Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, Transmitted to Congress, With the Annual Message of the President, December 1, 1879

No. 364.
Mr. Foster to Mr. Evarts.

Legation of the United States,
Mexico, August 16, 1879. (Received September 7.)

No. 1014.]

Sir: In my No. 966 of May 31 last, in noticing the adjournment of the Mexican Congress, I stated that that body had continued to show itself hostile to railroad connections with the United States, and cited the failure of the projected railroad from the port of Guaymas, in the State of Sonora, to the American frontier, to connect with the Southern Pacific Railroad. Since that date the report of the committee of Congress, to whom the Sonora project was referred, has been printed and circulated, and which goes to confirm what I stated in my previous dispatch. That report contains a letter from Gen. G. Sanchez Ochoa, chief of engineers of the Mexican army, addressed to the minister of war, which letter has been recently republished by the newspaper press of this city, and its publication therein has evoked considerable discussion, especially involving the question of the propriety of such a railroad connection with the United States, and its danger to the autonomy of the Mexican territory. In order that you may understand the merits of the letter which has created the discussion, I send you a full translation of the same. It appears that Gen. Sanchez Ochoa was, as he himself states, asked by the minister of war to make a report upon the advantages or inconvenience of the projected Sonora railroad for the military service of the government: but he ignores almost completely the object for which the report was asked, and proceeds with a long dissertation upon the trans-continental traffic and the commercial relations between China, Japan, and Australia, and America and Europe, with a climatic discussion on the Pacific Railroad of the United States, and a scientific analysis of the winds and currents of the Pacific Ocean, from which to deduce the impolicy of allowing a railroad connection through Mexican territory to a southern Pacific route across the United States, which would result in the loss to Mexico and annexation to the United States of more than half of the territory of this republic. The value of the general’s dissertation of these topics may be inferred from his statements in his letter that the Union Pacific Railroad, in its passage of the Rocky Mountains, is in perpetual snow, and that during eight months of the year an extent of more than 600 miles of the road is covered with from 30 to 40 feet of snow!

I also inclose an extract from the report of the congressional committee, referring to the phase of the Sonora railroad project discussed by General Sanchez Ochoa so unfavorably to a connection with the United States. It will be seen that the committee confesses the gravity of the subject, and owing to its importance to the national autonomy it declines to pass judgment upon it, but refers the matter to Congress for resolution.

The general sentiment of the newspaper press may be inferred from the article, a translation of which I inclose, from the leading journal of this city.

The republication of Ochoa’s letter has evoked a reply from Hon. Antonio Moreno, senator in the Federal Congress for the State of Sonora, of which I inclose an extract in translation. This reply very plainly points out the great neglect of the interests of the Mexican border States by the Federal Government and their consequent decadence and poverty refers to the effects upon these States of the marked contrast across the American frontier of prosperity, thrift, and the wonderful development of resources; makes a significant allusion to the mooted Sierra Madre Republic, an independent confederacy of the northern Mexican States; and shows that if it is the desire to attach these States to the Mexican Republic, it is very poor policy to refuse them the means and opportunities to keep pace with the progress and prosperity of the American side of their frontier. The Congressional committee in its report in alluding to this point, it will be seen, uses the following language:

The inhabitants of our frontier States are eye-witnesses to the development of the neighboring nation, and they do not see nor can they see with indifference the poverty and decadence in which they live, when they are only separated from prosperity and abundance by an imaginary line, which some look upon as the wall which shuts off material prosperity and intellectual progress.

In the report which the congressional representative from Lower California makes to the minister of government on the condition of that Territory (see my No. 1013) he does not hesitate to charge the Federal Government with neglecting that portion of the republic, with turning a deaf ear to their wants and complaints, and with delivering them to the unbridled rapacity of dishonest and immoral petty rulers.

I have, etc.,

JOHN W. FOSTER.

[Inclosure 1 in No. 1014.—Translation.]

sonora railroad.

Report of General G. Sanchez Ochoa, chief of the department of engineers of the Mexican Government.

