570 



MEXICO. 



the Federal District of amending as far as possible 

 the turitf now in force, and consulting generally as to 

 the easiest method of augmenting the public revenues 

 and regulating the collection of the Federal taxes. The 

 estimates of receipts and expenditures of the Treasury 

 for the incoming liseal year wvre laid In-fore Congress 

 on the day designated by the Constitution ; and I can 

 assure you that not only the Executive but the whole 

 country will view with approbation the prompt and 

 zealous action of both ('iuunU-rs in giving ttdl budget 

 that thnelv attention which our fundamental law re- 

 quires for it, without proposing to interfere with other 

 important business. 



Our infant navy has been increased by the addition 

 of one vessel, bearing the honored name of Benito 

 Juarez, and attached to the Pacific service. 



Since the signing of tho convention referred 

 to in tho article "Guatemala" in our volume 

 for 1879, events have transpired of a nature to 

 interrupt the cordial relations hitherto existing 

 between Mexico and Guatemala. The estrange- 

 ment, at first the outgrowth of misunderstand- 

 ings concerning the question of boundaries long 

 pending between the two republics, has been 

 confirmed by the appeal on the part of Gua- 

 temala for the friendly intervention of the 

 United States, which latter step provoked the 

 publication by the Mexican Minister of For- 

 eign Relations, Sefior Don Ignacio Mariscal, of 

 a pamphlet entitled " Difficulties between Mex- 

 ico and Guatemala ; Proposed Intervention of 

 the United States ; some Official Documents," 

 and containing, besides, ex- Secretary Elaine's 

 correspondence on the subject to Mr. Morgan, 

 United States Minister to Mexico, a recapitula- 

 tion of the more important phases of the ques- 

 tion from colonial times to the present day. 

 Here follow a transcript of Mr. Elaine's let- 

 ter, and an extract of SeQor Mariscal's exposi- 

 tion of facts : 



MR. ELAINE TO MR. MORGAK. 



DEPARTMENT OF STATE, WASHINGTON, I 

 ./'.- 16, 1831. ) 



PHILTP II. MOTIOAN, Sty., fo., fc. 



SIR : In rny instructions of the 1st instant and to- 

 day, I have so clearly amplified the spirit of good- 

 will which animates this Government toward that of 

 Mexico, that 1 am sure no room for doubt can remain 

 as to the sincerity of our friendship. Believing that 

 this friendship and the frankness which has always 

 distinguished the policy of this country toward its 

 neighbors warrant the tender of amicable counsel 

 when occasion therefor shall appear, and deeming 

 such counsel due to our recognized impartiality, and 

 to the position of the United States as the founder 

 and, in some sense, the guarantor and guardian of 

 republican principles on the American Continent, it 

 seems proper now to instruct you touching a point 

 upon which we feel some natural concern. I reter to 

 the question of boundaries and territorial jurisdic- 

 tion pending between Mexico and Guatemala. In 

 the time of the empire the forces of Iturbide overran 

 a large part of the territory of what now constitutes 

 Central America, which had then recently thrown off 

 the Spanish domination. The changing fortunes of 

 war resulted in the withdrawal of Mexican forces 

 from most of that region, except the important prov- 

 inces of Soconusco and Chiapas, which remained 

 under their control. Since that time the boundaries 

 between the two countries have never been adjusted 

 upon _ a satisfactory basis. Mexico, become a repub- 

 lic, did not forego claims based on the imperial policy 

 of conquest and absorption ; while Guatemala, resist- 

 ing further progress of Mexican arms, and disputing 



step by step the conquest already made, has never 

 been able to conic to a decision with her more power- 

 ful neighbor concerning the relative extension of 

 their jurisdiction in the disputed strip of territory 

 lying between the Gull' of Tehuantepec and tho 

 peninsula of Yucatan. Under these circumstances 

 the Government of Guatemala has made a formal ap- 

 plication to the President of the United States to lend 

 nis good offices toward the restoration of a better 

 state of feeling between the two republics. This ap- 

 plication is made in frank and conciliatory terms, as 

 to the natural protector of the rights and national in- 

 tegrity of the republican forms of government exi.-t- 

 iug so near our shores, and to which we are bound by 

 so many ties of history and of material interest. This 

 Government can do no less than give friendly and 

 considerate heed to the representations of Guatemala, 

 even as it would be glad to do were the appeal made 

 by Mexico in tho interest of justice and a better under- 

 standing. The evcnts ; fresh hi the memory of the liv- 

 ing generation of Mexicans, when the moral and mate- 

 rial support of the United States, although then en- 

 gaged in a desperate domestic struggle, was freely lent 

 to avert the danger with which a foreign empire threat- 

 ened the national life of the Mexican Republic, afford 

 a gratifying proof of the purity of motives and be- 

 nevolence of disposition with which the United States 

 regard all that concerns the welfare and existence of 

 its sister republics of the continent. If is alleged, on 

 behalf of Guatemala, that diplomatic efforts to come 

 to a better understanding with Mexico have proved 

 unavailing ; that under a partial and preliminary ac- 

 cord, looking to the ascertainment of the limits in dis- 

 pute, the Guatemalan surveying parties sent out to 

 study the land, with a view to proposing a basis of 

 definitive settlement, have been imprisoned by the 

 Mexican authorities; that Guatemalan agents for the 

 taking of a census of the inhabitants of the territory in 

 question have been dealt with in like summary man- 

 ner ; and, in fine, that the Government of Mexico has 

 slowly but steadily encroached upon the bordering 

 country heretofore held by Guatemala, substituting 

 the local authorities of Mexico for those already in 

 possession, and so widening the area in contention. 

 It is not the present province of the Government of the 

 United States to express an opinion as to the extent 

 of either the Guatemalan or the Mexican claim to this 

 region. It is not a self-constituted arbitrator of the 

 destinies of either country, or of both, in this matter. 

 It is simply the impartial friend of both, ready to ten- 

 der frank and earnest counsel touching anything which 

 may menace the peace and prosperity of its neighbors. 

 It is, above all, anxious to do any and every thing 

 which will tend to make stronger the natural union 

 of the republics of the continent in the face of the 

 tendencies of other and distant forms of government 

 to influence the internal affairs of Spanish America. 

 'It is especially anxious, in the pursuance of this great 

 policy, to see the Central American republics more 

 securely united than they have been in the past, in 

 protection of their common interests, which interests 

 are. in the outward relations, identical in principle 

 witli those of Mexico and of the United States. It 

 feels that everything which may lessen the good-will 

 and harmony so much to be desired between the Span- 

 ish republics of the Isthmus must in the end disas- 

 trously affect their mutual well-being. The responsi- 

 bility for the maintenance of this common attitude of 

 united strength is, in the President's conception, 

 shared by all, and rests no less upon the strong states 

 than upon the weak. Without, therefore, in any way 

 prejudging the contention between Mexico and" Gua- 

 temala, but acting as the unbiased counselor of both, 

 the President deems it his dutv to set before the Gov- 

 ernment of Mexico his conviction of the danger which 

 would ensue to the principles which Mexico has so 

 signally and successfully defended in the past should 

 disrespect be shown to the boundaries which separate 

 her from her weaker neighbors, or should the author- 

 ity of force be resorted to in the establishment of 



