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. 316.
Mr. Fish to Mr. Nelson.
Washington, May 22, 1872.
Sir: I transmit herewith a copy of the correspondence between this Department and Mr. Thomas F. Wilson, consul of the United States at [Page 425] Matamoras,’in relation to the eighth article of the proclamation of General Palacio, under date of the 8th ultimo, which provides for the exercise of surveillance upon vessels navigating the Bravo Bio Grande.
You will be pleased to read to the minister for foreign affairs of Mexico the instruction addressed on the 17th instant (No. 54) by this Department to Mr. Wilson.
I am, &c.
Mr. Wilson to Mr. Hunter.
Matamoras, April 7, 1872. (Received April 24.)
Sir: Referring to my dispatch No. 74, under date of the 10th February last, in which I informed the Department that General Queroga had occupied Camargo with a force of about one thousand revolutionists, I have now to state that a telegram was received to-day by General Palacios, commander of this city, from Reynosa, sixty miles distant, informing him that the enemy were a few miles from that place, apparently intending to advance on Matamoras.
From all I can learn General Treviño, governor of the State of Nuevo Leon, who inaugurated the revolution on this side of the Sierra Madra, has united his forces with those of General Queroga, and their united forces, amounting to about two thousand men, principally infantry, with several pieces of artillery, are marching on this city.
General Palacios has proclaimed martial law here, closed the gateways of the fortifications leading to the country, interdicted persons leaving the city by ferry to-Brownsville without passes, and is now arming and organizing the national guard for defense. The regular force under General Palacios consists of about three hundred tolerably well-drilled and well-armed men. In addition he expects to arm about one thousand national guards for fortification duty.
The defenses of the city are strong, and unless the troops inside should revolt a vigorous resistance can be made.
As soon as the revolutionists appear before the city I will personally remain here constantly during the siege, leaving my family in Brownsville, as reported in dispatch No. 83, of the 5th instant.
I am, &c.,
Mr. Wilson to Mr. Hunter.
Matamoras, April 10, 1872. (Received April 25.)
Sir: Referring to my dispatch No. 85, under date of the 17th instant, in which I informed the Department that this city had been declared in a state of siege, I have now to transmit a copy of a letter addressed to me by General Palacios under date of the 8th instant, inclosing his proclamation of the state of siege, &c. As the eighth article of this proclamation appeared to admit of two interpretations and was bitterly assailed by the newspapers and people in Brownsville, Texas, as a violation of the treaty stipulations, which guarantee the free navigation of the Rio Grande, I addressed a letter to General Palacios on the 9th instant, a copy of which is herewith inclosed, asking for the true meaning of the article in question. To-day I received a reply, a copy of which is herewith inclosed, from which it will be seen that the general claims the right under military necessity of ordering a police visit of suspected vessels ascending or descending the Rio Grande for a distance of twelve miles above and below the city. In the absence t>f treaty stipulations as to the police scrutiny of the river by either of the nations of which it forms the boundary, I do not see any impropriety in General Palacio’s exercising the power which he proposes in the eighth article of the proclamation, as explained in his letter of the 10th instant. Otherwise the whole front of the city lying on the river would be exposed to the raids of the revolutionists by water. It would seem that both nations have the right whenever they may think necessary to exercise a police scrutiny over the river, in a manner as little calculated to inconvenience legit-mate commerce as possible.
[Page 426]I do not understand that it is intended to extend this police vigilance farther than to ascertain the nationality and destination of a vessel, except where the visit develops some fact which would justify a fair presumption of the vessel being engaged in a contraband trade, when an inquiry could be made to ascertain the true character of the voyage.
In addition to the actual military necessity which exists to justify these police visits, the revolutionists recently allowed a vessel, which had cleared from Brownsville with a cargo of bonded goods, to enter their lines and discharge its cargo.
The government of President Juarez could not collect the duties on these goods, and the revolutionists were thereby strengthened by availing themselves of these duties.
