphatic protest of the United 

 States to such a proceeding. In a subsequent 

 dispatch of the 6th of April, he says: "It is 

 thought proper that you should state that in 

 the event of hostilities being carried on here- 

 after in Mexico by Austrian subjects, under the 

 command or with the sanction of the Govern- 

 ment of Vienna, the United States will feel 

 themselves at liberty to regard those hostilities 

 as constituting a state of war by Austria against 

 the republic of Mexico, and in regard to such 

 war waged at this time and under existing cir- 

 cumstances the United States could not engage 

 to remain as silent or neutral spectators." 



April 16th. Mr. Seward calls the attention of 

 Mr. Motley to the correspondence between the 

 Governments of the United States and France 

 upon the subject, and says : " These papers will 

 give you the true situation of the question. It 

 will also enable you to satisfy the government 

 of Vienna that the United States must be no 

 less opposed to military intervention for politi- 

 cal objects hereafter in Mexico by the govern- 

 ment of Austria than they are opposed to any 

 further intervention of the same character in 

 that country by France. You will, therefore, 

 act at as early day as may be convenient. Bring 

 the whole case in a becoming manner to the at- 

 tention of the imperial royal government." 



May 6, 1866. Mr. Motley communicated the 

 views of the United States Government to Count 

 Mursdorflf, who, in reply on the 20th of the same 

 month, writes that " the necessary measures 

 have been taken in order to suspend the de- 

 parture of the newly-enlisted volunteers for 

 Mexico." 



May 31, 1866. Mr. Bigelow reports the 

 French Minister of Foreign Affairs as saying: 

 " That they were but too anxious to withdraw 

 their troops from Mexico ; that they would be 

 withdrawn certainly not later, but probably 

 sooner, than the time proposed." 



June 4, 1866. Mr. Bigelow, detailing a con- 

 versation with the French. Minister of Foreign 

 Affairs, says: "He said that the imperial gov- 

 ernment proclaimed its intention to retire from 

 Mexico, because it suited its convenience and 

 interests to retire, and for no other reason. 



When, therefore, it announced formally, not 

 merely to the United States, but to all the world, 

 that the army would be withdrawn from Mexico 

 within a specified time, he thought it should be 

 deemed sufficient. The government made its 

 declaration in good faith, and means to keep it. 

 It means to withdraw its army within the time 

 prescribed, and it does not intend to take one 

 or two hundred in the first detachment and one 

 or two hundred more in the second, leaving the 

 great body of them to the last, though it had 

 not deemed it necessary to specify with minute- 

 ness details of this kind, which depend upon 

 hygienic and climatic considerations, of which 

 it was the best and the only competent judge; " 

 and explained that the shipment of French 

 troops to Mexico was for the purpose partly of 

 replacing soldiers missing, and without augmen- 

 tation of the number of standing troops: "He 

 went on farther to say that it was the intention 

 of the government to withdraw the army en- 

 tirely from Mexico within the time specified in 

 his dispatch to you at the very latest soon- 

 er if climatic and other controlling considera- 

 tions permitted; and it was not its intention 

 to replace them with other troops from any 

 quarter." 



August 16, 1866. Mr. Seward, to the Marquis 

 de Montholon, says: " The President thinks it 

 proper that the Emperor of France should be 

 informed that the assumption of administrative 

 functions at this time by the aforenamed officers 

 of the French expeditionary corps, under the 

 authority of the Prince Maximilian, is not un- 

 likely to be injurious to good relations between 

 the United States and France, because it is 

 liable to be regarded by the Congress and peo- 

 ple of the United States as indicating a course 

 of proceeding on the part of France incongruous 

 with the engagement which has been made for 

 the withdrawal of the French expeditionary 

 corps from that country." 



August 17", 1866. Mr. Kay reports the as- 

 surance of the French Minister of Foreign Af- 

 fairs, that " there had been no modification of 

 our policy in that matter, and there is to be 

 none ; what we announced our intention to do, 

 we will do." 



August 24, 1866, Mr. Seward. forwarded to 

 Mr. Bigelow, for his information, the follow- 

 ing: 



A PROCLAMATION. 



By the President of the United States : 



Whereas, A war is existing in the Republic of 

 Mexico, aggravated by foreign military intervention ; 

 and 



Whereas, The United States, in accordance with 

 their settled habits and policy, are a neutral power 

 in regard to the war which thus afflicts the Eepublic 

 of Mexico ; and 



Whereas, It has become known that one of the 

 belligerents in the said war, namely, the Prince 

 Maximilian, who asserts himself to be the Emperor 

 of Mexico, has issued a decree in regard to the port 

 of Matamoras and other Mexican ports which are in 

 the occupation or possession of another of the said 

 belligerents, namely, the United States of Mexico, 

 which decree is in the following words: 



