No. 314.
Mr. Nelson to Mr. Fish.
Mexico, May 17, 1872. (Received May 31.)
Sir: In 1869 the Government of the United States instructed this legation to employ its good office to secure the liberation from prison of the citizen of the Argentine Republic, Colonel Edelmiro Mayer, who served with credit in our war for the suppression of the rebellion, and afterward in the republican army of Mexico. The Mexican government at that time, and subsequently, manifested a willingness to pardon Colonel Mayer for the imputed offense of insurrection, on condition of his leaving the country, and I repeatedly endeavored to obtain from him a promise to accept that condition. He, however, steadily refused to make any such promise, and remained in prison until liberated by the amnesty of October, 1870, without, as he conceived, owing anything to the clemency of President Juarez.
During the present revolution Colonel Mayer joined Porfirio Diaz, and participated in the movement in Oaxaca, where he was made a prisoner in January or February last. He was brought to Puebla in March, and there tried by a military tribunal, which, on the 26th ultimo, sentenced him to death. Previous to his sentence I received messages from him, and visits from his friends in this city, and informally solicited clemency for him through Ministers Mariscal and Romero. On the day following his sentence I received letters and telegrams from him and his friends, and, as he was to be executed on Sunday, the 28th ultimo, I lost no time in again employing my unofficial good offices in his behalf, through the appropriate channels, and also by writing a confidential letter to President Juarez, in which I offered to guarantee the future good conduct of Mayer. The President immediately suspended the execution until he could examine the record of the trial, and the result has been the commutation of the penalty into ten years imprisonment.
I have little doubt that, within a few months, the Mexican government [Page 424] will consent to Colonel Mayer’s return to his own country. Please communicate the contents of this dispatch to the minister of the Argentine Republic in Washington.
I am, &c.,