Mr. Seward to Mr. Corwin, April 6, 1861

Mr. Seward to Mr.
Corwin.

Sir: The actual condition of affairs in Mexico
is so imperfectly understood here that the President finds it very
difficult to give you particular and practical directions for the
regulation of your conduct during your mission.

Our latest information was, in substance, that the provisional government
of President Juarez, so long confined to the sea-coasts of the country,
had finally overthrown its adversaries and established itself at the
capital; that the opposing armies had been demoralized and dispersed,
and that there was no longer any armed resistance in the States; that an
election for president had been held, in conformity with the
constitution of 1857, and that the now provisional president had
probably secured a majority of the votes, although the result was as yet
not certainly known. The pleasure which these events have inspired is
unhappily diminished by rumors that the government is without sufficient
authority or hold on the public confidence to maintain order; that
robberies are of frequent occurrence on the high roads, and even that a
member of our late legation in the country has been murdered on his way
from the city of Mexico to Vera Cruz.

You will apply yourself at once, with energy and diligence, to
investigate the truth of this last-mentioned occurrence, which, if found
to have been accurately reported, will not only be regarded as a high
offence against the dignity and honor of the United States, but will
prove a severe shock to the sensibilities of the American people.

The President is unable to conceive that any satisfactory explanation of
a transaction so injurious to the character of Mexico can be made. He
will, however, wait for your report concerning it, though with the
deepest anxiety, before taking action upon the subject.

I find the archives here full of complaints against the Mexican
government for violations of contracts and spoliations and cruelties
practiced against American citizens. These complaints have been lodged
in this department, from time to time, during the long reign of civil
war in which the factions of Mexico have kept that country involved,
with a view to having them made the basis of demands for indemnity and
satisfaction whenever government should regain in that country
sufficient solidity to assume a character for responsibility. It is not
the President’s intention to send forward such claims at the present
moment. He willingly defers the performance of a duty which at any time
would seem ungracious, until the incoming administration in Mexico shall
have had time, if possible, to cement its authority and reduce the yet
disturbed elements of society to order and harmony. You will, however,
be expected, in some manner which will be marked with firmness as well
as liberality, to keep the government there in mind that such of these
claims as shall be found just will, in due time, be presented and urged
upon its consideration.

While now, as heretofore, it is a duty of this government to reason with
that of Mexico, and
deprecate a continuance of the chronic reign of disorder there, a crisis
has unhappily arrived, in which the performance of this duty is
embarrassed by the occurrence of civil commotions in our own country, by
which Mexico, in consequence of her proximity, is not unlikely to be
affected. The spirit of discontent seems, at last, to have crossed the
border, and to be engaged in an attempt to overthrow the authority of
this government in some parts of the country which adjoin the Mexican
republic. It is much to be feared that new embarrassments of the
relations of the two countries will happen when authority so long
prostrated on the Mexican side finds the power of the United States
temporarily suspended on this side of the frontier. Whatever evils shall
thus occur, it is much to be feared will be aggravated by the
intervention of the Indians, who have been heretofore with difficulty
restrained from violence, even while the federal authority has been
adequately maintained.

Both of the governments must address themselves to this new and annoying
condition of things, with common dispositions to mitigate its evils and
abridge its duration as much as possible.

The President does not expect that you will allude to the origin or
causes of our domestic difficulties in your intercourse with the
government of Mexico, although that government will rightfully as well
as reasonably ask what are his expectations of their course and their
end. On the contrary, the President will not suffer the representatives
of the United States to engage in any discussion of the merits of those
difficulties in the presence of foreign powers, much less to invoke even
their censure against those of our fellow-citizens who have arrayed
themselves in opposition to its authority.

But you are instructed to assure the government of Mexico that these
difficulties, having arisen out of no deep and permanent popular
discontent, either in regard to our system of government itself, or to
the exercise of its authority, and being attended by social evils which
are as ruinous as they are unnecessary, while no organic change that is
contemplated could possibly bring to any portion of the American people
any advantages of security, peace, prosperity, or happiness equal to
those which the federal Union so effectually guaranties, the President
confidently believes and expects that the people of the United States,
in the exercise of the wisdom that hitherto has never failed them, will
speedily and in a constitutional way adopt all necessary remedies for
the restoration of the public peace and the preservation of the federal
Union.

