Papers Relating to Foreign Affairs, Accompanying the Annual Message of the President to the First Session Thirty-ninth Congress
Mr. Romero to Mr. Seward
Mr. Secretary: In corroboration of the reports I have already made to your department, on various occasions, concerning the plans of the French agents in Mexico to induce the discontented citizens of the south of the United States, who participated in the late rebellion against their country, to emigrate to that republic, I now have the honor to transmit to you a copy of a printed circular, containing the prospectus of the so-called “American and Mexican Emigrant Company,” organized in St. Louis, State of Missouri, by virtue of a grant from the usurper, dated the 27th of April, 1865.
In this grant, to disguise appearances, it seems that general immigration is invited, while the prospectus plainly shows that it only relates to people from the south.
I embrace the opportunity to renew to you, Mr. Secretary, the assurances of my most distinguished consideration.
Hon. William H. Seward, &c., &c., &c.
[Enclosure.]
Prospectus of the American and Mexican Emigrant Company.
The American and Mexican Emigrant Company is acting under a decree issued to it by the emperor Maximilian, on the 27th of April, 1865, a translation of which, from the Spanish, we give below:
[Page 493]This company organized with the view of engaging in and developing the various enterprises of which Lexico is susceptible, and securing for Americans their natural and legitimate share of the profits and advantages arising therefrom.
The only practical way in which this can be effected is by a properly secured and organized system of American emigration.
The world has long been familiar with the inexhaustible mineral wealth, the rich agricultural resources, and the deligitful climate of Mexico, but this wealth and these resources have remained so long hidden under the cloud of civil commotion, and other local causes, that the enterprising mind has been turned to other and more laborious fields of operation, until this country seemed, for the time forgotten.
Circumstances have so compired of late to force them afresh upon the public mind, until to-day Mexico fills the eye and is the theme of the civilized world. Capital from England, France, Austria, Spain, and the whole of Europe, is now finding its way into the country, building her railroads, buying her rich lands, carrying off her spices and precious woods, and digging her gold and silver.
The time, in our opinion, has at last come for the full development of Mexico; the world needs it, and she is about to respond to its necessities. She is our neighbor—her wealth, her resources, her commerce, are at our very doors, and would naturally be contributory to our own; but if Americans will not cultivate friendly relations with her, and will not take part in the enterprises of the country, we can expect but little or no profit from them.
We have now our agents in Mexico, who will keep us promptly and correctly advised of the condition of the country in all its aspects, and who will select the best agricultural and mineral lands in large quantities in the best parts of the empire.
All that an emigrant may want to know before he abandons his old home for a new one will be communicated through this company, by its agents in Mexico.
The climate on the table-lands is unequalled for its healthy character, and there being no frost or winter in that country, the poor man is relieved from the drudgery of working half of the year to provide clothing and fuel for the balance.
The soil, in many parts of the country, is the richest and most productive in the world, yielding all that can be raised in the United States, and in many parts much more abundantly with the same amount of labor, besides many other crops that will not mature here.
The unchanging spring-like character of the climate enables the inhabitants to plant crops in any season of the year, and the most luxurious pastarage is afforded at all times, thus saving the great expense and labor of laying up supplies for stock, as in cold countries.
Two crops of corn can be raised annually, and cotton, on account of the long seasons, will produce from one to one and a half bale to the acre. Coffee will begin to bear in from two to three years from the plant, yielding, for many years thereafter, an immense profit, with but little care, and no expensive machinery to prepare it for the market.
The luxuriant yield of the cocoa enables the farmer to realize as much as a thousand dollars per acre; sugar-cane produces from three to four thousand pounds per acre; tobacco arrives at a maturity and richness of flavor but little inferior to the best Cuban leaf; while hemp, wheat, barley, rye, oats and other small grain are successfully raised.
Mahogany, iron-wood, India-rubber tree, cedar-wood, and vanilla are abundant, which, with logwood and cochineal, and other dyestuffs, added to immense supplies of prime hides and wool, will constitute very important items of Mexican commerce.
In alluding to these productions we do not wish to be understood as saying that all of them can be found in every part of the country, but that each section possesses its own agricultural characteristics, the history and details of which will be part of the province of this company to acquire and communicate through its agencies.
