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. 342.
Mr. Nelson to Mr. Fish.

Legation of the United States,
Mexico, August 23, 1872. (Received September 7.)

No. 613.]

Sir: Herewith I inclose a copy and translation (A and B) of the platform accepted by Mr. Lerdo during the presidential campaign of last year, and which has again been put forth with his sanction in reference to his candidature for the elections of October next. It has been warmly approved by most of the newspapers of this capital, and has encountered no serious opposition.

I am, &c,

THOMAS H. NELSON.

[Inclosure B in No. 613—Translation.]

Platform of Mr. Lerdo.

1st. Mexico will not renew diplomatic relations with foreign powers except upon prudent bases. Our treaties and conventions should be reduced to such stipulations as may be absolutely necessary, and should contain within themselves the principle of their periodical amendment.

2d. The independence and sovereignty of the states will be conscientiously respected, and the general government will abstain from all intervention in their internal questions.

3d. The necessary measures will be recommended for the organization and recruitment of the army, in accordance with the spirit of democratic institutions and the public necessities.

4th. The individual guarantees found in the constitution will be respected, and the authorities who violate them will be punished with the utmost rigor of the laws.

5th. Unlimited development will be given to gratuitous public instruction, especially the primary, with a view to extend it as far as possible among the aboriginal class, which is generally regarded with criminal indifference.

6th. Individual security will be provided for by means of a well-organized police, which will efficiently chastise malefactors.

7th. The inviolate rights of property will be maintained against all invasions emanating from authorities, and these rights will be considered as the foundation of social order.

8th. The public finances will be so organized as to equalize the receipts with the expenditures, introducing a prudent economy into the latter by reducing the number of employés to those strictly necessary, and exercising the severest vigilance in respect to the officers who manage the public funds, making them responsible for their conduct.

9th. The funding of the public debt will be arranged upon just bases, and the development of every kind of establishments of public credit will be protected, in order to mobilize the wealth of the country and found the national credit.

10th. The government ought not to undertake the construction of public works; which will therefore be let by auction to private companies upon the most favorable terms for the public interest, and with the greatest possible economy for the treasury.

11th. Immigration and public works will be especially protected, by offering to the companies formed for such objects all the privileges compatible with the public welfare.

12th. The following means will be employed with the object of converting theories of democracy and popular sovereignty into practical facts: Strict observance of law; respectful support of all legally constituted authorities; submission to the freely expressed will of the majority; condemnation of every maneuver for disturbing public order, for subverting our institutions, or for overthrowing the functionaries established by law; absolute suppression of every artifice tending to falsify the popular will, whether proceeding from the authorities or from parties, applying to the delinquents the full rigor of the law.

13th. The severest morality will be introduced into all the branches of the administration, and honesty and capacity will be considered a requisite for appointment to office.

14th. Proper measures will be taken to secure the independence of municipal bodies. 15th. Freedom of commerce will be sought by means of a reform of our financial system.

16th. The frontier States and the peninsula of Yucatan will receive a preferent attention, with the object of hastening the termination of the wars of races and of barbarous Indians, especially by means of the colonization of their deserts.

17th. The faithful fulfillment of the constitution and laws of reform will be strictly insisted upon, seeking in the various practical cases the most rational application and that most in conformity with their spirit and the welfare of the people.