The success of this government in conducting affairs to that consummation
may depend in some small degree on the action of the government and
people of Mexico in this new emergency. The President could not fail to
see that Mexico, instead of being benefited by the prostration or the
obstruction of federal authority in this country, would be exposed by it
to new and fearful dangers. On the other hand, a condition of anarchy in
Mexico must necessarily operate as a seduction to those who are
conspiring against the integrity of the Union to seek strength and
aggrandizement for themselves by conquests in Mexico and other parts of
Spanish America. Thus, even the dullest observer is at last able to see
what was long ago distinctly seen by those who are endowed with any
considerable perspicacity, that peace, order, and constitutional
authority in each and all of the several republics of this continent are
not exclusively an interest of any one or more of them, but a common and
indispensable interest of them all.

This sentiment will serve as a key to open to you, in every case, the
purposes, wishes, and expectations of the President in regard to your
mission which, I hardly need to
say, he considers at this juncture perhaps the most interesting and
important one within the whole circle of our international
relations.

The President of the United States does not know, and he will not consent
to know, with prejudice or undue favor any political party, religious
class, or sectional interest in Mexico. He regrets that anything should
have occurred to disturb the peaceful and friendly relations of Mexico
with some of the foreign States lately represented at her capital. He
hopes most sincerely that those relations may be everywhere renewed and
re-invigorated, and that the independence and sovereignty of Mexico and
the government which her people seem at last to have accepted, after so
many conflicts, may be now universally acknowledged and respected.

Taking into view the actual condition and circumstances of Mexico, as
well as those of the United States, the President is fully satisfied
that the safety, welfare, and happiness of the latter would be more
effectually promoted if the former should retain its complete integrity
and independence, than they could be by any dismemberment of Mexico,
with a transfer or diminution of its sovereignty, even though thereby a
portion or the whole of the country or its sovereignty should be
transferred to the United States themselves. The President is moreover
well aware that the ability of the government and people of Mexico to
preserve and maintain the integrity and the sovereignty of the republic
might be very much impaired, under existing circumstances, by hostile or
unfriendly action on the part of the government or of the people of the
United States. If he needed any other incentive to practice justice and
equality towards Mexico, it would be found in the reflection that the
very contention and strife in our own country which at this moment
excite so much domestic disquietude and so much surprise throughout a
large part of the world, could probably never have happened if Mexico
had always been able to maintain with firmness real and unquestioned
sovereignty and independence. But if Mexico has heretofore been more
unfortunate in these respects than many other modern nations, there are
still circumstances in her case which justify a hope that her sad
experience may be now coming to an end. Mexico really has, or ought to
have, no enemies. The world is deeply interested in the development of
her agricultural, and especially her mineral and commercial, resources,
while it holds in high respect the simple virtues and heroism of her
people, and, above all, their inextinguishable love of civil
liberty.

The President, therefore, will use all proper influence to favor the
restoration of order and authority in Mexico, and, so far as it may be
in his power, he will prevent incursions and every other form of
aggression by citizens of the United States against Mexico. But he
enjoins you to employ your best efforts in convincing the government of
Mexico and even the people, if, with its approval, you can reach them,
that the surest guaranty of their safety against such aggressions is to
be found in a permanent restoration of the authority of that government.
If, on the other hand, it shall appear in the sequel that the Mexican
people are only now resting a brief season to recover their wasted
energies sufficiently to lacerate themselves with new domestic
conflicts, then it is to be feared that not only the government of the
United States but many other governments will find it impossible to
prevent a resort to that magnificent country of a class of persons,
unhappily too numerous everywhere, who are accustomed to suppose that
visionary schemes of public interest, aggrandizement, or reform will
justify even lawless invasion, and aggression.

In connexion with this point it is proper that you should be informed
that the Mexican government has,
through its representative here, recently complained of an apprehended
attempt at invasion of the State of Sonora by citizens of California,
acting, as is alleged, with the knowledge and consent of some of the
public authorities in that State. You will assure the Mexican government
that, due care being first taken to verify the facts thus presented,
effective means shall be adopted to put our neutrality laws into
activity.