The mineral wealth of the country is so well and widely known, that it would seem superfluous to say more than merely to refer to them. The gold mines are equal to those of California, and the silver leads have proven their richness beyond doubt, while platina, quicksilver, precious stones, iron and coal, have been discovered in liberal quantities; and from experiments already made, no doubt exists that coal oil abounds to a profitable extent; in short, it would seem that nature had emptied her richest stores into the lap of that country, and it requires but the. provident and intelligent hand to develop her lavish gifts.
The company has already received offers of large grants of lands free of charge, but as we do not wish to be confined to any particular section of country by free grants, we are securing, and shall continue to purchase, large tracts in the most eligible localities, with particular reference to the wants and preference of the emigrant, which, whether from free grants or purchase, will be sold on such long time and divided payments that will, in the aggregate, amount to less than the annual taxes per acre in any other country.
These lands will be gotten in large quantities, at from 25 cents to $1 per acre; and will be resold in farms to the emigrant, at a less price than he could purchase for himself from the original proprietors, as there is no limit to the quantity which the company is allowed to purchase and improve.
A head of a family can go alone and locate his land, make his household arrangements, and, when he wants his family, he can, by communicating with our nearest agent in Mexico, have them brought to him by the company.
In order to obviate the difficulties and disappointments incident to a large emigration to a [Page 494] new country, lacking either information or material, the company will make known to its members, from time to time, as to what will be the best time and the best manner of going.
The company will see that houses suitable for the climate, &c., are erected for the emigrant at much cheaper rates than he can build for himself; and he can purchase his household effects, agricultural and mining implements, at designated and convenient localities, at prices shown him by schedule, before he leaves this country; and if he prefers to carry them with him, under the auspices of our company, he can do so free of duty.
The company’s arrangements with passenger packets will enable them to procure tickets at reduced rates to the Mexican ports, where (upon presentation of certificate of honorary membership) he will find our agent, speaking his own language, ready to render all necessary facilities to reach the place he may select.
The proximity of Mexico to this country, and the facilities of communication of all kinds, which this emigration will create, will cause the American to feel that he has not sundered all the ties that bind him to his friends, but that, in reality, the advantages of travel and correspondence will be in favor of his new home, when compared to the distant parts of his own country. He will there find whole communities of the same race and language springing up around him, building up a homogeneous family, where churches, schools, and other civilizing institutions will exist, as he has been accustomed to since his youth, all protected by the well-settled principles of law and order; or, indeed, he can provide for all these advantages, before leaving, by associating with people of his own country or neighborhood, and going together, after selecting their farms in the same tract, as facilities will be afforded for this object by the company at their principal offices at home.
The mode adopted by the company for obtaining information will enable it to furnish those who shall connect themselves by honorary membership, on the payment of a fee of $10, all the facts relative to the industrial pursuits, agricultural, mining and manufacturing, with the nature of the country, its water-power, timber and climate, in every locality; which information will be derived from actual observation by our agents in the empire, and which will be transmitted regularly, and fresh from that country; in short, by our system of agencies and centres of intelligence we will be able to give to the honorary member, upon any subject he may desire, all kinds of information within the scope of our operations; and all, this at an infinitely less cost than he could acquire by himself. This will obviate the expensive necessity of his travelling to, and over, a strange country, with a different language, where he would meet with vexatious annoyances in prosecuting his inquiries; and this fee for honorary membership is merely the basis of the fund upon which these agencies are established, and which fee is more than returned by the privileges it secures in the reduction of passage money, price of lands, and other general benefits.
These offices will be established at New York, St. Louis, Chicago, Charleston, New Orleans, Memphis, Galveston, Baltimore, Louisville, and all the principal cities of the Union, at which maps and plats of the country generally can be seen.
Honorary members will be furnished with information in reference to all lands in the empire of which we can get accurate accounts; they can go to Mexico under the auspices and benefits of this company, and be perfectly free to select any lands or occupation they may deem best after their arrival there; nor will our information be confined to lands alone, but to every branch of industrial life, so that our Mexican intelligence will be equally interesting to the merchant, the professional man, the manufacturer, the artisan, the miner, the contractor and the farmer, whether he desires to emigrate or to engage in these enterprises; and, after having aided the inquirer upon all points alluded to, we leave the matter entirely to his own self-interest or inclination to govern his future course.
