No. 309.
Mr. Nelson to Mr. Fish.
Mexico, April 15, 1872. (Received May 1.)
Sir: The general tendency of military events during the first half of the present month has been favorable to the speedy pacification of the republic.
The rebels have been routed in engagements of more or less importance in the State of Sinaloa, Durango, Zacatecas, San Luis, Hidalgo, Puebla, and Vera Cruz. The city of Zacatecas was momentarily occupied by the rebels on the 13th instant, but was again recovered yesterday by the government troops.
It is reported that there has been a counter revolution in the State of Nuevo Leon, that Treviño the initiator of the present revolution, has been deposed from the government of that State, and Don Simon Garza Melo appointed in his stead. The only serious drawback to this favorable aspect of affairs has been the breaking out and sudden triumph of a local revolution in the State of Yucatan.
On the 13th ultimo General Canton, a former imperalist chief, pronounced in Valladolid, and after gaining two victories over the troops of the State government, in which several prominent officers of the latter were killed, Merida was evacuated by Governor Cirerol about the end of March, and he with all his subordinates took passage in the American steamer City of Merida to Vera Cruz.
The general government immediately dispatched an expedition to Campeche, upon two steamers, under command of General Vicente Mariscal, and has since dispatched re-enforcements.
Should the rebels of Yucatan resist, this campaign will be bloody and of uncertain result. The state of affairs in Tabasco is also very unsatisfactory. The rebels there are in small numbers, but have committed fearful outrages. They have twice occupied the port of Frontera, and thus forced our consul, Mr. Nemegyei, to send his family to the United States for safety.
The new Mexican penal code went into operation on the 1st instant.
The code of procedure is now firnished by the committee of lawyers to whom its formation was intrusted, and will shortly be submitted to congress. Mr. Leon Guzman, formerly minister of foreign affairs, and now attorney-general, has been appointed a member of the joint claims commission at Washington., in place of Mr. Gomez Palacios, who resigned that post.
The project for the celebration of an universal exposition in the city of Mexico, in 1874, has been much discussed, and at a meeting of some hundreds of prominent citizens held yesterday the regulations and bylaws of an association to that effect were adopted. The project is countenanced [Page 420] by the government, and will undoubtedly receive a large subsidy from congress, to which body an appeal has been made.
Congress has done nothing of importance during the two weeks of its session. The President’s request for an extension of the term of his “extraordinary faculties” has been much discussed, as also Mr. Romero’s new tariff. Both measures will undoubtly receive a solution favorable to the views of the government, though with some modifications.
I am, &c.,