774
TRIUMPH OF THE CONSTITUTIONALISTS.
of December, 1859 — a treaty that underwent several amendments.[1] Its most objectionable clause, in the estimation of a large number of Mexicans, was that giving the United States the right of protecting their citizens and interests by force of arms, in certain events, within Mexican territory. This condition placed Mexico at the mercy of her sometimes overbearing sister. There was another clause, it is asserted, in which the Mexican government expressed its willingness to accept in a certain form the protectorate of the United States, should circumstances in the future render it necessary for Mexico to assume such an obligation.[2] Miramon's government protested
- ↑ It granted the U. S. or their citizens the right of transit ad perpetuam by three great highways across the Mexican republic, namely: 1. By railway or other means of communication across the isthmus of Tehuantepec from ocean to ocean; 2. By railway from some point on the Rio Grande across the states of Tamaulipas, Coahuila, and Nuevo Leon, Durango, and Sinaloa, to the port of Mazatlan on the Pacific; 3. By railway from the territory of Arizona across the state of Sonora to Guaymas in the gulf of California. It granted also, in connection with that right of transit, the following privileges: To establish warehouses at the termini of all those roads; to navigate the waters communicating with them; to transport effects and merchandise from Arizona or California, or more distant points, to other parts of the U. S. free of duty, through all and each of said routes, whatsoever might be their class or place of production or manufacture. Such goods might be warehoused, paying only cartage and storage, and no duties unless imported into Mexico for consumption. A large number of U. S. manufactures or productions might be imported into Mexico at the termini of the several transit routes on the basis of perfect reciprocity; the congress of the U. S. to determine whether the goods were to be admitted free of duty, or pay a fixed rate. Art. 8 gave the U. S. the right of conveying troops and military supplies across the republic of Mexico by the Sonora and Tehuantepec routes, as if they were Mexican troops, etc. Art. 9 authorized the U. S. to protect, by force of arms if necessary, all these transit routes, if Mexico failed to do so. Art 10. guaranteed freedom of religion and of worship to citizens of the U. S. in Mexico, whether in temples or private houses. Art. 11 declared that no forced loan should ever be levied on U. S. citizens. To compensate Mexico for the import duties she thus deprived herself of, the U. S. agreed to pay her four million dollars, of which sum two millions were to be retained to cover claims of U. S. citizens against Mexico. There was also a convention to enforce treaty stipulations, and to maintain order and security in the territory of the republics of Mexico and the U. S., stipulating that, in consideration of the disordered state of the frontier, the forces of the two republics might act in concert and coöperation to enforce the stipulations of their treaties, if the lives or property of the citizens of one of them were imperilled, and their government unable to protect them. Rivera, Gob. de Méx., ii. 599-600; Id., Hist. Jalapa, v. 239-40, 269-75; Diario de Avisos, Jan. 9, 1860; Zamacois, Hist. Méj., xv. 337-42, Domenech, Hist. du Méx., ii. 312-14.
- ↑ The treaty was deemed by the European press of serious import for Mexico if it ever went into operation. The London Times expressed the belief that the country would virtually become in a short time an appendage