The same representative has also expressed to the President an
apprehension that the removal of the federal troops from the Texan
border may be followed by outbreaks and violence there. There is,
perhaps, too much ground for this apprehension. Moreover, it is
impossible to forsee the course of the attempts which are taking place
in that region to subvert the proper authority of this government. The
President, however, meantime directs you to assure the Mexican
government that due attention shall be bestowed on the condition of the
frontier, with a view to the preservation and safety of the peaceable
inhabitants residing there. He hopes and trusts that equal attention
will be given to this important subject by the authorities of
Mexico.

These matters, grave and urgent as they are, must not altogether withdraw
our attention from others to which I have already incidentally alluded,
but which require more explicit discussion.

For a few years past, the condition of Mexico has been so unsettled as to
raise the question on both sides of the Atlantic whether the time has
not come when some foreign power ought, in the general interest of
society, to intervene to establish a protectorate or some other form of
government in that country and guaranty its continuance there. Such
schemes may even now be held under consideration by some European
nations, and there is also some reason to believe that designs have been
conceived in some parts of the United States to effect either a partial
dismemberment or a complete overthrow of the Mexican government, with a
view to extend over it the authority of the newly projected confederacy,
which a discontented part of our people are attempting to establish in
the southern part of our own country You may possibly meet agents of
this projected confederacy, busy in preparing some further revolution in
Mexico. You will not fail to assure the government of Mexico that the
President neither has, nor can ever have, any sympathy with such
designs, in whatever quarter they may arise or whatever character they
may take on.

In view of the prevailing temper and political habits and opinions of the
Mexican people, the President can scarcely believe that the disaffected
citizens of our own country, who are now attempting a dismemberment of
the American Union, will hope to induce Mexico to aid them by
recognizing the assumed independence which they have proclaimed, because
it seems manifest to him that such an organization of a distinct
government over that part of the present Union which adjoins Mexico
would, if possible, be fraught with evils to that country more
intolerable than any which the succees of those desperate measures could
inflict even upon the United States. At the same time it is manifest
that the existing political organization in this country affords the
surest guaranty Mexico can have that her integrity, union, and
independence will be respected by the whole people of the American
Union.

The President, however, expects that you will be watchful of such designs
as I have thus described, however improbable they may seem, and that you
will use the most effective measures in your power to counteract any
recognition of the projected Confederate States by the Mexican
government, if it shall be solicited.

Your large acquaintance with the character of the Mexican people, their
interests and their policy, will suggest many proper arguments against
such a measure, if any are needful beyond the intimations I have already
given.

In conclusion, the President, as you are well aware, is of opinion that,
alienated from the United States as the Spanish American republics have
been for some time past—largely, perhaps, by reason of errors and
prejudices peculiar to themselves, and yet not altogether without fault
on our own part—that those States and the United States nevertheless, in
some respects, hold a common attitude and relation towards all other
nations; that it is the interest of them all to be friends as they are
neighbors, and to mutually maintain and support each other so far as may
be consistent with the individual sovereignty which each of them rightly
enjoys, equally against all disintegrating agencies within and all
foreign influences or power without their borders.

The President never for a moment doubts that the republican system is to
pass safely through all ordeals and prove a permanent success in our own
country, and so to be commended to adoption by all other nations. But he
thinks also that that system everywhere has to make its way painfully
through difficulties and embarrassments, which result from the action
antagonistical elements which are a legacy of former times and very
erent institutions. The President is hopeful of the ultimate triumph of
this system over all obstacles, as well in regard to Mexico as in regard
to every other American State; but he feels that those States are
nevertheless justly entitled to a greater forbearance and more generous
sympathies from the government and people of the United States than they
are likely to receive in any other quarter.

The President trusts that your mission, manifesting these sentiments,
will reassure the government of Mexico of his best disposition to favor
their commerce and their internal improvements. He hopes, indeed, that
your mission, assuming a spirit more elevated than one of merely
commerce and conventional amity, a spirit disinterested and unambitious,
earnestly American in the continental sense of the word, and fraternal
in no affected or mere diplomatic meaning of the term, while it shall
secure the confidence and good will of the government of Mexico, will
mark the inauguration of a new condition of things directly conducive to
the prosperity and happiness of both nations, and ultimately auspicious
to all other republican States throughout the world.

I am, sir, your obedient servant,