Report of the chief of the department of engineers, presented to the minister of war, concerning the concession solicited for the establishment of an interoceanic railway across the States of Sonora and Chihuahua.

Mexican Republic, Department of War and Marine.

Having attentively examined the contract made between the department of public works and the English subjects, Messrs. David Ferguson and Robert R. Symon, for the establishment of a railway in the State of Sonora, starting from the port of Guaymas and terminating at some point on the frontier of the north in the State of Chihuahua, I proceed to comply with your instructions, dated the 5th of the present month, to make a report relative thereto. Said report should be confined, according to the text of my instructions, to giving the information asked as to whether the railroad would be advantageous or inconvenient for the service of troops, the transportation of artillery, equipage, &c., &c.; but’ that contract would bring such great political and economical inconveniences to the future of our country in the development of its natural elements and the commercial movement to which it is entitled by reason of its geographical position, with danger to its autonomy, that I cannot refrain from discussing them, in order that you may resolve what may be most convenient.

The utility of the road for military service is of slight consideration when we bear in mind the disadvantages which I am about to demonstrate.

I will commence by stating the difficulties against which the interoceanic railroad which starts from San Francisco, Cal., crosses the Rocky Mountains, touches the principal centers of the American Union, and terminates in the city of New York, has to contend at present, in order to show the absolute necessity there is for the establishment of another of better conditions, and which, in view of the position of our country, should pass through it, considering the capital as an entre depot for the principal towns of the republic.

The extensive railway communication possessed by the United States, for the convenience of the great commercial interests existing between Australia, China, and Japan, and the United States and Europe, met with inconveniences from the commencement. In fact, the steamers that sail from Sidney and Melbourne, in Australia, for San Francisco, described a diagonal in those seas in a direction from the southwest to northeast, starting from latitude 30° 52' south and longitude east 151° 14' from the meridian of Greenwich, and arriving at latitude north 37° 47' and longitude west 122° 28'from the same meridian, the distance traversed being 4,500 nautical miles, with twenty astronomical days’ navigation.

Upon making their trips direct to the ports of Manzanillo, Acapulco, or any other port on the Mexican-Pacific coast, although there is a longitudinal difference in favor of San Francisco, this is not the case as to latitude, which gives the advantage to our ports over those of the United States, as the difference of latitude with respect to Australia is 1,400 nautical miles, or six days’ less navigation in favor of our ports compared with those of Upper California; hence the trips which the steamers make in twenty days from Australia to San Francisco can be made in fourteen days from the ports of Sidney and Melbourne (Australia) to the Mexican ports of the Pacific. To this economy of time may be added the fact that the sea south of Lower California is quieter and more protected than that in the north, as in the latter the prevailing winds are always tempestuous. Coming from the west, they chill the coast of Upper California as they pass over the frozen seas of Asiatic Russia.

The winds that blow in Manzanillo and Acapulco are known to sailors as the “trade winds,” or those which nine months of the year blow parallel with the equator between the tropics, generally called the intertropic winds. They are very gentle, and give a great advantage to our seas over those over which vessels sail that go from the ports of Australia to San Francisco.

The nations of China and Japan possess a peculiar industry, which is rich and prolific, and, having large commercial intercourse with the United States and Europe, they would obtain the same advantages as Australia upon accepting direct navigation to the Mexican ports of the Pacific, ridding themselves, in consequence, of the serious inconvenience of the present navigation to the North American ports.

The steamers which at present sail from the ports of Nagasaki, Yokohama, Hiogo, Hakaidadi, in Japan, and those of Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Canton, in China, would make in the naval trip a diagonal less inclined than that made by sailing from Sidney and Melbourne, in Australia, to San Francisco; but as the longitudinal difference of China and Japan is greater than that of Australia, it gives an increase of 2,000 miles, or eight days more, the whole trip from China and Japan to San Francisco being in consequence twenty-eight days.

