Señor Don M. Romero to William H. Seward, August 15, 1866

Señor Romero to Mr. Seward

Mr. Secretary: I have the honor to transmit to you, for the information of the government of the United States, extracts from papers of the city of Mexico, and French papers in New York, containing evident proof of the condition of affairs in the city of Mexico up to the end of July last.

Don Fernando Maximilian, the usurper, who organized a sham government when he reached Mexico, and tried to give it the semblance of a national institution, has finally been compelled to give up the difficult undertaking.

The so-called government, with a foreign prince for its head, kept up by French bayonets and French gold, whose officials are all foreigners, had a Mexican cabinet till recently, intended to keep up appearances and deceive those not qualified to judge of the real situation.

Now the usurper has laid aside all dissimulation, and removed the last trace of nationality from his ridiculous government by reducing his ministers to three— war, treasury, and interior. He has made General Osmont, General Bazaine’s chief of staff, minister of war; Mr. Friant, intendant general of the French expeditionary corps to Mexico, is minister of finance; and the minister of the interior is a Mexican traitor, who will soon be removed to give place to some other member of Bazaine’s staff.

After this it is impossible to call the government pretended to be established in Mexico by the French, and headed by Don Fernando Maximilian of Hapsburg, a national government.

The tyranny of the French intervention is now becoming really intolerable. Among the enclosed documents you will see some relating to the press; and you will perceive there is less liberty of the press in those parts of Mexico under the usurper than there is even in France. All the papers that dared to be independent have been suppressed, and none can now be established without express permission from the intruders. Papers that supported intervention are suppressed if they do not approve of every whim of the bogus government. Personal protection is but a shadow in the hands of the usurper. Under pretext of conspiracy, many citizens have been imprisoned, others condemned to severe punishment that will kill them, and all done without trial or permission of defence. The assassination of the Montenegro young men (see 7 and 8) in the State of Jalisco, only because they belonged to a liberal family, is one of the many cases occurring every day in places that have fallen into the invader’s hands and remain subject to the usurper’s will.

High taxes imposed to sustain the extravagance of the courtly adventurers threaten to ruin the scanty resources still left in the country.

The usurper has just given another unexampled inconsistency, that can hardly be believed; he has granted a pension to the widow of General Zaragoza, the conqueror of the French at Puebla, on the 5th of May, 1862. Thus, and with a view to show that he appreciates the Mexicans, he has tacitly acknowledged the merit of a general who died in defence of his country, fighting against the French, while he condemns those who acted differently. Now, if the Mexicans, fighting for the independence of their country, do not deserve to be considered as belligerents, as the French contend, how is it they honor the memory of one of that army by granting a military pension to his widow? If it was only meant as an act of mercy, without political meaning, giving aid to a needy family, why was it not given in some other way than as a military pension, which certainly acknowledges certain rights of the national army of Mexico, hitherto denied it by the French. They murder General Arteaga for doing his duty as a soldier in defence of his country, while they give a pension to the widow of another general who died in the same good cause.

It is really impossible to see any consistency or good faith in the accomplices of an intrigue engendered by the fraud, inordinate ambition, and other baser passions that move some men.

I embrace the occasion, Mr. Secretary, to renew the assurances of my most distinguished consideration.