No. 173 contains certain extracts from Paris journals, and
translations in Paris journals from Vienna newspapers, sent to you
by Mr. Bigelow, United States minister in Paris. Such intelligence
as was accurate in those extracts has already been indicated by me
in advance from authentic sources in my despatches of January 8,
February 20, and February 27.
The permission of the so-called imperial government in Mexico to levy
troops to supply vacancies in the volunteer corps raised in this
empire in 1864 was accorded in the beginning of this year, and
mentioned in my despatch of 8th January. Of the signature of the
supplementary convention I have subsequently apprised you. The
statement that a line of steamers was to be started between Trieste
and Vera Cruz, to begin to ply on April 1, has, I believe, no
foundation in fact.
I have understood that Mr. Loosey, Austrian consul-general at New
York, has long had the project of starting a line of steamers
between Trieste and New York, and that latterly there had been some
hope of causing such steamers to stop at Vera Cruz, but I have
ascertained that the project has been for the present, at least,
abandoned.
I sent this information to Mr. Bigelow, in reply to his inquiry made
some five or six weeks ago.
The remainder of your No. 173 I shall have the honor to answer in
connexion with your Nos. 174 and 176, in a separate despatch, which
will go by the same post as does the present one.
Meantime I have the honor to remain, very respectfully, your obedient
servant,
Mr. Motley to Count Mensdorff
Legation of the United
States of America, Vienna,
May 6, 1866.
Your Excellency: It will be doubtless
within your recollection, that on the 7th of April I had the
honor to lay before you, for confidential perusal, a despatch of
my own to Mr. Seward, Secretary of State of the United
States.
This paper was in answer to a communication from the Secretary of
State, instructing me to make as earnest and emphatic protest as
was compatible with the profound respect entertained by the
United States for the imperial royal government against the
departure of any additional soldiers from Austria for
Mexico.
The language of the protest which I was thus instructed to make
was quoted at length in the despatch which I had the honor of
submitting to your perusal before sending it to Washington. In
returning that despatch, I understood your excellency to observe
that it contained a just and explicit statement of the position
of the Austrian government in regard to the affairs of Mexico,
and that you had no further observations to make upon it.
Since forwarding that paper to Washington, I have received
despatches of a grave nature from my government in regard to the
same subject.
[Page 841]
These despatches are not, of course, in answer to my
communication abov mentioned. For this, sufficient time has not
yet elapsed.
The instructions just received by me from Mr. Seward are in
answer to my statement to him, under date of 27th March last,
that the military supplementary convention between the Austrian
government and the government of Mexico, recognized here as the
legitimate one, had been signed on the 11th March, and that it
was expected that about one thousand volunteers would be shipped
very soon from Trieste to Vera Cruz, and at least as many more
in the autumn.
An imperative duty is now placed upon me of again most
respectfully calling your excellency’s attention to the general
and growing uneasiness throughout the United States on the
subject of foreign troops in Mexico. In so doing, I wish to use
the most courteous and becoming terms that are consistent with a
faithful execution of the task just committed to me by my
government.
Recognizing the right of one independent nation, for reasons
deemed sufficient by itself, to make war upon another
independent nation, and not feeling called upon to be a judge of
the quarrel between the belligerents, the United States have
scrupulously maintained neutrality in the war existing during
the past few years between the empire of France and the republic
of Mexico, with which power the United States government has not
ceased to maintain friendly relations.
This preservation of neutrality has been rendered the more
difficult in proportion to the growth of the conviction among
the people of the United States that the war begun by France for
the purpose of redressing grievances, and with a disclaimer of
all political intentions on the part of France, was continued,
as it were, indefinitely for the purpose of establishing and
perpetuating on the borders of our own territory a foreign
imperial government by means of European troops.
It is hoped that at last an arrangement has been effected by
which the French troops, heretofore preventing a free expression
of the national will in Mexico, are to be withdrawn.
The appearance of fresh troops arriving from Austria at exactly
this moment, therefore, would almost inevitably increase the
general excitement in the United States which the recent
understanding with the French government had begun to allay.
It would be thought erroneous, as such a supposition really is,
that the government of Austria was about to succeed that of
France in an armed and protective alliance with the new
government which it wishes to see established in Mexico.
A thousand volunteers, many of them, perhaps, veterans, having
served their time in the Austrian army, will be regarded as the
precursors of an indefinite number sufficient to supply the void
left by the retiring French forces, and to overawe for a period
of years the free action of the Mexican people in regard to
their form of government.
The United States government has from the beginning neither
acquiesced in nor intimated the possibility of a future
acquiescence in the substitution of an imperial foreign and
military government in the place of the national republic of
Mexico, unless it should satisfy itself that such was
unquestionably the will of the Mexican people.
That will, in the opinion of the United States government, can
never be manifested in the presence of foreign fleets and
armies. It has, therefore, during its very protracted diplomatic
correspondence with the French imperial government, been unable
to admit the validity of the revolution supposed to have been
effected in the government of Mexico chiefly by the means of
European forces.
