Mexico, and the Solidarity of Nations

Front matter

MEXICO, J ■ -A AND THE «) OLIDARIT" OF NATIONS. BY GENERAL G. CLUSERET. * NEW YORK: BLACKWELL, PRINTER, tfl hKO.^V^V ib MEXICO, AI-D THE SOLIDARITY OF NATIONS. BY GENERAL G. CLUSERET. NEW YORK: BI.ACKWELL, PRINTER, 171 BROADWAY. 1866. — ..,.,, ..,m, uui| Ml/IMW ,llllil.|ri Uj i UIMI.l inOslW M> 119111 VUU,l)l ivr tt t r n ■ ,lf AND THE -ilotq SOLIDARITY OF NATIONS. i CHAPTER t. THE FACTS i It wis on the 5th of January, 1862 that the first vessels of the united fleets of France, England aud Spain appeared upon the Mexi can coast. Spain had taken the first step. Its monarchial impatience could not wait, and in its desire to hurry events forward, probably also to profit by them, it had not shrunk from wounding the susceptibility of its allies by taking precedence. 1 Excuses and explanations, through diplomatic agency, calmed the two parties offended.

The Spanish landing corps numbered 7000 men at General Prim's orders, that of France, 2,500 men, under Admiral Jiivien de la Gra viere. As for England, she had furnished but 700 men. ■' The Fort of San Juan d' Ulloa was evacuated without being defend ed and with it the city of Vera Cruz fell into the hands of the allies. Here a series of negociations began, between the plenipotentiaries and the government of Juarez, which ended in the Convention of the Soledad, signed on the 19th of February, 1862. This convention, signed in the name of France, by Monsieur Du bois de Saligny and Admiral Jurien de la Graviere, contained these words : " Article 1. The constitutional government, which is now in power in the Mexican Republic, having informed the commissaries of the allied powers that it does not need the assistance offered with so much benevolence by them to the Mexican people, because that nation con tains within itself sufficient elements of strength to preserve itself from all internal revolt ; the allies will have recourse to treaties, to present all the reclamations that they are charged to make in the name of their respective nations.

"Article 2. With this view, the representatives of the allied powers protesting that they have no intention of injuring the sovereignty and intc<n_ty of the Mexican Republic, negociations will be opened at Orizaba, dec., dec. ,„,,., " Article ?> . Stipulates that the allied forces shall have the right to occupy the cities of Cordaba, Orizaba and Tehuacan, in order to be free from the deleterious influences of Vera Cruz and its environs." If we observe that, at this epoch, the expedition numbered in all ' ]~T MEXICO, AND T HE 10,000 men of whom 7,000 belonged to Spain, which had resolved to withdraw after a certain conversation between Monsieur Thouvenel and Monsieur Mon, in which the latter had declared that in no case would France lend her aid to establish a Mexican Throne in favor of a Prince of the house of Bourbon; that, out of the 3,000 remaining, France possessed only 2,500, and that the English were about to follow the example of Spain, it will be seCn what an immense interest Monsieur de Saligny had in deceiving the Mexican government by these preli minaries, in order to give time for the reinforcements to arrive and to save the 2,500 unfortunate French soldiers from the vomito and from Mexican bullets.

Chapter II Facts

(CONTINL -.!>). The proclamation which denounced the already violated treaty, bewail by a falsehood and ended by rhodomontade. It was published on the 16th of April, and dated from Orizaba. It began thus : " Mexicans ! we have not come here to interfere in your internal dissension," &c., &c. This was published when .the proscribed Mexican politicians were brouo-ht back in French wagons, protected by French bayonets on the same day, 16th of April, when Almonte, their chief, launched forth his proclamation, and spoke in the name of the Emperor of the French. It ended with these words: "The flag of France has been planted upon Mexican soil ; it will not recoil." This was but four years ago. and the French flag, so well planted, is already taken down by those who put it up. In spite of the violation of the treaty by the French plenipotentiaries.

