No. 268.
Mr. Nelson to Mr. Fish.
Legation of
the United States,
Mexico, November 18,
1871. (Received December 26.)
No. 472.]
Sir: I herewith inclose copies and translations
of two important circulars that were issued by the minister of the
treasury, dated October
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20 and
October 30, for the purpose of preventing frauds upon the treasury on
the northern frontier, by the importation of goods without the payment
of the federal duties, and also to enforce the payment of duties when
foreign goods shall pass through the territory occupied by the
insurgents toward the interior. (A, B, C, and D.)
I am, &c.,
[Inclosure A.—Translation.—Circular.]
Secretary of State and Office of Treasury and
Public Credit—Section first.
Previous to the revolt in Monterey headed by Geronimo Treviño, the
executive had information that some merchants on the frontier,
accustomed to disorder and in the habit of committing frauds upon
the rights of the treasury, only sought for a pretext to promote
sedition and smuggling within its shadow. This pretext has been
given to them by the renewal of the federal executive power, and
there are well-founded reasons for believing that intrigues put in
play by these interested parties have contributed to the realization
of the movement in Monterey, on the 27th of last September.
The fact of the revolt is already realized, as is known, and its
consequences are to be expected, which, in turn, has been in part
the cause of them.
The extensive frontier of the Bravo, which though in ordinary times
offers facilities for committing fraud, has served, under the
present circumstances, for the introduction of a considerable amount
of foreign goods, which the guard is with difficulty able to watch,
flying from various points upon the appearance of the war which has
been initiated, some of the guard being reduced to prison at other
points, according to the data which this secretary has received. For
these reasons great care upon the part of the employes of the
frontier custom-houses and the officers of the treasury is
indispensable in order that they may prevent and rigidly suppress
attempts at smuggling, until the federal forces shall restore the
reign of law at the points where it has been ignored, in the mean
time abstaining from the sending forward of goods and merchandise,
as has been already provided by this department.
In order that you and the employe’s under you may redouble their
vigilance, I direct this circular to you, by the advice of the
President.
ROMERO.
Mexico, October 20,
1871.
[Inclosure B.—Translation.]
Office of the Secretary of the Treasury and
Public Credit.
The federal executive has declared, in different resolutions and
circulars, according to their attributions, and through their
obligations to enforce the laws, that no fiscal duties nor loans of
value paid to the insurgents may furnish the pretext for liberating
those having the cause from their pecuniary obligations toward the
legitimate authorities.
In consequence of this principle, the President has decreed to advise
the customhouses and-respective chiefs of the treasury department,
and that there should, be circulated for the knowledge of all the
public functionaries and of the inhabitants of the nation in
general, that the dispositions taken by the chief of the insurgent
forces in Nuevo Leon respecting commerce, frontier dues, and
cessation of custom-guards, being, as they are, null and of no legal
effect, all merchandise which enters through said frontier remains
subject to the payment of the general frontier dues now in force,
which duties the federal agents, either civil or military, may
demand whenever met with, if such merchandise passes the points
where the insurrectionists are to be found, and in any time
immediately after the re-establishment of the law, the constituted
authorities taking notice of fraud.
The President has also been pleased to decree, in order to avoid that
contraband should destroy legitimate commerce, that no cargo of
foreign goods shall pass from Nuevo Leon to the interior without
express permission given in writing by this secretary’s office,
which is to contain the circumstances respecting the proceeding,
payment of duties, and qualities of the goods, which shall be
communicated to the military chief of the respective line for his
knowledge, as also to the employé which this office may place in
commission to inspect the execution of that which has been
determined, in the conception that any introduction of goods that
may proceed from any point eccupied by the revolutionists, without
the requisites before pointed out, shall be considered
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fraudulent, applying to
it, in consequence, the punishments pointed out by the law in such
cases, and keeping especially in view the articles 63 and 64 of the
rules of the frontier custom-houses of the 4th of June, 1870.
ROMERO.
Mexico, October 30,
1871.