In its last note addressed to the French government it expressed
itself as understanding the Emperor of the French to announce to
the United States his immediate purpose to bring to an end the
services of his armies in Mexico, to [Page 842] withdraw them, and in good faith to fall
back, without stipulation or condition on the part of the United
States, upon the principle of non-intervention, as to which he
is henceforth agreed with the United States.
The practice of the United States government, says the Secretary
of State, is from its beginning a guarantee to all nations of
the respect of the American people for the free sovereignty of
the people in every other state. It is the chief element of
foreign intercourse in our history.
Thus much of information I have thought it not superfluous to
give of the latest expression by the United States government to
that of France of its sentiments in regard to the affairs of
Mexico.
I am now instructed to say to the imperial royal government of
Austria, that, in the opinion of the United States, the time
seems to have arrived when the position of their government in
relation to Mexico should be frankly and distinctly made known
to the imperial government, and to all others whom it may
directly concern.
The United States, for reasons which seem to them to be just and
to have their foundation in the laws of nations, maintain that
the domestic republican government is the only legitimate one
existing in Mexico. They cannot, in view of the character of
their own political institutions, their proximity and intimate
relations towards Mexico, and their just influence in the
affairs of the American continent, consent to the subversion of
that government by foreign armies. Having urged upon the French
government their strong and, as they think, reasonable desire
for the withdrawal of the French troops engaged in that
objectionable invasion, it now becomes proper for the United
States to announce that they are no less opposed to military
intervention for political objects here-after in Mexico with the
sanction of the Austrian government than they are opposed to any
further intervention of the same character in that country by
France.
I am accordingly instructed to state that the United States
sincerely desire that Austria may find it just and expedient to
come upon the ground of non-intervention in Mexico which is
maintained by the United States, and to which they have invited
France. They could not but regard as a matter of serious concern
the despatch of any troops from Austria for Mexico while the
subject which I am thus directed to present to the Austrian
government remains under consideration.
I have now faithfully laid before your excellency, as briefly as
the importance of the subject would permit, the position of the
United States in regard to Mexico.
Until recently I have been instructed by my government to abstain
from formal political discussions here of the important events
occurring in that country. On repeated occasions, however, I
have felt it appropriate to express in courteous language,
without formality, but in all sincerity, the opinions of the
United States government and people as to the attempt to
establish a foreign and imperial government by means of European
military forces upon the ruins of an American republic.
Those opinions have been no secret to those with whom I have had
the honor of conversing, but it is only now that I am instructed
by my government to speak in its name, and with the whole weight
of whatever influence it may be thought to possess over the
general sentiment of the world. There has been no doubt, I
suppose, as to the almost unanimous opinion of the American
people on the subject.
From time to time it has been my duty to place before the
imperial royal government documents emanating from the cabinet
at Washington relating to the affairs of Mexico. The diplomatic
correspondence of the United States government with that of
France, from the beginning of the hostile expeditions [Page 843] against Mexico down to
a very recent period, has been regularly printed, and within the
reach of all who wish to read it.
Public sentiment in the United States as to intervention on the
part of European governments and soldiers for the purpose of
revolutionizing the polity, subverting the existing
institutions, and controlling the destiny of American republics,
has been manifested in every way in which it was possible to
make it known, by solemn resolutions of Congress, by the
utterances of great public meetings without distinction of
party, and by the general voice of the American press.
The feelings of the American people and its successive
governments, as exhibited through the whole of their national
career, and publicly manifested on many solemn occasions, in
regard to forcible and armed interference by European powers
with established institutions on the western continent, are,
whether they may be deemed reasonable or not, and whatever
weight may be attached to them by European opinion, a matter of
history and known to mankind.
Such interference was long ago proclaimed, on the highest
official authority, as of necessity to be considered a
manifestation of an unfriendly disposition towards the United
States. It is hardly expedient, therefore, on this occasion, to
consume more of your excellency’s time by the exposition of a
subject so familiar to you.
I beg your excellency to believe that the frankness and sincerity
with which I have thus set forth, in obedience to the
instructions of the President, the sentiments of the government
which I have the honor to represent at the court of his imperial
royal Majesty, are not incompatible with the most entire respect
for the imperial royal government and with the Austrian nation,
and with the warmest and most sincere desire for their
welfare.
In conclusion, I feel it my duty, in this most grave aspect of
affairs, to repeat the earnest hope that it may be found
expedient to postpone the departure of fresh troops from Austria
to Mexico until such answer to this communication as your
excellency may be pleased to make shall have been candidly and
deliberately considered by the United States government at
Washington.
Meantime I pray your excellency to accept the expression of the
highest consideration with which I have the honor to remain your
excellency’s very obedient servant,
His Excellency Count Mensdorff, Imperial Royal Minister of Foreign
Affairs, &c., &c.,
&c.