Now, the Mexican ports of the Pacific having the advantage of seas, currents, and winds for the navigation from Australia as from the other nations I have mentioned, and there being besides a difference of more than 1,000 miles less of distance, the result would be, adding this to what we have demonstrated, that the voyage to Manzanillo or Acapulco would be only twenty-four astronomical days.

Having demonstrated the fact of the great advantages had by vessels sailing from the coasts of Australia, China, and Japan to the Mexican ports of the Pacific, compared with those going to San Francisco, Cal., we will also demonstrate those that would exist by land in favor of an interoceanic railroad traversing the territory of the Mexican Republic, as against that crossing the Rocky Mountains in the United States of America.

This admirable and long railway starts from parallel 37° 47' latitude north, and its length, which is 3,300 English miles, is comprehended between 122° 26' and 74° west of the meridian of Greenwich. It commences in the port of San Francisco, ascends the Sierra Nevada, descends to the immense plains near the mining districts of Austin, Eureka, White Pine, and others; passes through Ogden, in Utah, over the way to Salt Lake City, or of the Mormons, ascending the frozen summits of the Rocky Mountains, to cross afterwards the sandy deserts of Platte River to the new town of Omaha; it runs along the southern border of the State of Iowa, crosses that of Illinois, and continues, in a word, through those of Indiana, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, until it finally terminates in the port of New York.

Upon arriving at the top of the Rocky Mountains this road is in perpetual snow, and during eight months of the year, on its respective ascents and descents, there is an extension of more than 600 miles of surface covered with snow. This snow is, during all this long time, as much as 30 or 40 English feet deep, constituting a serious obstacle to regular traffic.

There have been cases of passengers consuming thirty-five days from San Francisco to New York.

It has been attempted to protect those crossing the mountains from the dangers of the avalanches by means of wooden roofs or snow-sheds, but the snowfalls in such abundance as to always make all efforts useless, as the rails of the road are covered, and there have been winters when it has been necessary to suspend traffic for several months. These inconveniences presented by nature, by its latitude and altitude, are always practically insurmountable during the greater part of the year.

Bearing in mind these difficulties encountered by the North American interoceanic line, in connection with those of the vessels going to San Francisco, we come to the conclusion that an international line commencing at one of the Mexican ports of the Pacific, and passing through the principal centers of population of the Mexican Republic, presents, on account of the geographical position of the country, great advantages to the commerce of Australia, China, and Japan with the United States and Europe.

The concession asked for the construction of a railroad in the State of Sonora, commencing at the port of Guaymas, passing through Hermosillo, and terminating at some point on the frontier of the north, will doubtless seek to go through the great opening or pass of Guadalupe, in the Sierra Madre or Tarahumara, in the State of Chihuahua, in order to unite with one of the railways of the American Union to reach New York. Thus a new interoceanic line of communication, not having the inconveniences of that already constructed in the United States, will be established, and which will have immense advantages for the future commerce of the world.

Mexico, upon permitting the construction of this road in question, which only passes through the territory of one distant State, which is coveted by our neighbors on account of being one of the richest of the country, we may properly say, would voluntarily renounce the advantages of the interoceanic route which has been initiated and which should pass through its principal towns, making its capital the center where great commercial transactions would be made; besides, it would, lose the abundant pecuniary products which should be afforded by the transit duty, which cannot be estimated at less than $30,000,000 per annum.

When, in 1870, the concession sought by the American citizen Rosecrans was discussed, he and his associates took pains to prevent the road from passing through the capital, on its way to a port of the gulf, sometimes by evasions and at other times by absolute refusals, because this would amount to nothing less than the said right of transit which they would have had to pay to the government of the republic; it being worthy of note that in all the expedients resorted to at that time, by those seeking the concession, may be seen an absolute decision to carry the line to the territory of the United States.

That solicited at present for the establishment of a railway in the State of Sonora, from the port of Guaymas to a point on the frontier of the north, has exactly the same tendencies and conceals similar interests and projects, even more than sought by Rosecrans.

Consequently the said concession is highly prejudicial to Mexico, because it would increase North American interests to the detriment of the prosperity of the republic.

