Lewis D. Campbell to William H. Seward, December 31, 1866

Mr. Campbell to Mr. Seward

Sir: I regard it proper to inform you of the facts brought to my knowledge of a flagrant wrong lately perpetrated on an American citizen by the authorities of the Mexican republic. These should have been imparted sooner, but, in the constant movements to which this legation has been subject by the embarrassments which have surrounded it, some of the papers bearing upon the affair were misplaced.

On the 13th instant, after Lieutenant General Sherman and myself had returned from Matamoros—we were detained at Brazos Santiago by a storm, which had driven the Susquehanna and the Paul Jones to sea—a paper was presented to us asking our interference to prevent a threatened outrage to the owner of the American schooner Mary Bertrand, that had lately been wrecked on the Mexican coast near Bagdad. The facts of this case were subsequently presented to me in a more formal and reliable manner by the papers herewith enclosed, marked Nos. 1, 2, and 3, to which your special attention is called.

Not having opened any official communication with the government of President Juarez, it seemed proper that I should refer the matter to Mr. Marshall, our consul at Matamoros. Accordingly a telegram was sent to him by Lieutenant General Sherman and myself, copy of which is enclosed, marked No. 4.

Receiving reliable information at Brazos Santiago, on the 15th, that the specie referred to had been actually seized by a military force, and that General Escobedo, who had represented himself to Lieutenant General Sherman and myself as the representative of the government of the republic on that frontier, had refused to interpose his authority for the protection of the rights of our shipwrecked mariners, I started from Brazos Santiago for Matamoros on the 16th, and arrived at Brownsville at 11 o’clock that night, with the view of having his attention more particularly called to the subject. On the following morning, before I had time to cross the river to Matamoros, I received the note from General Escobedo, (copy and translation of which were enclosed in my despatch from this place of the 24th instant,) who had agreed to await my arrival, informing me he would be obliged to leave at once for Monterey.

I immediately despatched Mr. Plumb, the secretary of legation, to Matamoros, for the purpose, if possible, of seeing General Escobedo, and informally urging upon him the necessity of arranging the affair of the seized specie before his departure. On the arrival of Mr. Plumb, however, in Matamoros, at about 11 o’clock a. m., it was learned that General Escobedo had already left for the interior.

The enclosed papers, stating the case, were immediately brought before General Berriozabal, who had been left in command, by Mr. Marshall, and every possible effort used to procure the return of the specie to its owners, but without avail. The most that could be accomplished was an order from the judge that the money should be placed in our consul’s hands until the claimant should procure proof from Tampico that the specie had been properly cleared from that port, thus subjecting him to great inconvenience and expense, and depriving him of his rights for an indefinite period, if not to the entire loss of his property in the present revolutionary and turbulent condition of affairs at that point.

The sudden departure of General Escobedo, (when it was known to him I had just arrived,) in connection with the seizure of this specie, seemed to me somewhat mysterious, if not positively suspicious. This impression was strengthened by the fact that General Escobedo had agreed to wait, with his escort, for me, and had been fully apprised by both Lieutenant General Sherman and myself of the friendly disposition of our government.

Having then established no official relations with the government, I could not further interpose with regard to this affair; but it occurs to me, in view of the many complaints that are made by American citizens in that quarter, and especially in view of the alleged wrongs inflicted by the liberal authorities, as represented by Mr. Ulrich, the consul at Monterey, and others of that city, which were made the subject-matter of your dispatch No. 2, of October 2d last, that I should call your special attention to this case.

In presenting these facts to you, permit me respectfully to make the suggestion, that, from all I could learn, there is little disposition to respect our flag or the rights of our citizens in that region of Mexico.

Such acts seem to me to be flagrant aggressions upon the principles of international integrity and good will, if not positive violations of solemn treaty stipulations. At least they form some of the reasons why I do not feel disposed, until otherwise postively instructed by the department, to appear to obtrude hastily our “good offices” on that government, until its residence shall have been definitively established, and its authorities show, practically, some power and a greater disposition to enforce justice and to respect our flag.

I am, sir, very respectfully, your most obedient servant,