General Larapoza did not wish to retort. He announced to General Lawrencez, who had just become the .ommander-in-chief of the French WE Xico; A N„ 4 ffi ' ' " 10 expedition, that his sick had nothing to fear, and could '•remain ir» the hospital, under the safeguard of Mexican loyalty " Aleajacta est ! the sword was drawn ; 11,000 men and 750 millions were about to pay for the visions of a Bonaparte, the Jecker credit, the inaptitude and covetousness of a Morny and a Saligny; touching example of the manner in which nations are administered when they confide the direction of their affairs to one man alone. Monsieur de Saligny had represented in his proclamation, as well as in his correspondence and private conversation, that the majority of the Mexican people wei'fe oppressed by the violent minority, who had placed Juarez in power.

To hear him, one would have supposed that it was sufficient to spread the flag of France upon the breeze of mon archial ..... liberty, to behold that oppressed majority flying for shelter beneath its glorious folds. General Lawrencez, newly landed. entirely ignorant of men and things in the country, listened to his speeches and believed them. His nature led him to do so. I was acquainted with General Lawrencez in the Crimea; he then commanded a company of Chasseurs de Vtiic'nnes; we formed part of the same brigade. I never saw a man so fastidious about discipline, so haughty and so little beloved by his soldiers. His regiment was the only corps in the brigade that came from France ; all the rest were composed of old troupes d' Afrique. bronzed and hardened, upon whom neither fatigue nor malady had any hold, but whose discipline was naturally somewhat freer.

He was so fearful that we would corrupt his troops that he forbade our soldiers to enter his camp. A fervent Catholic, and monarchist by descent, tall, dry and thin, narrow from head to foot, physically as well as morally ; as to the rest, honest, upright and brave; such was the man chosen to re-establish monarchy in Mexico. The wish being father to the thought, he believed what he was told, relied upon Mexican enthusiasm and upon streets strewn with flowers, and upon balconies where pretty hands were to be seen waving |white hand kerchiefs, and so directed himself towards Puebla. On the 5th, he came upon the monastery of Guadaloupe, transformed into a citadel, and was received with grape instead of flowers. A sad deception! But the trick was played ; a corner of the French flas* had eau_r.it upon a hitch in national honor : sold, blood, flaa;, everything was about to follow, and Saligny rubbed his hands, while General Lawrencez, indignant and deceived, published, upon the 27th of May, 1862, the following order of the day, the sad and dignified pro testation of an honest man conquered by surprise and made the dupe of intrigue : " Soldiers, iStc.)

Your march upon Mexico has been arrested by inaterial obstacles which you were far from expecting, after the information that had been given you ; it had been repeated to you a hundred times that the city of Puebla summoned you with every good wish, and that its population would hasten in your footsteps and ciown yon with flowers. "It was with the confidence inspired by these deceitful assurances that we presented ourselves before Puebla. This city was surrounded by barricades, and overlooked bv a fortress where means of defence had been accumulated." ' Tt is not only the powerless voice of an impotent general which soi.io a Risy ot n.t.osD, arises here to protest against the duplicity of " Napoleon's policy," but the smoking blood of the sons of France, sacrificed to put a few crowns in the pocket of a favorite, to overthrow the liberty and laws of a friendly country for the advantage of a troop of factious men', and to give the crown to an Austrian archduke; that blood will long cry out for vengeance to the ear of the French nation, to teach them that the surest means of saving their gold and their lives is to manage their affairs themselves.

The check at Puebla could not remain unavenged. General Forey was sent Mnth reinforcements to replace General Lawrencez, who was beaten, deceived, and removed from his command, lie embarked at Cherbourg on the 30th of July. The effective of the troops under his orders amounted to 20,000 men, and on the 15th of February, 1863, after having divided his army into three columns, he directed himself towards Puebla, which he attacked on the 18th of March, and captured on the 18th of May. On the 10th of June, he made his entrance into Mejcico. The first act of the military campaign was at an end ; the second act of the political campaign was about to begin. A year previous, the 3d of July 1862, Louis Napoleon, in reply to General Prim's letter, had addressed one tit General Forey, in which he unveiled his thoughts.

It is as follows : Fonta.nei.leau, July 3, 18b2. MvDeakGenei.a,.: v'Mwy J.UJ j L. ., ., , * peol)1 u 110tbe.wantmgwh0 will ask you why we are about to spend men and money to found a regular • lurt-rai'ih'nl in Mi. xigo; In the present state of the civilization of the world, the prosperity of America is not indifferent to Europe; for it is she -who feeds our facto ries and causes our commerce to live. It is to our interest. that the Re public of the United States should be powerful and prosperous, but we have no interest in her possessing the whole Gulf of Mexico, in her having dominion from there, over the Antilles, as well as South America, and being the only dispenser of the products of the New World. We now see, through sad experience, how precarious is the fate of a branch which is reduced to se .king its prime matter in a single market, ol which it endures all the vicissitudes.