Having demonstrated the great inconvenience in its economical aspects of the contract entered into by the department of public works with Messrs. David Ferguson and Robert R. Symon for the construction of a railway in Sonora, we will point out the danger it would doubtless bring to the autonomy of our territory.

The railway starts from parallel 27° 55' 42 latitude north, and will probably terminate at the point of intersection of parallel 31° 47' with the boundary line between Mexico and the United States, to connect with one of the different lines. The meridian which passes through Guaymas encountered parallel 31° 39' latitude north, at Bamon, from which it appears that the route of the railroad comprehends a zone of 3° 52', which gives an extension of 228 English miles. Its extent from the point of departure to the point of intersection with parallel 31° 47' latitude north is near 400 miles.

By the project of the contract it is at once seen that it is intended to pass through the richest lands of the States of Sonora and Chihuahua, probably to attract, by the discovery of the many metallic veins, American colonists, who are the least agreeable to the interests of the country in those States.

We know that in 1819 the Spanish Government permitted Moses Austin to found a colony in Texas, and upon Austin’s death his son Stephen formally commenced the colonization. This was succeeded on the 18th of August, 1824, by a law emanating from the republic by which the emigration of American citizens was permitted, the result being that in a short time our hospitality was repaid by the said colonists with treason and ingratitude, who proclaimed the annexation of Texas to the United States. Mexico could not support such an offense, and in order to defend her rights, her honor, and outraged dignity she plunged into a fatal war, which brought upon her the saddest and most unfortunate results, losing the greater part of her territory.

The bloody pages of our modern history will recall to us with bitterness that unjustifiable usurpation on the part of the United States, and this will always be a severe lesson, which will teach us to know with exactness the masked and concealed intentions entertained toward-us by our neighbors of the North.

The concession asked contains in itself a fatal germ, and abounds in projects contrary to the autonomy of Mexico. In order to become convinced of this truth, it is sufficient to compare the elements of the humble Texas colonists with the very powerful ones of those who would come to Sonora and Chihuahua, who would from the beginning count upon the incalculable advantage of railway communication.

It is necessary to repeat that the annexation of the States of the republic would be inevitable, and Mexico would see floating on the territory which belongs to her the banner of the stars and stripes, and the repetition of the scenes which occurred at the time of the annexation of Texas. She would not only lose the States mentioned, but she would also have torn from her by force Sinaloa, Lower California, Durango, Coahuila, Nuevo Leon, and a large part of Tamaulipas.

This is, in the opinion of the undersigned, the future which awaits Mexico with the intended establishment of a railway passing through Sonora and Chihuahua. Nevertheless, the national government, in view of the arguments given, will, with its recognized enlightenment, dictate in this question the resolution considered most convenient.

GASPAR SANCHEZ OCHOA.

Mexico, November 1, 1877.

[Inclosure 2 in No. 1014.—Translation.]

report to congress.

[Extract from report of committee of public works, presented to the Chamber of Deputies May 13, 1879.]

* * * * * * *

It (the committee) studied the question with special attention before deciding to accept or modify the report of the former committee; it has asked data and particulars from the different departments of the government, and, in its opinion, the questions which should be particularly examined are those referring to the political convenience of granting the concession in question.

Two principal considerations have been adduced in opposition. The first refers to the fact that, by authorizing the construction of a railway between Guaymas and the northern frontier of the State of Sonora, the republic would voluntarily renounce the immense benefits which might at no distant day be offered by the construction of an interoceanic line across its territory and touching at its principal centers of population.

The second consists in the danger to the autonomy of the republic and to the integrity of the territory which might be caused by permitting the construction of the railway discussed, inasmuch as it would facilitate the means for effecting an armed invasion, and, besides, it would attract a dangerous colonization to distant States, which are weak at present, and only united to the federation by moral ties, which it would not be difficult to break.

