Foster to J. M. Lafragua, February 25, 1875

Mr. Foster to Mr. Lafragua.

Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your excellency’s note of the 23d instant, in which, having referred to my note of the 8th instant to the President of the Republic, you make reply thereto. The tenor of this reply leads me to fear that your excellency has misconceived the object of my said note. It was not my purpose to enter upon a defense of the Protestant worship in Mexico. I have not in my note of the 8th instant, nor in any other which this painful occurrence at Acapulco has made it necessary for me to address to your excellency, allowed myself to criticise the conduct of the government or make any demand in regard to this worship in so far as it relates to the Mexican people. While it is very natural that I, as the representative of a Government which has officially congratulated that of Mexico on the constitutional triumph and recognition of the principles of religious liberty, should watch with deep interest the practical enforcement of these principles, I have made the outbreaks of fanatical mobs the subject of diplomatic intervention only when American citizens have been assassinated.

The object of informing your excellency of the substance of the consul’s report was to bring to the attention of the Mexican government the name of the American citizen assassinated, and the circumstances attending and following his murder, in the hope that the facts stated might furnish your government with additional motives for enforcing strict and decisive measures against his murderers; as also to notify said government of the responsibility, under treaty-stipulations, to the dependent family of the deceased, on account of the failure of the local authorities to furnish him the protection guaranteed to American citizens.

I may, therefore, be excused at this time from further referring to the general religious aspects of the occurrence as noticed by your excellency. I however deem it proper to state that the reports of the consul at Acapulco have been made in compliance with specific instructions from this legation; that, being for many years a resident of that port, he is doubtless an intelligent observer of the events; and that his statements are made upon his official responsibility as an officer of the United States. They are, moreover, substantially confirmed by the reports made by the local authorities of the government, as your excellency was pleased to assure me in one of our recent interviews.

I am glad to be assured in your excellency’s note that the government has dictated extraordinary measures in the case in question, that the ends of justice may be fulfilled, and that the criminals may suffer a sufficiently exemplary punishment to prevent the repetition of similar deeds, and to satisfy the ends of public retribution. It would, however, have doubtless been gratifying to my Government to have been informed somewhat in detail as to the specific character of the extraordinary measures dictated, had your excellency felt justified in stating them; or, at least, to have been informed that some favorable results had followed these measures; especially so in view of the fact that up to the 16th instant not a single arrest had been made beyond the two wounded assailants found at the church, who have since died. It is true your excellency refers to the visit of the governor as one of the measures taken; but, so far as I have been informed, the only result of his visit was the public demonstrations of the criminals or their friends, and the presentation to him of the petition of a large number of the people demanding the removal of Protestant municipal officials and their banishment from the country. The consul reports to me that the judicial authorities acknowledged their inability to arrest or punish the criminals, or to afford protection to the Protestant residents in the continued “absence of a sufficient force of the federal army, as the State militia sympathise openly with the priest (the alleged instigator of the assault) and his party. As illustrating the condition of the community, the consul, under date of the 16th instant, states that the Protestants of Acapulco, fearing for their lives, applied to the district judge and authorities for protection; that they were told that it was impossible to protect them in the town, but that the fort, the only place of safety, was open to them; that they were advised to leave the town as quickly as possible; that they have accordingly scattered and hid from persecution, a number of them having taken refuge in San Francisco, United States; and that the town is now quiet and the excitement dying out, the hated objects of the fury of the people having been removed.

Notwithstanding this gloomy picture, in view of the assurance contained in your excellency’s note as to the measures adopted and the earnest determination of the government, I will rely upon the realization of its confidently expressed expectation to ferret out the criminals, and visit ample and severe judgment upon the murderers of the American citizen.

The fact, as stated by your excellency, that Henry Morris, the deceased, does not appear in the register of matriculation of the Mexican foreign office does not affect the case. He is certified to me by the consul at Acapulco as having been born in the city of Boston, State of Massachusetts, United States of America, and as being an American citizen. I will be reluctant to believe that his possible omission to attend to a formality of the foreign office will diminish the zeal of your excellency’s government to secure the punishment of his assassins; and it assuredly will not influence my Government in its determination to require a vindication of his citizenship.

I have the honor to ascribe myself, with high consideration, your excellency’s obedient servant,