If, ou the contrary, Mexico preserves its independence and maintains I he integrity of its territory, isa stable government is constituted there with the assistance of France, we shall have restored lo the Latin race upon the opposite side of the. sjCctn Us strength and its WCeslige: we shall have guaranteed their security to our colonies in the Antilles and to those of Spain ; we shall have established our beneficent iufluence in the centre of America; and this influence, by creating immense open ings to our commerce, will procure to us the matter indispensable to our industry. /-,.„, , , ,, . Mexico, thus regenerated, will always be favorable to us, not only through gratitude, but because its interests are in harmony with ours, and it will find a point d'ap/iui in its cordial relations with European ' ' V * ' powers. j , t iNAi'oi.EoN.

There lies the true and secret thought of the man who directs the MEXICO, AND THE ■destiny of France, and wishes to found a dynasty. It is against the United States and its form of government that the enterprise was planned. It is in the name of an interest, commercial to the French people, dynastic to their chief, that the French flag crossed the ocean. But do not let us forget, above all, this precious avowal ; it is im portant, and contaius the solution of the question. I shall return to it : ■"/. is __.., Amei-ica, who feeds our factories and causes our commerce to live." The political campaign opened by the re-union of a junta of note, completed by Almonte from among his friends and the partisans of the clergy. This junta, without consulting the people, who could not be consulted on the existing state of the country, decided that the arch duke, Maximilian, was the man designed by Providence to secure the happiness of the Mexicans, and resolved to send to Miramon a deputation charged with offering, definitely and officially, that crown which for more than a year had been dragged over the dust of the Europeau highways, sent from the Hapsburgs to the Coburgs, the Coburgs to the Hapsburgs, and which, since the taking of Vera Cruz, the French trooper had been carrying in his cartridge-box.

As Maximilian would only accept a crown purified by the people's sanction, a vote of the people was improvised for him without plebisci tum or legal authority, and on the 10th of April, 1804, in spite of Mr. Seward' s previsions, which affirm, in his letters to Mr. Corwin, "that if ever a thought of monarchial restoration in Mexico had been entertained in France, that thought had long been given up," the Mexican imperial throne was raised and constituted, pro tempore, by the acceptance of the archduke Maximilian, who embarked, four days after, at Miramon, for Vera Cruz. "It is not all to cause one's self to be proclaimed president or emperor of Mexico," said a celebrated Mexican general to me one day, " any one can succeed without any more trouble than Maximilian had ; the thing is to maintain one's self."

France and its protege were soon to perceive the truth of this asser tion From the seizure of Mexico was to date that war against au intangible enemy, constantly Deaten, annihilated, yet, like the phœnix, constantly arising from its own ashes. I have set forth the principal vicisitudes of this war in an article written for the Army and JSTavy Journal, 29th July, 1865. The taking of Mexico put the French army in possession of the ■central zone of Mexico, whose great axis extends from Vera Cruz to Mexico, passing by Puebla. All roads, radiating from the centre to the circumference start, in the northern region, from Mexico, and in the southern region from Vera Cruz. Juarez and his generals occupied the heads of these roads ; it was in order to disperse them that five columns immediately set themselves in motion.

Vera Cruz, Puebla, and Mexico were chosen as bases of operation. The first of these places was lest to the Mexicans, Imperialists, and negroes brought from Egypt ; the second was confided to Colonel Jeanningros, and the third to General Neiger. The most important columns directed themselves towards the north, one to the east, under General Douay's command, the other to the west under that of General Bazaine. The first of these geuerals made himself master of Queretaro, and the second of Morelia, then both effected a junction at Guanajoto. whenoe, reinforced by Mexican SOLIDARITY 0 V NATIONS. troops of Miramon, they continued their march towards San Luis de Potosi and Durango. It is unnecessary to follow these columns in all the details of a skir mishing war against an enemy whose troops were without organization, discipline, or energy, who fled' instead of fighting, who could not resist with success even when fighting ten against one.

