Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, Transmitted to Congress with the Annual Message of the President, December 2, 1872, Part I
No. 272.
Mr. Nelson to Mr. Fish.
Mexico, November 29, 1871. (Received December 26.)
Sir: For the past three weeks the Mexican congress has been almost exclusively occupied in the discussion of the law conferring extraordinary faculties upon the President, and the suspension of certain constitutional guarantees. Notwithstanding the absolute necessity for the adoption of this measure, in view of the critical condition of the country, it has been vigorously opposed, not only by the revolutionary party, but also by the friends of Mr. Lerdo. I inclose a copy and translation of the proposed law, (A and B.) The first three articles have been adopted by majorities ranging between thirty and forty votes, and it is probable that the fourth and last article will be approved during the present week. I also inclose a synopsis of a speech delivered in congress by Mr. Mariscal, minister of foreign affairs, on the 17th instant, which has been severely criticised by opposition speakers and papers, because of his allusions to the probable action of the United States, and the incursions of filibusters in the northern States, unless the rebellion should be speedily suppressed, (C.) I also inclose the official report of Mr. Mariscal’s speech, (D.)
On the 20th instant the honorable Estanilao Cañedo (Lerdista) made [Page 360] a notable speech, in which the relations between Mexico and the United States were freely discussed, a synopsis of which I also inclose, (E.)
I am, &c.,
Project of law.
- Article 1. There is declared in force, until a month after the next re-union of congress, the factions 1, 3, and 4 of article 1, and the articles 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 13, 14, and 15 of the law of the 17th of January, 1870, on the subject of extraordinary faculties, and that article 8 is to be modified in the following terms: “From the moment that a military man commences to work with arms in his hands, rebelling against the constituted authorities, or that a civilian, in the same manner, commits exactions or violence against any one, the crime ceases to be merely a political one, and enters into the sphere of a public one.”
- Article 2. The armed military chief of a sedition and the soldiers in active service, from a sergeant upward, who desert to the enemy, shall be judged according to the proceedings of article 10 of the said law of the 17th of January, 1870; in the same manner shall be judged military men not in active service, and civilians, who, having taken up arms against the government, relapse into the same crime; for that same reason, the law of the 6th of December, 1858, is declared to be in force, its articles 6 and 54 and the exception established in article 5 being abolished.
- Article 3. The executive is authorized to dictate, in the branch of war, all the necessary dispositions for the re-establishment and conservation of the public peace, and is equally authorized, in the treasury branch, that, for the same object, it may command funds, being able to impose contributions and make the necessary outlays, under the conception that the States, districts, and territory bear in uniformity the charges which are decreed, and that the payments which are made to the government for duties, set forth in the laws dictated up to now, shall be verified in the same manner that these laws determine.
- Article 4. The executive shall give an account of the use they have made of these faculties in the period of sessions immediately upon the termination set forth in article 1.
Synopsis of the speech of Mr. Mariscal, delivered in Congress November 17, 1871.
Gentlemen: A young orator of the opposition party made a speech which would be alarming, were it not so notoriously unfounded. He said that Minister Romero was delivering the treasury department to other persons, in order to goat once to the United States, with the view of negotiating the American protectorate over our republic. I was not present at the time, but Mr. Romero was, and he did not think it necessary to deny such an accusation. His very presence gave the lie to this, for he could not be resting in the hall and, at the same time, giving up the business of his department. Nevertheless, to please several friends of the administration, I come here to manifest to congress that the President of the republic has not thought, nor will ever think, of soliciting the protectorate of the United States nor that of any other nation. How could he, who maintained so nobly the Mexican flag in Chihuahua, and Paso del Norte, have done this? He, who knew how to resist the influence of a friendly and neighboring government, when, through a laudable feeling, it interfered between the usurper and national justice.
I should offend, gentlemen, the illustrious antecedents of Mr. Juarez, were I to impugn a speech which, through condescension alone, I have come here to contradict, and which I leave to your good judgment. It is true that there is great danger for the honor of the country, perhaps even for its independence and the integrity of its territory, but this danger does not originate with the administration, but in the revolution and anarchy.
No one denies that our country has been judged with much severity, owing to its chronic anarchy since the independence, producing the phenomenon of humiliating poverty in the midst of elemental riches.
Since the war of reform which immediately occasioned the foreign usurpation, our spirit of resistance knew how to apply itself to noble and great deeds. The world [Page 361] looks at us with curiosity, desiring to prove by our example if the love of independence and the constancy to defend it are sufficient to allow of a nation governing itself; if democratic institutions are peculiar to the Anglo-Saxon race, or if they will also serve for other people, as, for example, the Latin race.
