No. 747.
Mr. Connery to Mr. Bayard.
Mexico, October 19, 1887. (Received October 29.)
Sir: In my No. 239, dated October 4 I brought to your attention the facts of the murder of Mr. Leon Baldwin, at or near a place called Ventanas, in the State of Durango. Since then I have noticed by some of the California papers that Congressman Morrow, of that State, has also presented the case to the State Department, and that you have answered him in a letter, promising to give it your earnest consideration when the facts are duly authenticated.
To-day I had what I should call an unofficial interview with Mr. Mariscal about the matter. I was careful to impress upon him that my call was entirely private, that I had received no instructions from [Page 1089] Washington about the case; therefore that any views I might express must not be given an official importance. I think it my duty to report substantially our conversation.
I opened the interview by remarking that the Baldwin assassination had created a great deal of excitement in the United States, and that the case appeared to be one well calculated to breed trouble. I asked him had he noticed the tone of the California press.
He answered “Yes;” adding that he had also noticed the proceedings of Congressman Morrow and others. Mr. Morrow, he said, appears to treat the matter merely as a politician, desirous of making a sensation and of profiting politically by stiring up American feeling against Mexico.
I observed that he made a mistake in taking that view of Mr. Morrow’s proceedings.
Mr. Mariscal asked then how was the charge to be explained that Baldwin had been murdered merely because he was an American. The real facts, said Mr. Mariscal, contradict that charge. He had caused a thorough investigation to be made, and the result showed that before the police or other authorities could act the people of the town or village nearest the scene of the murder had armed themselves with knives and other rude weapons, pursued the assassins, and, surprising them in the height of a drunken orgy, put four of their number to death on the spot, and wounded so badly the fifth that, though he escaped from the hands of the enraged populace, he died soon after.
“So that,” exclaimed Mr. Mariscal, “they have all—their number was five—been punished with death. What more can the Government do? If the cause of Baldwin’s murder was hatred merely of the Americans by the Mexicans, it is curious that the inhabitants of a Mexican town were first to take arms and avenge the assassination.”
I answered that that part of the tragedy had a favorable appearance, but that in the absence of instructions I could not express an opinion. I was very glad, however, I said, to learn that the Mexican Government had taken the initiative in investigating and prosecuting, instead of awaiting a demand from my Government. The energetic course adopted by the Mexican Government in the Nogales case had produced a most favorable impression in the United States, and the application of the same energy and promptness in this and other cases must bear good fruit. It was an easy, practical, common-sense way of avoiding irritating controversies.
Mr. Mariscal then said that, foreseeing that the Baldwin case might lead to some demand from my Government, he had prepared a thorough statement of the results of the investigation, which in a day or two he intended to send to the Mexican legation at Washington for such use as might be found advisable.
I told him then that he had anticipated the object of my unofficial interview with him by thus taking the initiative; that as a true, sincere friend of Mexico, I considered that course well calculated to smooth the way to easy settlement of all troublesome questions.
He thanked me, and added that his Government was always most anxious to adopt the mode best adapted to preserve the most amicable relations with the United States.
Again he alluded to Congressman Morrow’s connection with the case, saying that the expressions used by that gentleman were not the kind calculated to promote good feeling. In a vague sort of way he also referred to the talk in the press of a demand for indemnity, saying nothing, [Page 1090] however, to indicate how his Government would regard such a claim.
From all the above you will observe that, according to Mr. Mariscal’s statement, all the five assassins of Mr. Baldwin have been punished with death by the people, without waiting for their Government to give the signal. Whether the actual assassins were the only persons to blame in the case, whether the Federal as well as the State authorities of Durango were at fault in not heeding the alleged warning of threatened trouble, are points that I shall not attempt to discuss.
This, one suggestion I will take the liberty of making: If, as is foreshadowed by Congressman Morrow and the family of the murdered Baldwin, a demand for indemnity is to be made, the complainant should be prepared to prove by competent evidence that both the Federal and the Durango authorities had been warned and had neglected to take adequate measures to protect the lives and property of the Americans engaged in mining operations at Ventanas.
I am, etc.,