There were excep tions ; but they were few. And the French General-in-Chief was not long in announcing that five provinces enjoyed perfect tranquility. Such was the situation on the 12th June, when the new Emperor made his entry into the capital. Nevertheless, in spite of tranquility being loudly proclaimed, the war continued, the French easily repeating their victories. At Guanajuato, on the 27th June, at Titacuaro, on the 2d July, they beat the Mexican patriots. On the 5th July, Commander Marshall embarked at Vera Cruz at the head of six hundred men, and landed at Alvarado on the morrow, for the purpose of attacking General Garcia, who had established himself in an entrenched camp in the Gorge of Conejo, and was protected by four little forts. On the same evening the camp, forts, baggage, munitions, etc., were all in Commander Marshall's power, and two days later he took the city of Tlacotolpan.

On the 1st August, Colonel Tourre forced the passage of Cantabria, and occupied Huajntla. On the 10th August, Porforio Diaz assumed the offensive in his turn, and attacked Colonel Giraud, but his patriotism was powerless against the French organization, and he retired, losing four cannon and seven hundred men. On the 9th August, Colonel Clinchant had beaten General Neri near Tourlot, and made General Echeverria prisoner. Meanwhile, Uraga had deserted the National cause, to subni't himself to the foreigner, and Vidaurri had betrayed his government. On the night of the 24th August, Cortinas arrived at Matarnoras, and Mejia, at the head of 4,000 men, after having made his junction with Colonel Du Pin's banditti, advanced to drive Cortinas thence. General Castaguy, at the same time, marched upon Monterey, the capital of Nuevo Leon, at the head of a very strong column.

He arrived there on the 20th August, took possession of the city without a combat, found fifty pieces of artillery there, and promulgated a decree of organization, in which we read a curious article that we quote. It needs scarcely any commentary. After having provided for all situa tions by the first article, the second adds that ' any person designated by the preceding article who refuses to fulfill the offices confided to him, will be immediately punished with six months' imprisonment, in con formity with the law.' On his side, General L. Heriller, commander of the subdivision of Zacdtecas, wrote to the political prefect of Durango: — ' Since, in despite of my efforts, the landholders will see nothing — understand nothing, the decrees which impose a fine of a thousand dollars upon the land holders who do not warn the authorities of the movements of the ene my are maintained in all their rigor.

All those who by any means whatever intimidate the population, or trammel the operations of the government, shall be under penalty of being brought before a court-martial, transported to Martinique, or sent to a locality where they will be under the eye of military authority, and subjected to the other penal ties set forth by the law.' MKXICO, AMD Tk(E These examples sufficiently explain what Maximilian means by saying he is indebted for his crown to the 'universal, free, and unanimous vote of the Mexicans,' and what Louis Napoleon, means by consulting them. Bis rept titia placent. What succeeded on the 2d December in France must succeed also in Mexico. And in order that nothing may be wanting in that organized terror which hangs over the people's vote, the hero of the cmipd' etat inscribes rape, theft, and pmrder upon the flag of France: and then, after creating that unprecedented body which Colonel Du Pin calls ' contra-guemllas,' and which honest men call banditti, he tells them, ' Go and make universal suffrage work out my purpose.' An officer of the French staff, in relating to us the horrors ■committed by those contra-guerrillas, said : ' I would rather fall into the hands of Juarez' guerillas than into those of the French contra-guerillas ; with the first, persons are often shot, with the last always.

Bestiality and ferocity with them are carried 'to their uttermost extent.' Their manner of proceeding reminds me of the Piedmontese gendarmes in Matesa in 1860, under Cialdini and Pinelli. A peasant had been denounced as an insuygent through persoqal revenge. His wife hastened to Cialdini, to whom she proved her husband's innocence He sent a telegraphic order to the Brigadier of the gendarmerie to set the peasant free; the wife was pouring forth her grateful thanks, when the Brigadier returned this laconic reply : ' Provisionally sliot.' The .Mexi cans are provisionally shot by the French contra-guerillas. As a consequence of this provisionary measure, defection from the lawful government and adhesion to that of the stranger increased, and there were 5,500,000 votes at least, according to Marshal Bazaine — who was called upon to initiate this strange mode of consulting popu lations — to do his work.

