Ignacio Mariscal to H Morgan, June 16, 1882

Señor Mariscal to Mr. Morgan.

Mr. Minister: As soon as your excellency’s note of the 30th December last, which refers to the assassination of Thomas Gartrell and his wife in the neighborhood of Durango, I transmitted its contents to the governors of the States of Chihuahua and Durango; to the first that he might be able to ascertain the name and obtain a description of the servant whom Gartrell had taken in the city of Chihuahua so that he might at once give them to the second, and they were both requested to cause the arrest of the supposed assassin and to have him delivered over to the competent authority.

The governor of Chihuahua replied on the 29th of the same month that he had issued the necessary orders as requested, and that he would inform the governor of the State of Durango of the result of his efforts. All of which I have the honor to inform your excellency in reply to your first cited note, and to the one which you addressed to me on the 10th instant.

Before closing the present note, I consider it to be my duty to explain to your excellency that if your above cited notes have no other purpose than to recommend an investigation of the crime committed, in order that justice may be done, the government takes pleasure in having complied with your request; but if, as in other cases, your excellency’s official intention in the one in question is the omen of a reclamation, the government considers itself compelled, at once, through me, to declare to your excellency that it is not possible to accept your intervention, not only because there is nothing in the case to justify it, but because it does not appear on the register of matriculation in the department under my charge that Mr. Gartrell and his wife are citizens of the United States.

I renew to your excellency, &c.,