Thus, if we were to succeed in establishing liberty and democratic institutions, our triumph would be immense and enviable, because we should have confounded those who caluminate us, and prove the possibility of every people governing itself.
But if we fall anew into anarchy, we should be declared incapable of self-government. Our very glories would be turned against us, for it would be said that our resistance against a foreign government and monarchy was inspired by our feelings of disorder against all government; it would be said that what we call our heroic patriotism is no more than the vice of resorting to arms our love of insurrection and the sad advantage of being able to repeat such things eternally.
If such things continue, we shall have shown to the universe that we are incapable of being governed either by ourselves or by the liberal constitution of ’57; and that we are a people without hope or future, and without any capacity for material progress. They will say, we are a very valiant people, but of the valor which also belongs to other semi-barbaric peoples. They will pretend to treat us like they treat the people of Asia and Africa, where every stranger of a Christian land considers himself alone subjected to his own consul. And have we thought what this signifies? This dishonor of poor Mexico would not be alone the insufferable humiliation of each Mexican in the presence of any foreigner; not alone the absolute loss of honor, the most precious virtue of a nation as it is of an individual; but would also be our material ruin, the loss of all our hopes to save us and make us progress in the future. For then, gentlemen, it would be impossible to hope for emigration, without which little could be done. It would be also impossible to hope for foreign industry and capital; little could be done in any new country which has not had time to form its own industry and capital; far less so in Mexico, where the capitals which before existed have been destroyed by so much adversity.
What confidence would then remain to induce the risking of a single dollar in a Mexican undertaking, when even now, for example, the telegraph of the northern frontier has been broken into a thousand pieces and robbed of all its apparatus, as the savages of the western prairies of the neighboring nation would not rob. And this destruction has been made by the “pronunciados” to the property of an American company, which, after the most lively excitement on our part, unites their wires to ours, in order to put us in communication with all the known world—another improvement indefinitely postponed, another motive of complaint against Mexico, of disconfidence of all undertakings with us; and this because the “pronunciados” have consummated their destructions in the name of liberty and free suffrage, and other blasphemies common to the revolutionists.
Let congress pardon me if I have stopped to lament an act that appears of secondary importance; nevertheless, it is one that will injure our republic. My wish was to bring forward a recent example of the discredit into which we may fall, and why we shall injure special foreign interests, through these “pronunciamentos” which have commenced; and this discredit will not only bring about the loss of all hopes of material development, but will also occasion a nearly inevitable danger of losing the indedendence at least of one portion of the Mexican territory.
It pleases me in acknowledging, because I do not doubt it, that the present Government of the United States does not think to acquire unjustly, or with force, or by means of diplomacy, any portion of our territory, but it may change the officers of that Government, and may ferment in that people the desire to acquire new dominions, and all its governments have the end to make some concesssion to so characteristic a desire. This assuredly led the great statesman Seward to the acquisition of the frozen deserts of Alaska, and this may have led the illustrious President Grant to promote, with great pains, the annexation of Santo Domingo. Let us now consider, gentlemen, in what manner a portion of our territory might be useful to the United States. They will certainly not take it away from us by force while we keep a decent peace, and while, under the shadow of a government fairly respected, they may be able to realize great roads of communication and other undertakings that, at the “same time enriching our country, strengthening its independence, and consolidating its internal peace, will be useful for the whole of humanity.
But if, by fresh and prolonged seditions, we make such undertakings impossible; if we frighten away the enterprising spirit of our neighbors; if we oppose an obstacle to the general good, shutting the door to our own welfare, what better pretext, gentlemen, could we give to the American filibuster, who, in order to prove his ambitious views to be honest, would take on his side the interests of commerce, industry, and universal progress? What better occasion could we give him to develop it with the applause of other nations, we being surprised in a debilitated state, exhausted by our internal quarrels, developing it with such force that it would not be possible to contain him? I can assure congress that if, unfortunately, the anarchical revolution [Page 362] which has broken out in our soil should be prolonged, there will be projects, perhaps filibustering expeditions, which will make still more critical and affecting the situation of the republic. For such a motive, I sincerely believe that the revolutionists who know this, those who reflect attentively on this and nevertheless insist in their seditious plans, will be as blind as traitors, and will be traitors in the full extension of the word.
