report, copy of which is inclosed, in which he calls attention to the valuable assistance rendered in the prosecution of his work by the Hon. J. W. Foster, United States minister to Mexico, and by General Mejia, the minister of war and marine of Mexico. The Department desires to express its appreciation of the services of these gentlemen, and requests that its thanks may be conveyed to them through the Department of State. Very respectfully, Hon. JOHN L. CADWALADER, WM. REYNOLDS, Acting Secretary of the Navy. Acting Secretary of State. [Inclosure in inclosure in No. 126.] Lieutenant-Commander Green to Mr. Robeson. UNITED STATES STEAMER FORTUNE, SIR: Having completed by your order the survey of the Mexican Gulf coast, I beg to call your attention to the very prompt and cordial manner in which every assistance was given me in the prosecution of the work by the United States minister at Mexico, Hon. J. W. Foster, and by General Mejia, minister of war and marine of the Mexican Republic. At every point on the Mexican coast where the Fortune touched the local authorities had received the most stringent orders to assist our work in every possible way, thereby contributing very materially to the successful completion of the survey. I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, Hon. GEORGE M. ROBESON, Secretary of the Navy. F. M. GREEN, Lieutenant-Commander, Commanding. No. 168.] No. 488. Mr. Foster to Mr. Fish. LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, Mexico, August 15, 1874. (Received August 27.) SIR: On the 30th of June last Hon. Ramon Uriarte, envoy extraor dinary and minister plenipotentiary of the republic of Guatemala, presented his credentials and was publicly received by the President of Mexico in this capital. Minister Uriarte is now engaged in conferences with the Mexican minister of foreign affairs, Hon. J. M. Lafragua, for the purpose of adjusting the question of the boundary-limits between the two republics, which has been a subject of dispute for some time past. Some unimportant disturbances have occurred on that frontier recently, but they have been occasioned by irresponsible adventurers, and are not likely to be the occasion of any serious trouble between the two governments. In consequence of the opening of a mine, called the Oro Blanco, by an American company, of Arizona Territory, near the boundary of the State of Sonora, Mexico, several months ago, a question arose as to the exact location of the boundary-line between the United States and Mexico, which at one time threatened a conflict between the opposing American and Mexican claimants. I am informed by the United States consul at Guaymas that the controversy has been satisfactorily settled; Governor Safford, of Arizona, and Governor Pesquieva, of Sonora, each having appointed a surveyor to trace the line, resulting in locating the Oro Blanco mine some two miles from the Sonora limits. The Pres. ident of Mexico, under a decree dated August 6, 1874, has established a frontier custom-house in Lower California, on the boundary-line of the United States, at a point called Tijuana. The legislature of the State of Guerrero, at its recent session, passed an act conferring upon the governor of said State the faculty of expelling from its territory, without the usual forms of a legal trial, such foreigners as he might consider "pernicious." The official journal of the government in this city has announced that the act of the legisla ture was in conflict with the federal constitution of Mexico, which confers the faculty of expelling "pernicious foreigners" exclusively upon the President of the republic; and it also states that the governor of Guerrero will not attempt to exercise the faculty, but, on the contrary, will ask the legislature, at its next session, to repeal its act. In my last resumé of current events I noticed the attitude of the London council of foreign bondholders in regard to the Mexican debt. The subject has attracted marked attention in this country, and the action of the English bondholders has been severely denounced by the Mexican press of all political parties. The country continues in the enjoyment of the state of peace which has been mentioned in previous dispatches. I am, &c., No. 489. JOHN W. FOSTER. No. 173.] Mr. Foster to Mr. Fish. LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, Mexico, August 22, 1874. (Received September 8.) SIR: In my dispatch No. 160, June 27, I communicated the intelligence of the murder of John W. Dunbar and Adolphus Straus, American citizens, at Mazatlan, in the month of May last. According to the facts furnished me by the consul at Mazatlan, the murders were of an aggravated and shocking character, and of such flagrant boldness as to call for the most active and vigorous measures of the local authorities. But the consul informs me that much indifference was manifested by the police and officials, and that, although a few arrests were made, as be anticipated, all have been released and the murderers are unpunished and at liberty. In view of the fact that so many murders and personal outrages of American citizens have been reported to me without, up to the present date, a single punishment by the courts, notwithstanding the earnest representations of this legation and the various consulates in this country, I felt that the two occurrences above stated required my prompt and decided remonstrance with the Mexican government. I accordingly, on the 11th instant, addressed Mr. Lafragua the note, of which I inclose herewith a copy, and to which I ask the attention of the Department of State. I have nothing new to report officially in regard to the murder of Mr. Alexander Saunders in the State of Nuevo Leon, and of Rev. John L Stevens at Ahualulco, in the State of Jalisco, both of which have been the subject of dispatches to the Department. Notwithstanding some of the murderers of these American citizens