MEXICO. 



199 



' il mini-tcr to Mexico, then at 



<>r!.-an-, l.:l., t<> communicate to .1 ii;ir-/. 



dtUw<nthiOoyeramen1 that, in <-:t^-nt' 



capture, the prince Mini his .support. ]* n 



tin' humane treatment, awarded hy civil- 

 ations to prison, -rs of war.'' A im- 

 was immediately M'lil to San Luis I'nio-i to .1,-- 

 livi-r 1 1m communication toTejada, the Mexican 



(tor of Foreign A Hairs. 



In his reply, (In- President of the Mexican 

 KepnMic defended tlu> treatment of tlii- pri-:>n- 

 ken at tho battle of San Jacinto, saying, 

 that "they wore not looked upon simply as 

 prisoners of war, hut as offenders against the, 

 laws of nations and those of the Republic." 

 II. lays, however, that the seventy there exer- 

 had bean greatly exaggerated, and that 

 tlu- course of his officers in that respect would 

 compare favorably with that of the enemy. 

 The do-ing paragraphs of his letter are in these 

 \\ords : 



French gone, the Archduke Maximilian has 



1 to continue shedding the blood of Mexicans. 



^option of three or four cities, yd domi- 



nt has seen the entire Republic rise 



against him. Notwithstanding thia, he has desired 



to continue the work of desolation and ruin by a civil 



war without object, surrounded by some men, known 



by their pliuulerings and grave assassinations, and 



the most forward in bringing misfortunes on the Re- 



public. 



In ease there be captured persons on whom rest 

 such responsibilities, it does not seem likely that 

 .in be considered as simple prisoners of war, 

 for these are responsibilities denned by the laws or 

 I by the laws of the Republic. The Gov- 

 ir, wliieh lias given many proofs of its princi- 

 ples of humanity, and sentiments of generosity, is 

 also obliged to consider, according to the circum- 

 s of the cases, what the principles of justice 

 demand, and the duties which it has to perform for 

 the welfare of the Mexican people. 



'Government of the Republic hopes that, with 



the j ust itieation of its acts, it will continue to have the 



.'hies of the people and Government of the 



j-i, who nave boon, and are, held in the 



' estimation of the people and Government of 



>. -I have the honor to be, etc., 



Your obedient servant, 

 SEBASTIAN LERDO DE TEJADA. 



To Lewis D. Campbell, Special Messenger and Minister 

 Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to the 

 United Mexican States, New Orleans, Louisiana. 

 A court-martial for the trial of the Archduke 

 Ferdinand Maximilian of Hapsburg, and Gen- 

 erals Miramon and Mejia, was ordered by Esco- 

 bedo to assemble on the 29th of May, but was 

 subsequently postponed to the 13th of June. 

 An American lady, wife of Prince Salm-Salm, 

 interceded with Juarez in person, in behalf of 

 the Archduko, but without effect. The prisoners 

 were confined in the convent of the Capuchins 

 in the city of Queretaro, and on the 13th and 

 14th of June were tried in the theatre of Ytur- 

 bitlc by a court-martial composed of inferior 

 officers of the Republican army. The accusa- 

 tions brought against Maximilian are indicated 

 in the following passage taken from the in- 

 struction of Juarez's Secretary of War t<5 Gen- 

 eral Kscobedo, with regard to the disposal of 

 his prisoners : 



The Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian of Hapsburg 



lent himsi-lf as tlio principal instrument in t hi; work 

 of iniquity which has afflict. .,1;,., during 



five years, with all kinds of crime and i \.-rv *peciea 

 of calamity. He came to oppress a people, pretend- 

 ing to destroy its constitution and laws without any 

 otln-r title tluin some votes of no valu. 



.v rested by the presence and force of foreign 

 bayonets. Ho came here and assumed voluntarily 

 the most serious responsibilities, by a course con- 

 demned in the laws of all nations, and which had 

 been foreseen and provided for in various 



i the Republic, the last of which was that "f 

 .January ii."., ls;j, defining crimes against the indepen- 

 dence and safety of the nation, against the lav. 

 tions, against personal rights and the public peace 

 and order. The notorious acts of Maximilian's career 

 embrace the greater part of the liabilities specified in 

 that law. Not only did he lend himself as an instru- 

 ment of foreign intervention, but, in order to wage on 

 his own account a filibustering warfare, he brought 

 hither other foreigners, Austriana and Belgians, the 

 subjects of foreign powers that were not at war with 

 the Republic. He undertook to overthrow forever tho 

 political institutions and the government which the 

 nation had freely set up for itself, maintaining that 

 the supreme power had been abrogated merely bv tho 

 votes of some persons appointed and delegated by the 

 foreign invader, or compelled by the presence and 

 threats of a foreign soldiery. Through force and 

 without any legal title he disposed of the lives, the 

 rights, and the interests of the Mexicans. He pro- 

 mulgated a decree containing barbarous prescripts 

 for the assassination of those Mexicans who were de- 

 fending, or who refused to inform on those who were 

 defending, the independence and the institutions of 

 their country. He was the cause of numberless 

 bloody executions under this barbarous decree, which 

 he first applied to distinguished Mexican patriots 

 who could not be presumed to have known as yet of 

 its promulgation. He ordered his own soldiers, or at 

 least he consented, under the false title of head of 

 the nation, that soldiers of the foreign invader should 

 burn or destroy many whole towns throughout the 

 Mexican territoy. especially in the States of Michoa- 

 can, Siualoa, Chihuahua, and Nuevo Leon. He ordered 

 that his own agents, or consented that the agents 

 of the foreigners, should assassinate many thousands 

 of Mexicans to whom the defence of their country 

 was imputed a crime. And when the armies of the 

 foreign power withdrew t and he beheld the whole Re- 

 public aroused against him, he gathered around him- 

 self some of the most guilty men of our civil war and 

 made use of all means, of violence, depredation, death, 

 and devastation, in order to sustain to the last his 

 false title which he was still unwilling to give up 

 until lie helield himself obliged by force and in spite 

 of his will to abandon it. 



The following question was put to Maximilian 

 during the trial : 



" Are you willing to admit that you are responsible 

 for all the strife that occurred in Mexico since tho 

 evacuation of the country by the French I " 



" No," he answered. " Juarez is responsible for it 

 all. After the departure of the French I sent a mes- 

 sage to Juarez, and proposed to him to proclaim a 

 general amnesty and to grant a full pardon to all who 

 nad been identified with mo and the Imperial cause. 

 Juarez refused this, and I had no course left but to 

 remain and to do all in my power to protect a largo 

 proportion of the Mexican people." 



Maximilian and his two generals were ably 

 defended by Mexican lawyers, and an elaborate 

 protest was prepared for the prince hims-li' 

 by an American jurist, Mr. Frederick Hall, of 

 California ; but, although the counsel of tho 

 prince strenuously denied the jurisdiction of tho 