It is probable that one of the objects of the eighth article of the proclamation of General Palacios is to prevent vessels clearing from Brownsville for a Mexican port to ascend the Rio Grande with a cargo intended to be introduced into the rebel lines.
As there is a strong disposition on the Texas side to dispute General Palacios right to order a police visit of vessels plying on the Rio Grande, within the prescribed limits, and threats have even been made to resist such visits should they be attempted on American vessels. I have deemed it prudent to advise the Department of the facts, and ask for such instructions as the circumstances may warrant.
I am, &c.,
Mr. Palacios to Mr. Wilson.
Garrison of the line of the Bravo general-in-chief:
For your information, so far as it may concern the interests of the nation which you represent in Mexico, I have the honor herewith to send you a military order which has this day been published in this town.
I renew to you the assurances of my consideration.
Independence and liberty.
The citizen Consul or the United
States
Of America at
Matamoras.—Present.
I, the Citizen-General Miguel Palacios, military commandant of the town of Matamoras, announce to its inhabitants:
That a state of war existing, as regards matters purely military, according to an express provision of the general constitution of the republic, and the town under my command being threatened by revolutionary troops, therefore, in the exercise of the powers granted to me by the general orders of the army, I order as follows:
- Article 1. The town of Matamoras, throughout the radius of its military operations, is declared to be in a state of siege.
- Article 2, All Mexicans residing in the town shall be subject to military service, and the home-guard shall go into active service at once, those excused from service by imperative causes, mentioned in the law, alone being exempted.
- Article 3. No person shall be allowed to leave the town after the publication of this order without a pass signed by the commandant or some person delegated by him for that purpose.
- Article 4. No person shall be allowed to enter the town without bringing a pass from the officers deputed to guard the roads, the crossing-places of the Bravo, (Rio Grande,) or usual entrances. Such passes will be granted by said officers in the cases provided for by the special orders which they may receive from the commandant in relation to the matter.
- Article 5. Persons violating the provisions of article 2 shall at once become subject to the penalties of the law concerning the national guard, and, should these not be sufficient, they shall be subjected to the penalties of the military law.
- Article 6. Persons violating articles 3 and 4 shall be considered as spies of the enemy, and if they shall not speedily adduce some weighty reason for the violation of said articles they shall be tried according to military law.
- Article 7. All public meetings or demonstrations, or private acts designed to create disaffection among the citizens toward the defense of the town, is forbidden. Persons violating this article shall be considered as conspirators, and shall be punished according [Page 427] to military law, if Mexicans or foreigners without a flag recognized in Mexico, and according to the civil law, if foreigners having a flag recognized in Mexico.
- The approach to the town of any, war or merchant vessel, large or small, Mexican or foreign, going either up or down the Bravo, is prohibited within a visual radius of four leagues, measured from the perimeter of the fortification adjoining the Bravo at both extremes, except by a special permit from the commandant of Matamoras, given with previous knowledge of some agent or officer of the foreign nation concerned.
- The removal and sale of arms, munitions, or any war material to private persons is prohibited in the town, under the penalties provided in article 7.
- Article 10. The Citizen-General Lazaro Garza Ayala is appointed to act for the time being as second in command of the town and its military radius.
And to secure punctual and exact obedience to the foregoing, I order that it be published as an order in this town, and that information thereof be given to whomsoever it may concern.
Mr. Wilson to General Palacios.
Matamoras, April 9, 1872.
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your communication dated yesterday—delivered, to me in the afternoon—inclosing a military proclamation issued by your declaring this city in a state of siege, and prescribing the rules and regulations to be observed by those residing in leaving, or entering, the city. The eighth article of these regulations appears to prohibit vessels of all classes and nationalities from approaching nearer than four leagues of this city without a special permit from the commandant of the city, &c. I have to inquire whether it is intended in this article to require all vessels navigating the Rio Grande to first procure this special permit on approaching within the prescribed distance, or is it only meant to apply to vessels actually destined to the city of Matamoras.
