These colonies are to be thirty in number, and are to be located seven in
the state of Sonora, seven in Chihuahua, four in Nuevo Leon, six in
Coahuila, four in Durango, and two in Lower California.
A law was also passed establishing two similar colonies in the States of
Yucatan and Campeche.
Translations of the two decrees are transmitted herewith.
Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State, Washington, D. C.
Decree establishing military colonies in the frontier
states.
[From the Diario Oficial, May 1,
1868.—Translation.]
The citizen President of the republic has been pleased to communicate
to me the following decree:
Benito Juarez, constitutional President of the United Mexican States,
to the inhabitants of the same, be it known:
That the congress of the Union has decreed as follows:
The congress of the Union decrees:
Article 1. In order to defend the frontiers
of the republic against the incursions of the wild Indians, thirty
military colonies, distributed in the following manner, shall be
established: In the State of Sonora, seven; in that of Chihuahua,
seven; in that of Nuevo Leon, four; in that of Coahuila, six; in
that of Durango, four; and in the territory of Lower California,
two. The headquarters of the colonies shall be fixed by the common
accord of the citizen governors of the respective States.
Art. 2. Each colony shall be composed of
one hundred men, mounted, armed and equipped in the manner most
suitable to the service.
Art. 3. The veteran standing of these
companies shall consist of fifteen hundred men of the
army—preference being given to the corps raised in the frontier
States. For the completion of the three thousand men, enlisting
offices shall be opened in the towns nearest the place designed for
a colony.
Art. 4. The enlistment shall be made under
the following conditions: 1. Those citizens who may wish to enlist
in any company shall bind themselves to pass at once with their
families to the place fixed on for their residence, and remain there
for six years. 2. The executive shall give the colonists, according
to their class, one or more lots of land, materials for
construction, and all the necessaries for agriculture, with the
seeds necessary for the crop of one year, and moreover the
corresponding monthly salary.
Art. 5. The executive shall have the power,
for the purpose of public utility, to take from the owners of any
uninhabited lands those which may be occupied by the colonies.
Art. 6. The land occupied shall be divided
into lots, of which one shall belong to each soldier, and two or
more to the chiefs and officers. Each lot shall have ground for a
house, and three and a half hectares (or
seven acres) for sowing.
Art. 7. In case the colonist should die
before the end of the six years of his enlistment this property
shall go to his heirs.
Art. 8. After the distribution of the lots
among the colonists has been made, the governors of the respective
States shall distribute the surplus land among individuals with
family, who without belonging to the colonists may wish to live with
them.
Art. 9. Any colonist who shall desert
within the stipulated term, disregarding military discipline and his
engagements of enlistment, shall be condemned to the penalty of two
or four years of forced labor, which he shall complete in any one of
the colonies, and he shall lose all right to the lot, and to the
improvements thereon introduced.
Art. 10. The executive shall forthwith
appoint an inspector general, who shall have in charge the direction
of all the colonies; it shall also appoint a sub-inspector for each
State, recommended by the governors of the respective States.
Art. 11. The faculties of these employés
shall be determined by the department they belong to, in the
regulations it shall issue for that purpose, enjoining, as an
essential point, activity and efficacy in the persecution of the
wild Indians, and order and morality in the colonies.
Art. 12. In each colony a rudimentary
school shall be established.
Art. 13. The inspector general or
sub-inspectors authorized by him shall be able to conclude peace
with the tribes of savage Indians, acting in concert with the
governors of the respective States. After the terms have been
adjusted, the supreme executive power shall be informed of the same,
for its approbation, and in order that it may supply the necessary
means for obtaining and maintaining it.
[Page 485]
Art. 14. No authority shall divert the
soldiers dedicated to the service of the colonies from their
object.
Hall of sessions of the congress of the Union, Mexico, April 27,
1868,
J. C. DORIA, President.
F. Diaz Covarrubias,
Secretary.
Elenterio Avila,
Secretary.
I therefore order it to he printed and circulated for its due
observance.
Palace of the national government, Mexico, April 28, 1868.
BENITO JUAREZ.
The Minister of War, Citizen General Ignacio
Mejia,
Present.
I communicate the same to you for your information and the consequent
ends.
Independence and liberty!
Mexico, April 28, 1868.
MEJIA.
The Citizen Governor
of the State of——.
[Translation.]
The citizen President of the republic has been pleased to communicate
to me the following decree:
“Benito Juarez, constitutional President of the United Mexican
States, to the inhabitants of the same be it known, that the
congress of the Union has decreed as follows:
“‘The congress of the Union decrees:
“‘Article 1. In the States of Yucatan and
Campeche there shall be established two military colonies of five
hundred men each, the duty of regulating them remaining with the
executive, without interfering with the taking of any other measures
which may be conducive to the pacification of the said States.’”
Hall of sessions of the congress of the Union, Mexico, April 28,
1868.
J. C. DORIA, President,
Joaquin M. Alcalde, Secretary.
Elenterio Avila,
Secretary.
I, therefore, order it to be printed and circulated for its due
fulfillment.
Palace of the national government, Mexico, April 28, 1868.
BENITO JUAREZ.
The Minister of War, Citizen Ignacio Mejia,
Present.
I communicate the same to you, for your information and the
consequent ends.
Independence and liberty!
Mexico, April 28, 1868.
MEJIA.
The Citizen Governor
of the State of ——.