were arrested and placed upon trial under the summary law of 1869, which requires a speedy trial and execution within a brief period, and that eight and five and a half months have elapsed, I have not, as yet, been informed that any punishments have taken place. I have repeatedly, in personal interviews, directed Mr. Lafragua's attention to these cases, and especially in that of Rev. Mr. Stevens, expressed to him the interest manifested by yourself and by the public in the United States. In my last interview on the subject, on the 8th of July, I made inquiry as to the progress of the trials, and stated that, from the information furnished me as to the apparent indifference of the local authorities, I feared that no adequate punishment would be inflicted upon the murderers. Mr. Lafragua promised to communicate at once with the State authorities and advise me of the result. But up to this date I have no further information from him on the subject; neither have I, at the hour of closing this dispatch for the mail, received a reply to the inclosed note of the 11th instant. I am, &c., [Inclosure in No. 173.] Mr. Foster to Mr. Lafragua. JOHN W. FOSTER. LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, SIR: I beg leave to bring to your excellency's attention the fact, that under date of the 16th of May last, the consul of the United States at Mazatlan advised me of the murder of two American citizens at that place. He states, that on the 5th day of May of this present year, John W. Dunbar, an American citizen, resident in San Francisco, California, was seized in a street of Mazatlan, and confined in a house; and that on the morning of the next day his dead body was found on a vacant lot in the outskirts of the city, stabbed with knives, and robbed of all his money and valuables. The consul also informs me that on the 14th of the same month, Adolphus Straus, an American citizen, was kidnapped in the same city in open day, between 4 and 5 o'clock in the afternoon, taken to a vacant house in the heart of the city, robbed of jewelry and other valuables he had in his possession, amounting to about $3,000, and murdered, there being found upon his dead body fifteen wounds inflicted with knives or poniards. I did not bring these fearful murders to your excellency's attention at the time, as the consul advised me that he had made complaint to the local civil authorities; that he was urging them to vigorous measures for the arrest and punishment of the criminals; and that notwithstanding an apparent reluctance on the part of the police in the latter case, some arrests had been made, and the investigations were progressing. I deemed it best not to question in advance the zeal or disposition of the local authorities to administer strict and speedy punishment upon the perpetrators of these crimes against Mexican society as well as against American citizenship. But on the 16th of July last the consul informed me that his fears had been realized, and that the murderers of both Dunbar and Straus were all at liberty. During the short time that I have been in charge of this legation, I have been officially informed by the consuls of my Government, resident in different localities of the republic of Mexico, of the death of thirteen American citizens by violence and outrage, some of them murders of the most horrid character and revolting to our common civilization. In addition to these I have also received official intelligence of several brutal assaults and personal outrages upon American citizens, not resulting in loss of life. In some of these cases I have felt it my duty to bring the facts to the attention of your excellency's government, and in others direct information has been given by the consular representatives of the United States to the local authorities. But I am sorry to state that up to the present date I am not aware that there has been one single punishment inflicted for all this long list of murders and personal outrages. It is, therefore, with the most sincere regret, and under the most urgent conviction of the duty which I owe to the dignity and honor of my Government, and to the safety of the lives and persons of American residents and travelers in this country, that I earnestly remonstrate against the apparent indifference and negligence of the local authorities to punish crimes and injuries inflicted upon American citizens by Mexicans, and call upon the federal government of Mexico to use, in an effective manner, its influence and its authority to protect the lives of my countrymen, and to punish those who mur der and maltreat them. I do not lose sight of the turbulent state of society, which, in past years, has made it difficult for the federal government to exercise full authority to repress and punish crime. But, happily, during the administration of the present chief magistrate of Mexico, peace has prevailed, and the supremacy of the government has been and is acknowledged throughout the republic. So, also, the State and local governments, with few exceptions, are exercising uninterruptedly their functions, and the judiciary is everywhere installed with the full force of law, and its mandates respected and obeyed. Especially has this state of affairs existed in the localities where the murders of American citizens referred to have occurred. Such being the peaceful condition of the country, I am constrained to express to your excellency my conviction, in view of the fact that so many murders of American citizens have taken place in so short a time, without a single punishment, that the federal government of Mexico should adopt some effective measures to counteract the prejudices and hostility of the people and the indifference of the local authorities toward the rights and persons of American citizens which, unfortunately, is apparent in certain portions of the republic. I must at the same time express my appreciation, both of the