As the article seemingly admits of either interpretation, and is therefore liable to be misunderstood, I have to respectfully request you to inform me of the real intention of the article in question at your earliest convenience.
With the assurance of my high regard and esteem, I am, &c.,
Mr. Fish to Mr. Wilson.
Washington, May 17, 1872.
Sir: Your dispatches numbers 85 and 86, dated, respectively, the 7th and 10th ultimo, have been received. In these dispatches you inform the Department that General Palacios, then in command of the military forces of the republic of Mexico, stationed at the city of Matamoras, had, on the 8th of that month, issued a proclamamation, the eighth article of which provides that the approach to the place of any vessel is prohibited, be it a war or merchant vessel, large or small, Mexican or foreign, either ascending or descending the Bravo (Rio Grande) within a visual radius of four leagues, measured from the piriometer of the fortification adjacent to the Bravo, at both extremes, unless a special permit shall have been previously given by this office, (comandancia), with previous knowledge of some agent or officer of the nation concerned.” In the same connection you have forwarded copy of a note of General Palacios to you, in reply to a communication which you had previously addressed to him asking for an explanation of his proclamation, and especially of the eighth article.
In his note to you, General Palacios says, “that the prohibition contained in this article is a precautionary military measure, which will only be enforced when the enemy presents himself at the port of the place, and that not the least intention exists to molest American commerce; that by reason of the necessity of a just and legitimate defense, the article in question embraces American vessels; that the spirit of the article is to exercise surveillance, within the radius therein mentioned, over all vessels, if there is good reason to suspect their hostility to the place visited; that if a search shall show all suspicion to have been unfounded the vessel shall be allowed to proceed, and if it shall appear that the suspicion was well-founded, she shall not be allowed to enter the prohibited port; and that, according to the character of the objects found on board, information will be sent to the agent or officer representing the nation to which [Page 428] such vessel belongs of the permit granted or refused, before or after the departure of such vessel.”
While accepting the statements of General Palacios’s note, as to the true intent and meaning of the proclamation, and also in relation to the friendly disposition of the Mexican government toward the vessels and commerce of the United States, it is nevertheless clear that the eighth article of the proclamation of General Palacios is in contravention of the provisions of the treaty of February, 1848, between the United States and Mexico. The river Bravo, or Rio Grande, is a common boundary between the United States and Mexico; it is a navigable river, and, according to universally accepted principles of public law, must be recognized as a common highway for the commerce of both nations. The seventh article of the treaty of February, 1848, recognizing the principle just stated, provides that “the navigation of the Gila and of the Rio Bravo, below said boundary, (southern boundary of New Mexico,) shall be free and common to the vessels and citizens of both countries, and neither shall without the consent of the other construct any work that may impede in whole or in part the exercise of this right.”
Vessels of the United States navigating the Rio Grande, whether ascending or descending, are liable to be subjected to the surveillance of the proposed regulations, and this regardless of the fact of whether such vessels are destined to or intending to touch at any port on the Mexican side of the river. That the exercise of such surveillance upon vessels belonging to the United States, by the authorities of Mexico, would be an impediment to the exercise of the right of the free navigation of the river by such vessels, it needs no argument to maintain. The government of Mexico may prohibit vessels navigating the Rio Grande from entering the ports or landing on the shore of the river, within the territory of that republic, or it may attach such conditions to the entering or landing of such vessels within the territories of Mexico as circumstances shall in the judgment of that government demand, but such regulations cannot properly be extended so as in any manner to impede the exercise of the right of free navigation of the river by vessels belonging to the United States. The correctness of this view of the force of the article in question must be, it is believed, at once apparent to General Palacios.
You will, therefore, on receipt of this instruction, avail yourself of the earliest opportunity to bring the matter to the attention of General Palacios, and assure him that this Department will learn with satisfaction that the regulations and surveillance proposed by the eighth article of his proclamation is no longer sought to be enforced against vessels belonging to the United States navigating the river Rio Grande.
I am, sir, your obedient servant,