In spite of repeated victories and various success; in spite of the salutary terror inspired by the contra-guerillas, and the reiterated asser tions of the Moniteur Universal (an official paper of the French Empire) with regard to pacification, the safety of the roads, and the spontane ous adhesion of the population to this new regime, we read in the Mexican papers that a stage-coach was stopped at a league and a half from Mexico the day before ; that a day before that, it was stopped at two leagues distance. And the French engineers employed upon the Vera Cruz Railroad write : 'It is sad not to be able to go forty paces from the works without au escort, or running the risk of being shot.' On his side, Maximilian treated with the Trans-Atlantic Company for the transportation of seven thousand Austrians and several thousand Belarians, to protect him from the enthusiasm of his subiects.

It would be tedious — in resuming the recital of military events — to do more than briefly indicate the results attained. General Castagny having seized Monterey, his operations were now mainly directed against Juarez, who had concentrated in the state of Durango the troops of Negrete, Ortega, and Doblado. Success still rested with the French. The Mexicans were badly whipped by a greatly inferior force. Juarez fled with a few cavalrymen, Patoni was isolated from supports, and Ortega could not even retain his staff. Meantime, Mejia entered Matamoras without the inhabitants striking a blow. Cortinas submitted himself to the empire and publicly fraternized with Mejia. Canales O H 1} A K I T . O I; , A T _. ° N S • 15 alone refused to subiniu He cussed the Rio Grande with four hun dred men, and was disarmed by Colonel Ford.

Success always causes defection. Zuloga, the former president of Mexico, General La Gorza, the former governor of Tamaulipas, Gene ral Batadrc, Iturbide's former aid-de-camp, Vidaurri, the former governor of Nuevo Leon, and General Quiroga, his lieutenant, came to submit themselves to the new Emperor, upon whom all seemed to smile, and who, meanwhile, journeyed on amidst the acclamations, more or less sincere, of the population ; acclamations which, within the memory of man, have never been wanting to sovereigns on their journeys. In order to confirm this satisfactory aspect of the situation, the return to France of the 1st and 20th battalions of chasseuis a pied, was loudly proclaimed, aud that of the 90th of the line, as well as of six hundred men who had served their time, belonging to divers corps, and the companies of the Imperial Guard.

But in spite of this apparent success, it was not possible to leave the capital without a strong escort. The stage-coach, as before, was stopped within cannon shot of its gates. The minister-of-war, on the 10th September, promulgated a decree from Irapuato, which gave up all the robbers to French courts martial, in order, said the decree, to check th e frequency of their attacks ; and impotent efforts were made to put the Mexican Urban Guard in a condition to protect the inhabitants from the robbers. During the remaining months of the fall of 1864, and in January and February of 1805, the invaders pursued their military advantages. Colima, Mazatlan, Morelia, and Oajaca successively fell into the hands of the enemy. With Oajaca fell the last centre of resistance, organized by men more patriotic than skilful.

General Mangin immediately took the command of Oajaca, where he left Lieutenant-Colonel Carteret Trecourt at the head of a weak garrison. Juchitlan and Tehantepec did not long escape the unhappy fate of Oajaca. But, strangely enough at the moment when the struggle seemed to reach its end, and it appeared impossible for the exhausted patriots to keep it up, that courage which had failed them when they had the means of causing it to effect their victory, revived suddenly again ; they seemed at last to perceive the kind of combat which could alone bring them success. On the 11th April they annihilated the detachment of commander Tydgodt at To camboro, in Michoacan. This detachment of 250 men lost a dozen officers, among whom was the son of general Chazal, the minister-of war in Belgium. General Cortinas returned to that duty he should never have abandoned, and bore away with him, on his defection, 750 men, and threatened Matamoras.

In the north General Negrete bore down upon Salsilo, the capital of Coahuila, and upon Monterey, . capital of Nuevo Leon, and seized both places successively. This movement appears to have been serious enough to force Marshal Bazaine himself to direct his attention to San Luis. The imperialists did certainly take great revenge, at different times, for this partial defeat. Colonel De Potier dispersed the republicans, vanquishers of Commander Tydgodt, and two columns directed themselves towards the places captured by Negrete. On the 25th of March, the . expedition which was so long planned against Sonora, that golden lure whose deceitful mirage had been MEXICO, * N D THE disastrous to more than one adventures, before Louis Napoleon himself. began to be put into execution. A division of the Pacific squadron, camposed of the Lucifer, the Assas, the Cordeliere, and the Pallas, started from Mazatlan and landed Colonel Garnier's troops on the 29th at Guaymas, which troops entered the city without resistance.

