No. 458.
Mr. Mariscal to Mr. Fish.
New York, March 29, 1875. (Received March 31.)
Mr. Secretary: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of the note which you were pleased to address me under date of the 18th instant, in reply to mine of the 9th, in relation to the murder of seven Mexican shepherds in Texas. In that reply the right of my government is recognized to consider as a denial of justice the neglect to take any steps for the apprehension of the perpetrators of these murders; it is added, however, that it does not appear where that neglect commenced, or who is responsible therefor.
I think it would be easy to demonstrate that the neglect commenced when the Texan authorities received information of the facts, which were published soon after the commission of the outrage, or perhaps as soon as they had knowledge that such an outrage was in contemplation, since there is ground, at least, for the suspicion that they had such knowledge, without doing anything in the matter, except that the coroner, after some delay, declared, through a jury, that those men had been hung on trees.
As to any reflections, however, that I might make on the subject, examining the circumstances of the occurrence, or the connection which the situation of Texan has with the case, I consider that they have already been made in my previous notes, and that I ought not to occupy your attention unnecessarily.
For these reasons, and since, as you are pleased to inform me, a copy of my letter on the subject is to be transmitted to the governor of Texas, calling his serious attention to the matter, I shall inform my government of this fact, and, shall await its instructions, without withdrawing the claim which I have had the honor to present to the Government of the United States in behalf of Lozano and the parties represented by him.
Before concluding, allow me to make an explanation which seems to me to be opportune. You are pleased to ask me to do you the justice to believe that you are the first to condemn the atrocities to which I [Page 982] allude, and to desire the punishment of their perpetrators, if they were really committed. I take pleasure in making the sincere declaration that I am most thoroughly convinced of this, for which reason I feel fully confident that the honorable Secretary of State, when the case shall have been made sufficiently clear to his mind, cannot fail to do justice to my government.
I avail myself, &c.