As to the first of these reasons, the commitee does not give it serious importance, because it can never be successfully sustained that a line commencing at Guaymas can compete advantageously with one commencing at some port of the Pacific situated south of that and terminating in Tamaulipas or Vera Cruz, because our territory becomes narrower as we advance towards the south, and it is evident that the farther north a railway is built, the less is its competition in interoceanic traffic to be feared. The committee is not of the same opinion in regard to the second of the reasons mentioned. If it can be denied that there is danger in giving vigor to the distant States before those of the center, it cannot be considered just to deprive indefinitely those regions of the benefits of civilization and progress.

On the other hand, the inhabitants of our frontier States are eye witnesses to the development of the neighboring nation, and they do not see, nor can they see, with indifference the poverty and decadence in which they live, when they are only separated from prosperity and abundance by an imaginary line, which some look upon as the wall which shuts off material prosperity and intellectual progress.

The committee certainly does not think that these persons are in the right, but it understands that when such weighty reasons can be presented on both sides, an error, a mistake, might have sad consequences. For this reason it does not venture to solve such a delicate problem, which is one that the chamber should consider in all its seriousness and decide with its recognized patriotism.

* * * * * * *

[Inclosure 3 in No. 1014.—Translation.]

Opinion of the press.

[From the Monitor Republicano, July 24, 1879.]

the sonora railway,

The printed report has been circulated which General Gaspar Sanchez Ochoa presents to the secretary of war, as the chief of the department of engineers, upon the project presented to the department of public works by the English subjects David Ferguson and Robert B. Symon for the establishment of a railway in the State of Sonora, which, commencing at Guaymas, should terminate at some point on the northern frontier of that State or of that of Chihuahua.

General Sanchez Ochoa thinks the utility of the road for military service merits very little consideration; he then examines the project, and concludes by saying that the concession asked contains in itself a fatal germ and abounds in projects contrary to the autonomy of Mexico, and that the annexation of Chihuahua and Sonora to the United States would be inevitable.

We have not stopped to examine the concession and will not say whether it is good or bad, but in this particular we agree with General Sanchez Ochoa. For years past projects for a railroad uniting the principal cities of Sonora with some point on the American frontier have been presented, and we have always maintained that the construction of that road before the extremities of the republic are united to the center by the trunk line of the interoceanic route is dangerous, because otherwise it would give the result that the troops of the United States could invade our frontier cities without it being possible for the government of the capital to aid them. There is no country in the world where such an absurdity would be permitted.

This refers to the military phase. Commercially it would give the result of the traffic being carried on with the American cities and not with those of the center and from the coast of our republic.

[Inclosure 4 in No. 1014.—Translation.]

reply to ochoa’s report.

[Extract from a letter of Hon. Antonio Moreno, senator in the Mexican Congress from Sonora.]

* * * * * * *

When a country is as large as ours, and its means of connection so imperfect the distant States are necessarily badly attended to by the center, and the latter should allow them to employ all the resources at their command in order that they may enter upon the path of civilization and progress, which is the urgent necessity of our epoch. This it is that causes the, equilibrium between nations to be sustained, and which not being employed makes miserable the life of those who look on at the feast of civilization, possessed of a desperate inertia, which is the destructive characteristic of degenerate and abject races. Thus it is that our soil, so marvelously rich, contains a population so shamefully poor; hence it is that our consumption is so meager, our revenues so small, our government so weak, our productions so difficult, our political lifeless than impossible; thus it is that we exist in such a manner as causes us to represent in the eyes of the other nations the role of a sickly, decrepid man, by the side of a hale, robust one; thus it is that our right is measured, not with the rule of justice, but with the balance of force; thus it is that many of our States sink into ruin; thus that Sonora, once rich and fairly populated, is now poor, and sees her towns abandoned and her fields deserted; hence it is that tribes of Indians that are not strong can dominate in the most important districts of that state.

