FOREIGN RELATIONS,


   The action of the Executive i'n this matter caused much comment in
 the public press, and evoked a debate in Congress on the relative mer-
 its of American and European enterprisbs, and on the political policy of
 granting to any American company a concession to construct railroads
 in Mexico, and connect the railroad systems of the two republics. Hon.
 Ramon Guzman, chairman of the committee of industries, which re-
 ported the contract made by the Executive with the sostyled "Mexican
 company,"ý in advocating its adoption in the chamber of Congress,
 maintained that it was contrary to the political as well as commercial
 interests of Mexico to grant a concession for the construction of rail-
 roads in this republic, to an American company, asserting that it was
 much safer to intrust such construction to European management and
 capital. He also insisted that it was dangerous to the interests of
 Mexico to have the railroad system of the United States extended into
 Mexican territory, as it would be used to facilitate another invasion of
 this country, attributing to the United States-the same spirit of territo-
 rial aggrandizement and hostility which he alleged caused the war of
 1846-47. This speech (although I am informed materially modified) has
 been published in the official organ of the 'government, with favorable
 editorial comments, and, in view of Mr. Guzman s position in Congress
 and his reputed confidential relations with the administration, his dec-
 larations are considered as specially significant. I am     gratified, how-
 ever, to inform you that these sentiments were not permitted to remain
 unanswered in the chamber.      Hon. Estanislao CafIedo, a distinguished
 deputy, and a gentleman of intimate and personal acquaintance with
 American and European affairs, in an able and eloquent speech repelled
 the unfriendly assumptions of Mr. Guzman, and vin~dicated American
 iskill aand enterprise, as also the friendly spirit of the Government and
 people of the United states. l I inclose herewith an extract from     that
 ,portion of Mr. Cafledo's speech which treats of the political relations
of
 the two republics.
        I am, &c.,
                                                  JOHN W. FOSTER.


                             rInciosnre.-Translatlon. I
Extract from a speech delivered by Hon. Estanislao Caiedo, in the Mexican
Congress, on the
                   10th of January, 1874, on the railway question.

  As the opinions expressed upon our international policy by the chairman
of the corn
mnittee are liable to receive an interpretation which would obscnre the real
state of public
opinion, I will venture to insist further upon the character of our relations
with the
United States, acting in this-respect upon the line of conduct which I have
observed
in previous Congresses, whenever reference has been made to this point of
the highest
interest, for the frank and loyal harmony which ought to exist between two
sister
republics, doubly united by the community of political and commercial interests.
To
.judge of the present relations between Mexico and the United States by those
of 1847,
is to invoke an analogy which can exist only in the minds of those who do
not remem-
ber the laborious transformation which has taken place in both nations during
the past
thirty years.
  At the date to which the orator has gone back, I would have been as uncompromis-
  ing as he now is, and would have made every possible effort to remove my
country
from all contact with a nation whose government, not content with caressing
at home
that social plague called slavery, cherished the criminal design of extending
it to our
republic, and even to the whole of America. At that time the pro-slavery
element,
called democratic, was that which promoted conflicts with Mexico in order
to extend
its sphere of action, and to bear sway in our northern states, separated
from the Mexi-
can community by brute force. The object in view was not, as many suppose,
to obtain
a sterile increase of territory, but to incrust in the American federation
new pro-


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