The garrison, 1,100 men strong, disappeared and escaped in spite of all the attempts made by reconnoitering parties to discover it. At the same time, General Mangin penetrated into the Chiapas territory and seized Tobasco, the capital of the state bearing the same name. Juarez was in Chihuahua in communication with California. where, by the intervention of Racido Vega, he succeeded in negotiating for the purchase of 21,000 guns, two rifled batteries, and three millions of cartridges, which Mr. Seward thought it his duty to seize, at the request of Louis Napoleon's minister. It clearly results, from a general view of the whole situation, and from the report of the French Commander-in-Chief, in spite of his de sire to prove the contrary, that the situation had become less favorable than it was in the month of February; that the insurrection, like the wave which unceasingly effaces the track of the vessel, without, how ever, opposing its progress, had reunited behind the French army; that Monterey was no longer in the possession of the French, but in that of Negrete, who, according to the admission of Marshal Bazaine himself, effected his " retreat " in good order, as well as every other movement he saw fit to make.

Since these events, no important military action has broken the mo notony of the coming and going of imperial troops, who alternately occupy and quit the Northern provinces. The Mexican people under stand that against the French military organization there is no struggle possible, save through scattered forces, aided by time and space. They aim to strike terror to the hearts of the guilty, and not allow those who came from Europe to compliment crime, to return there bearing its thanks. Let them continue, to make war in this manner ; let them avoid all important engagements, and, like the gad fly, which ends by driving the bull mad and overcoming it, they will annihilate, little by little, the military colossus which they cannot attack in front, I need no better proof of this than Maximilian s insane proclamation against de fenceless prisoners, and their execution by Dupin, Marquez, Mendez and others, in contrast with the generosity of Juarez to the Belgian prisoners.

From terror to folly the step is short, and it is taken ; from folly to ruin the step is still less. There is no worse enemy than one whose presence is unceasingly felt, and who is, nevertheless, invisible. And now I leave it to a Frenchman, Monsieur Clement Duvernois. (who passed eight months in Mexico, upon a mission to Maximilian, in order to study the situation), to say what he thinks of the security es tablished by the Imperial government, and of the interest that French subjects, in whose name the intervention has taken place, may hope for in return. The following extract is from La Presse, a Paris paper. It is in reply to La France. Louis Napoleon's private organ, which is directed by Senator Lagnerouniere. SOI.fD'A'niVl OP NATIONS. 17 Let us examine the interest of the expatriated " We went to Mexico," says Li 'France, "to uphold the reclamations of our natives."

Let La France then tell us the present state of these reclamations ; let it tell us the total of the reclamations, of the reductions submitted to, and the sums now received. The amount of the reclamation will show that with a snfftll part of the expenses of the intervention there would have been enough to pay all the indemnifications, which justifies us in repeating that the sacrifices accomplished are not in proportion with the proposed end, if, as L% France persists in believing, the expedition had no other aim than the defence of reclamations. The reduction that these reclamations have been subjected to will still further diminish the importance of the result sought. As for the figure of the sums actually received, we are not acquainted with it. Let us speak of the security of persons after having spoken of their interests.

" The Mexican government," says La France, " has been reproached with the assassination of several Frenchmen by the bands in the country, or robbers in the streets of Mexico. La France mentions, in effect, eight Erenchn".n, as having been assassinated. This is doubtless deplorable, but what must be reasonably expected of a government '? It may be asked to guarantee to strangeis the same security that it grants to its own natives, neither more nor less. What security is possible in Mexico? Are there no more banditti in Mexico? Are there no more stage-coaches stopped, no had ' -ndax plundered, no men assassinated ? We read this horrible narrative but ' yesterday in the Opinion Ndlionale : "A very distressing fact will serve us as a proof among many isolated cases. A few days ago, as I have said, I was returning from Mexico to Vera- Cruz.