Menaced by such terrible evils, what shall be the preventive with which to drive them off; what shall be the means of avoiding the prolongation of anarchy? It cannot be other than to strengthen the executive, not only with the faculties you have voted, but with the sincere union of all patriots, all good Mexicans. The executive believes its present elements sufficient to suffocate the sedition already commenced and menacing to be fermented; its confidence leans on the good sense of the nation, tired of so many struggles, productive only of new misfortunes.
But your union is more important, so that the action of the executive may be prompt and effectual. In the name, then, of the patriotism which I cannot deny to you, I conjure the members of the minority against Mr. Juarez to put at one side all resentments, whether just or unjust, as also all party spirit, excusable in other circumstances, but may be criminal in the face of the present ones. I beg them to save the honor of our country, and to conjure away the danger of suffering a diminution of independence or national territory. Gentlemen, you have come to this rigorous and inevitable alternative, either to establish legal order, or to prolong anarchy with all its crimes and horrors. The election does not appear doubtful, and I flatter myself with the hope that you will elect the patriot that your consciences have doubtlessly indicated to you.
Speech of the Deputy Canedo.
As the united committees have not replied to the orators who have just occupied the tribunal, attacking the article under discussion, I shall limit myself to rectifying some of the ideas, in virtue of which the minister of foreign affairs has wished to impress upon the chamber, in order to incline its vote in favor of the extraordinary faculties, that the present disturbances may bring with them the complication of an invasion of our territory by the United States, under the cover of Texan filibusterism.
I am persuaded that such a fear from the lips of the principal organ of the cabinet has only been the effect of an oratorical effort; and not in any way the expression of his convictions, as no one better than his excellency knows the principles which guide the policy of the neighboring Republic, from having had the honor of representing Mexico lately near the Government at Washington. But as the manifestation to which I refer has alarmed some of the deputies, and caused a profound sensation in the public, as appears by the commentaries of the press, I have deemed it convenient not to allow this incident to pass unperceived, when it is so easy to calm the imagination, and dissipate the unfavorable impression that may have been caused by the delusive fear of any international conflict, in addition to the serious events at home, which are exciting the whole nation.
Were the neighboring Republic to entertain the intention or desire of availing itself of our political disturbances, and favor an armed invasion against Mexico, it would be necessary that its Government should completely hold in oblivion all the interests created by the late civil war, which entirely changed the state of that country. It would be requisite that it should separate itself from the line of conduct which it has hitherto observed for the consolidation of the important anti-slavery principles established after so long and fearful a war, and that it should propose to itself the flattering of the interests and aspirations of the vanquished slavery element, the only one that would be favored by a war with Mexico, or the annexation of any portion of our territory.
The interests of the Government at Washington and those of the people of the United States are, to-day, intimately leagued with those created in our republic, by the triumph of the political and social principles emanating from the constitution that governs us—a constitution almost identical in its spirit, and even in its text, with that which serves as the fundamental covenant of the American people. This unison of interests between both the neighboring republics is so certain, that no one can observe the steps of the one without comprehending that, to a certain degree, they must affect the other; influencing in the development of those republican and democratic principles which both have adopted as their guide, as also in the development of their respective elements of wealth and prosperity, which now cannot be placed in opposition [Page 363] to each other, as frequently happened before the war, or when the American Government, under the political influence of the men of the South, thought of extending slavery, at any cost, by means of the absorption of our northern States.
I can foresee the reply that the minister of foreign relations is about to make me. He will at once say that no one doubts the truth and justice of all I am stating: that he is the first; to corroborate my assertions, because he has had occasion to study closely the policy and tendency of the United States; that the suspicion that the American Government might invade our territory in view of the disturbances we are suffering had never crossed his imagination, but that that which the Government and the people of the United States would certainly not do, might be attempted by that important and spurious element called filibusterism.
This explanation, entirely conformable with the words of the organ of the cabinet, would, notwithstanding, lead to an absolute misapprehension of the direction our neighbors have given to their present policy. In the same manner in which they have blotted out from their Federal compact the stain that appeared upon it from the shameful pest of slavery, they are endeavoring to show to the world that they completely reject the ancient spirit of conquest, which had pre-occupied their various administrations previous to the anti-slavery war. And it is necessary to confess that this new policy does not exist simply as a vain theory, but that it has been carried into actual practice, with resolution and firmness, in every case since the triumph of the North.