Considering the radical changes that a railroad would effect in Sonora; being convinced, as any one can be who will bear in mind the relation which must necessarily exist between the elements of vitality and their development; betweeen the past, the present, and the future; between the irregular and imperfect state of those settlements and the regular and perfect state to which they must be advanced by the spirit and the efforts of the present epoch—considering this, nobody of foresight, and who feels the beatings of an upright and just heart, will fail to agree that those people should not be chained down; that they should not be subjected to a forcible poverty, because they have a right to different treatment, and because exasperation will drive them nearer our neighbors than anything alleged by those who fear that the influence and the elements of the American Union may produce another mutilation of our territory. If Texas could have been united to Mexico by a railroad in 1836, Texas would belong to Mexico to-day, and not to the American Union.

The contrary happened; and this we owe, rather than to our want of foresight, to the want of a strong will on the part of our government to aid frankly the frontier States. Nobody changes nationality to assume a worse condition, and it is very dangerous to see just beyond a conventional line prosperity and wealth, and on this side destitution and poverty; on the other side of the line a people who move with life, under a government that omits nothing in order to give them everything in its power; on this side of the same line a poor, deceived people, who beseechingly turn their eyes toward a government that denies to them everything it can; that abandons them; that forgets them, in order to give its attention to the States of the center, which have greater power to shake a government.

Our government should remember that it was one of those States that in 1846 fired the first cannon at the American Army, at a distance of more than a hundred leagues from its capital, where it took its sons, armed at its own expense, to defend the autonomy of Mexico; they should recollect that when this capital had already been occupied by the invading forces the disinherited sons, of the frontier still fought on March 6, 1848, with the invaders; they should remember that those same frontiersmen conquered laurels for Mexico in Guaymas in 1850 by the purest patriotism; they should remember that in San Pedro those same frontiersmen gained one of the most beautiful victories of the unfortunate epoch of the intervention; and all this should be remembered so as not to place in doubt the patriotism of those people; in order not to believe our autonomy is in danger there, because American elements come to assist us to develop our wealth. Those people, enriched and progressing, will be the most powerful bulwark that can be opposed to any American invasion, whatever character it may have; but if those same people are sufficiently patriotic not to extend the hand and grasp the apple of good or evil presented to them by the increasing prosperity of our neighbors, they cannot see with indifference that she who should be for them a good mother is a distrustful and egotistical stepmother.

The government should fix its attention steadily on this. It should be remembered that only a short time ago the formation of the republic of the Sierra Madre was openly discussed; the President should remember that on his passage through Chihuahua, in one of the revolutions that has agitated Mexico, one of the prominent men, after having spontaneously praised that State, said: “Sir, what I regret is that we have not ten times more population than we have, in order to become an independent nation, and be the owners of the elements which are now taken from us by the federation, without our receiving any benefit from them he should remember that those States, and by different decrees, have assumed their own sovereignty, one of them having done it when it thought that the present administration wished to interfere with its politics in a way not agreeable to that State. It should be considered that those decrees, although this may not have been the intention of their authors, have tended to break in an abrupt manner the ties of union with the rest of the republic; and what will become of Mexico if the mutual aid of the federation for the States and that of the latter for the former should cease to exist, and one of our imprudent and unpatriotic intestine wars should shake more than any previous ones our social edifice? Who could insure that, the material interests binding the States to the center being nullified and the moral or patriotic interest in that union debilitated, we would come safely away from the field of Agramante to which we would he driven by a war, no longer of principles, for now these have been won, but of unworthy ambitions and disunion views, or, when best, purely personal, from those wars, the motto of which, concealed among the folds of the revolutionary banner, would be “Get out, so as to make room for me.”

It is absolutely necessary to pay attention to the first demands of the frontier States. Since, on account of circumstances it would be tedious to narrate here, the government cannot even do that which it is obliged to by our constitution, the greatest pains should be taken to prevent them from being hindered from doing what is done in the other States, which has frequently been done from the federal district to Vera Cruz. The aspirations of those federal entities, which are in keeping, shoulder to shoulder, so to speak, with those of the present epoch, must be satisfied; if we oppose ourselves to them, that torrent of civilization which causes to spring up, as if by enchantment, cities from deserts, will pass over us, and we will be crushed and forgotten beneath the ruins of the old, which will be razed in order to be built upon.

* * * * * * *

ANTONIO MORENO.