marked consideration which your excellency has at all times shown to the representations which I have made in behalf of my countrymen, as well as of the desire expressed by your government to secure the punishment of the criminals who have outraged Mexican society and defied American citizenship. These friendly manifestations give assurance to my hope that vigorous and effective measures may be adopted to put an end to this grievous catalogue of crimes. I improve this occasion to reiterate to your excellency the high consideration and esteem with which I am, your obedient servant, JOHN W. FOSTER. No. 176.] No. 490. Mr. Foster to Mr. Fish. LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, Mexico, September 2, 1874. (Received September 17.) SIR: Referring to my dispatch No. 173, August 23, with which I inclosed a note addressed to the Mexican minister of foreign affairs on the subject of the murders of Messrs. Dunbar and Straus, American citizens, at Mazatlan, and the repeated murders of American citizens in this country without any punishment of the criminals, I now transmit the reply of Mr. Lafragua, received on the 25th ultimo. (Inclosure 1.) In his reply Mr. Lafragua states that he has received from the gov ernment of the State of Sinaloa an application for authority to expel from the republic, as a pernicious foreigner, one Le Count, suspected of complicity in the murder of Straus, upon which the President has deferred action until he should have further details of the case. He also incloses a copy of a report from the government of Jalisco as to the progress made in the trial of the assassins of Rev. John L. Stephens, which contains substantially the information transmitted to the Department of State more than four months ago in my dispatch No. 133. He further informs me that the supreme court has declared the proceedings thus far had in the trial of the murderers of Mr. Sanders, in Nuevo Leon, to be null and void, and has remanded the case for a new trial by another tribunal. He also states that the cases referred to, far from proving the local authorities negligent in prosecuting and punishing criminals, show that up to the present time they have fully complied with their duties. The government, desirous of carrying out the suggestions which I made to avoid these unfortunate events, and of again manifesting the good-will which it entertains for the United States, has addressed to the civil and judicial authorities of the federation and the States a most earnest injunction that in every case they prosecute and punish, with the vigor of the law, the perpetrators of crimes similar to those of which I have complained. On the 29th ultimo, in acknowledging the receipt of Mr. Lafragua's note, I stated that I could not accept the expulsion from the country of one vagabond foreigner as a due satisfaction for the murders of Dunbar and Straus, when the more numerous and influential criminals escaped unpunished. I thanked him for communicating the intelligence in relation to the trials of the assassins of Rev. Mr. Stephens, the receipt of which I had anxiously awaited, but expressed my disappointment in finding no mention of the proceedings had in the trial of the cura of Ahualulco, to whom the published accounts attributed the responsibility for the assassination, at the same time stating that I could not doubt the desire of his government to secure the complete punishment of the assassins of Mr. Stephens, in view of the expressed disposition to protect the lives of American citizens, and its obligation to indicate the freedom of religious worship, which in Stephens's murder had been outraged and defied. I also expressed regret at being informed, after the earnest efforts made to secure the punishment of the murderers of Mr. Sanders in Nuevo Leon, that all the proceedings thus far had been declared null. In answer to Mr. Lafragua's intimation that it would be desirable to have a detailed statement of the thirteen cases referred to in my note, in order that his government might ascertain the extent of the negligence and indifference of the local authorities, I have replied that it might be difficult to give such facts as would establish this, but that the bad statement that the lives of thirteen American citizens had been taken by violence, without as yet a single punishment therefor, was sufficient basis for the intimation in my note; but that the four cases referred to by him, and now pending, afforded an excellent opportunity for the government to test the zeal and impartiality of the local authorities to administer justice, uninfluenced by popular prejudice. In conclusion, I made proper acknowledgment for the action taken by the Mexican government, influenced by the suggestion in my note of the 11th instant, in enjoining upon the federal and State authorities a vigorous prosecution and punishment of criminals. I inclose a copy of my note. (Inclosure 2.) Notwithstanding Mr. Lafragua insists that in the cases discussed, the authorities have been duly diligent, the information furnished me from Monterey and Mazatlan leads me to fear that no punishments will follow the murders of Sanders, Dunbar, and Straus; and that in the case of Stephens, at Ahualulco, the influential and more prominent criminals will escape, as the cura and a number of persons tried before the same tribunal have been, according to the newspaper reports, acquitted, and if any are punished they will be the more obscure actors in the tragedy. I desire in this connection to call your attention to an announcement which appeared in the Diaño Oficial, the government official newspaper of this city, on the 29th ultimo, in which it is stated that the minister of foreign affairs has instructed the Mexican minister at Washington to take action in relation to certain occurrences in Texas, of which several Mexicans have been the victims, (inclosure 3.) I am, &c., JOHN W. FOSTER. |