General Diaz’s decree nullifying contracts of Lerdo government., the 26th of September, 1876

General Diaz’s decree nullifying contracts of Lerdo government.

[From the Diario Oficial, December 4, 1876.]

porfirio diaz, general-in-chief of the national constitutional army of the united mexican states, to its inhabitants:

Know ye that, in the exercise of the war powers with which the national will has invested me, I have thought proper to decree the following:

• Article 1. The contracts of lease of the mints of the republic are null, and without any force or effect, which Sebastian Lerdo de Tejada or his agents may have made, as shall also be other contracts which he may make in the future, whether they refer to these mints or to any other branch of the administration.
• Art. 2. The obligations shall likewise be null and of no value which the so-called government of Sebastian Lerdo may contract with the bondholders of the English debt in any negotiation which may be agreed upon with them or their agents, relative to the recognition of the said debt.
• Art. 3. Any contract which may result in any burden to the nation shall also be null and of no force.
• Art. 4. The signers of any of the contracts to which the preceding articles refer, and all the individuals who directly or indirectly participate in their celebration, shall be deprived of every right, shall be judged by military commissions and punished as traitors to the country, with the penalty which belongs to the crime, without prejudicing the civil responsibility which they may incur to the treasury or to the private individuals who may be damaged by reason of any contract with the said persons.
• Art. 5. The sales, mortgages, or agreements which the responsible parties referred to in this decree, and that of August 28 last, may pretend to make, in order to avoid the civil responsibility which they may incur, apparently disposing of the property which they possess, shall have no force or effect from the moment in which the military commission which may judge them imposes upon them any penalty.

Let it be printed, circulated, and communicated to whom it pertains for its most exact observance.