Let us look, for instance, at the policy adopted by the Government at Washington in nullifying and putting down the Fenian invasion of Canada; remarking, at the same time, that the annexation of that English colony would be as advantageous today to the triumphant element in the United States as the annexation of our frontier States would, at no distant time since, have been to the slavery party. And other proof, not less remarkable, is the resolution with which it has persisted in not interfering in the Cuban question, notwithstanding the sympathies for the cause of independence and republican principles which that heroic Spanish colony is struggling to establish. Moreover, the decision of the Senate is still fresh by which it rejected the pretension made by the Republic of Santo Domingo to be annexed to the American Union, and thus furnishing to their navy a predominant position in the Antilles.
With these facts before us, it is not to be conceived how the executive can fear that a few filibusters, dispersed on the borders of the Rio Bravo, should mock at the policy of the Government at Washington, and escape from its powerful action, satiating their depraved instincts, and throwing down the gauntlet to two nations united by the link of common interest.
It remains, therefore, without doubt, that the deputies can vote against the extraordinary faculties without the fear that their vote may be susceptible of influencing in any way the illusion of an invasion by American filibusters, whose belligerent ardor, on the other hand, would be impotent to overcome even the isolated and prompt action of our frontier possessions, as we have seen on former occasions.
There is another error, which I think it requisite to correct in proof of impartiality, as it will tend to relieve the executive from a charge made against it in the warmth of a brilliant discourse. As a member of the committee of inspection of the fifth constitutional congress, I had occasion to examine the accounts presented by the government during the last few years to the accountant-general’s department, and I can, therefore, testify that among them there was found the detailed distribution of the funds produced to the exchequer from the contract relating to the colonization of Lower California.
After these rectifications, I must dedicate a few words to the first article, which gave rise to them.
I believe that the executive has mistaken its course, in dedicating its attention so exclusively to armed repression—to the action of material force. I believe that in order to suffocate the rebellion which is spreading through the country, the federal troops would suffice, if it consisted only, as the minister of war has assured us, in chastising disorders, and in enervating the propagation of robbers, kidnappers, and common disturbers.
I believe that the situation should be considered in another point of view; proving that what is now required of the executive to continue the same course lately followed is not an indefinite amount of discretionary power, nor the use of bayonets, nor the terror caused by scaffolds, but the desire to satisfy the exigencies of our society, exasperated by so many abuses, and under the oppressions of which it is victim; the resolution of applying itself to render a more just tribute to the moral force of the nation—to that force which it has completely ignored and deprecated.
In place of the sad picture presented to us a few days since by the organ of the executive, and the analysis he gave of the political and social state of the Mexican nation, suffering under new convulsions; in place of insinuating that the civilized world would consider our present misfortunes and disorder as symptoms of decrepitude and decay among an ungovernable people; in place of exhibiting Mexican society as the sole cause of our revolutionary commotions, and its inquietude and insubordiriation [Page 364] as responsible for the blood again spilt, I believe, truthfully and sincerely, that the minister might have discovered the causes of the crisis through which the country is passing in the abuses and offenses committed by the executive itself, contrary to the spirit and text of our fundamental laws.
How is it to be supposed that a people like the Mexicans, so jealous of their liberty and rights, can witness impassibly and with the resignation the cabinet would wish for, that their municipal liberties are trodden down in the most scandalous manner, and substituted by the old colonial laws issued in 1813? How are they submissively to allow the progressive and systematic nullification of the federal compact, by means of the constant interference of the executive in questions relating to the interior government of the States, whose sovereignty is now nothing more than a vain word and without practical sense? How, to conclude, can they suppose that the people can quietly submit to the audacious falsification of the popular suffrage, by the oppression of brute force? The executive has converted the governments of the free and sovereign States of the federation into blind instruments of its views and interests. By establishing a criminal complicity with the governors, with the legislatures, and with the tribunals, it has suffocated by force every element that was not assimilated to its absorbing and domineering policy.
Still, there are some States that have been enabled to resist a similar oppression. Well, then! Do you believe that when the extraordinary faculties asked for by the first article now under discussion be granted, they will escape from the power that has bound and subjected the other portions of our federation? No, sirs! the slow work of the executive will follow up its course, and, within a few months, instead of a popular democratic representative republic, we shall have nothing but a confirmed centralism, under the mask and with the appearances of a federal compact.
These being the marked tendencies of the executive during the last twelve months of its administration, I cannot, in conscience, in the matter of the concession of extraordinary faculties, give a vote of thanks that would sanction the blows given to municipal liberties, to the sovereignty of the States, and to the independence of popular suffrage.