Maximilian in Mexico | Page 8

On July 25, having obtained no
satisfaction, they suspended all diplomatic relations with the Mexican
government.
Feeling ran high between Mexicans and foreigners. The speculators in
Mexican bonds, as well as more innocent sufferers, were loud in their
denunciations. The Swiss banker Jecker,* who had cleverly managed to
enlist the interest of powerful supporters at the court of Napoleon III,
and who had become naturalized in order to add weight to his claim to
French support, spared no pains in exciting the resentment of the
French with regard to this violation of its pledges by the Mexican
government.**
* The French claims against the Mexican government amounted to
50,000,000 francs. Jecker's interests suffered most by the decree of
President Juarez of July 17,1861. Under Miramon he had negotiated,
on behalf of the clerical party, the new issue of six-per-cent. bonds of
75,000,000 francs, destined to take up the old discredited government
bonds, twenty-five per cent. being paid in silver by the holders, and the
interest being guaranteed partly by the state, and partly by the house of
Jecker. The latter was to receive a commission of five per cent. upon

the transaction--3,750,000 francs. The profit to the government should
have been 15,000,000 francs, had not a clause been inserted enabling
Jecker to deduct his commission in advance, as well as half of the
interest for five years,--11,250,000 francs,--which, as we have seen,
was guaranteed by the state; so that, as a matter of fact, the government
received only 3,570,000 francs. When, in May, 1860, and without the
slightest warning, the house of Jecker failed, the interests of a large
number of Frenchmen whose funds were intrusted to it were
jeopardized; and as their only hope rested upon the profit to be derived
from the issue of the bonds referred to, the decree of January 1, 1861,
annulling the contract under which they had been issued, not only
ruined the house of Jecker beyond recovery, but deprived its creditors
of all remaining hope. Jecker then went to France. There he skilfully
managed to win over to his cause some personages influential at the
court of France. The Duc de Morny, whose speculative spirit was easily
seduced by the golden visions of large financial enterprises in a land
the wealth of which was alluringly held up to his cupidity, took him
under his powerful protection. There is little doubt that this was an
important factor in the Mexican imbroglio. It is interesting to know that
a just Nemesis overtook Jecker, whose unworthy intrigues had brought
about such incalculable mischief. He was shot by order of the
Commune in 1871. See Prince Bibesco, "Au Mexique: Combats et
Retraite des Six Mille" (Paris, 1887), p. 42.
** See "Revue des Deux Mondes," January, 1862, p. 766:
"L'intervention des puissances avait pour avoue d'exiger une protection
plus efficace pour les personnes et les proprietes de leurs sujets ainsi
que l'execution des obligations contractees envers elles par la
republique du Mexique."
Had France been sincere, the expedition might have seized a Mexican
port as a security for the payment of such obligations, instead of
spending ten times the amount of its claims in attempting to interfere
with the political affairs of the country under the flimsy pretext of
seeking to enforce payment thereof.
M. de Gabriac had been replaced by M. de Saligny, a creature of the
Duc de Morny, whose personal interest in the Jecker bonds was freely
discussed. The new minister arrived in June, 1861. His orders were to
enforce recognition of the validity of the Jecker bonds. Juarez and his

minister, Senor Lerdo de Tejada, peremptorily declined to
"acknowledge a contract entered upon with an illegal government."
There was no redress, if redress there must be, save in assuming a
belligerent attitude. M. de Saligny avowedly did his utmost to
aggravate the situation. Later, during the brief period of 1863-64, when
the intervention seemed to hold out false promises of success, he
boasted to a friend of mine that his great merit "was to have understood
the wishes of the Emperor, and to have precipitated events so as to
make the intervention a necessity."
This he accomplished, thanks to an incident insignificant in itself, but
which he duly magnified into an unbearable insult to the French nation.
On the night of August 14, 1861, a torch-light procession to celebrate
the news of a victory of the government troops under General Ortega
over Marquez halted before the French legation, and some voices
shouted: "Down with the French! Down with the French minister!" M.
de Saligny added that a shot had been fired at him from one of the
neighboring azoteas, and he produced a flattened bullet in evidence.
Although an investigation was immediately instituted, the result of
which was to show the lack of substance of