This company will also make it their business to furnish correct and accurate information in regard to all lands which the government of Mexico may set apart for free grants to emigrants.
Printed circulars, containing an abstract of information received by the company from its agents in Mexico, will be sent to its local agent in each county where honorary members reside, at stated periods, (to be hereafter determined, as necessity may require,) and which will be open to perusal by honorary members.
Arrangements are being made with gentlemen of reliability in the southern States, who will be connected with this company, and whose names and offices will be announced in due time.
Members.—B. G. Caulfield, Chicago, Illinois; Wm. H. Russell, Lexington, Missouri; A. W. Arrington, Chicago, Illinois; R. O. Glover, New York; John Howe, St. Louis; James Rigney, Lexington, Missouri; John Scudder, Colorado Territory; Marshall O. Roberts, New York; Ed. P. Tesson, St. Louis; Charles P. Chouteau. St. Louis; Giovanni A. Bertolla, St. Louis; Gerard B. Allen, St. Louis; J. B. Wilcox, St. Louis; Charles S. Waller, Chicago, Illinois; Pierre A. Berthold, St. Louis; Daniel N. Carrington, New York; James Harrison, St. Louis; William H. Warder, Chicago, Illinois; B. P. Churchill, Cincinnati, Ohio; Lyttleton Cooke, Louisville, Kentucky.
Directors.—John Howe, D. N. Carrington, Gerard B. Allen, Hon. A. W. Arrington, Charles S. Waller, R. O. Glover, Charles P. Chouteau.
Officers.—James Harrison, president; Pierre A. Berthold, vice-president; Charles P. [Page 495] Chouteau, treasurer; Bernard G. Caulfield, attorney; George Frank Gouley, secretary, office No. 18 Washington avenue, St. Louis, Missouri.
Note.—Clubs of honorary members may be made up, and the fees can be remitted to the nearest authorized office, or sent by express, or to some reliable friend who will receive the certificates, and return them as receipts for the money.
The Decree.
MAXIMILIAN, EMPEROR OF MEXICO.
We grant to the American and Mexican Emigrant Company, represented by Bernard G. Caulfield, the concessions and exemptions which our secretary of internal affairs and improvements has advised us to make, so that said company may, by means of emigration, establish towns and agricultural communities, conformable to the laws of Mexico:
First. The American and Mexican Emigrant Company, represented by Bernard G. Caulfield, is authorized to acquire, for the purpose of emigration, any lands within the empire, be the same cultivated or not, which it may consider suited to the development of such mineral, agricultural, manufacturing, and industrial enterprises, as said company may see fit to establish. In developing the property which the company may buy or receive by grant from individuals, it will advise the government of its various enterprises within three months after they shall have been respectively entered into.
Second. Said company shall be exempt from the payment of the (five per cent.) tax attaching to all transfers of land in this empire on all property it may acquire, and the same privilege shall extend to emigrants who shall buy or acquire lands directly from the said company.
Third. Said company may introduce, free of duty, into the ports of this empire, all implements, machinery, houses and stock, which the necessity or convenience of emigrants may demand.
Fourth. Said company is authorized to build towns in such localities as it may select for that purpose, first advising the government, and obtaining recognition therefor.
Fifth. Said company is authorized to introduce emigrants into this empire from the United States, and also from Europe, and each resident of the empire, who shall make purchases of land from said company, or take part in its enterprises, shall have the same privileges as are hereby extended to emigrants: Provided, The purchase of land by each person shall not exceed one square kilometer.
Sixth. All contracts made with the emigrants, by or on behalf of said company, outside of the empire, and which are not repugnant to the laws thereof, shall be held, by the tribunals of the empire, of the same force as if made within the jurisdiction of the same.
Seventh. The government being now engaged in acquiring a knowledge of the lands of the empire, which are unsettled as to occupancy or title, is therefore not able at present to make a grant of lands to said company, but will do so as soon as the same can be conveniently done.
Eighth. The company will establish, in the capital of the empire, a general agency to superintend the development of its various enterprises, and to serve as a means of communication with this government.
Ninth. Said company shall be protected by the government in its operations, in order that it may accomplish the important ends it has in view.
Given at San Salvador, El Seco, the 27th of April, 1865.
MAXIMILIANO.
William H. Russell, general agent for New York and New England, office No. 17 Nassau street, New York.