MARCUS OTTERBOURG, United States Consul to General Porfirio Diaz, Chief of the Army of Operations of the East, Tacubaya, May 30, 1867

Mr. Otterbourg to General Diaz

Your Excellency: Having been officially notified that the minister of Prussia and the counsel of the Archduke Maximilian, whom the constitutional government designs to try by court-martial on the point of sitting at Queretaro, are about to leave this capital, I believe it to be my duty as a republican, of whom a letter has been solicited for the purpose, to recommend Father Fischer, that your excellency grant him a safe conduct to accompany the gentlemen aforesaid to Queretaro as a witness indispensable to the defence; a request I feel more emboldened to make, since, always alive to the interest and honor of the great republican party, I should regret deeply that its enemies could accuse it of having acted with passion or partiality, which would undoubtedly be the case were the presence of a constant and ocular witness of his conduct be unfortunately denied to the accused.

With assurances of the most distinguished consideration,