Lord Lyons to Earl Russell - (Received January 7, 1862) Washington, December 21, 1861 My Lord, In my despatch of the 10th September last, I informed your Lordship that instructions had been sent to Mr. Corwin, the United States Minister in Mexico, to conclude a Convention with the Mexican Government, in virtue of which the United States should assume the obligation to pay the interest on the foreign debt of that country. Mr. Seward told me this morning that Mr. Corwin had not concluded the proposed Convention, but had sent, in lieu of it, a draft of a Convention, providing for the United States advancing to Mexico a very large sum to enable her to discharge her obligations to foreign creditors. Mr. Seward said that if Mr. Corwin had sent a Convention in the terms of his draft, already signed, the President would, no doubt, have recommended it to the Senate for ratification. Since, however, a draft only had been sent, it had been determined, in conformity with a plan occasionally adopted in important cases, to ask the Senate beforehand whether it advised the President to conclude a Treaty on the terms proposed. Mr. Seward proceeded to say that Mr. Corwin would, in all probability, have signed the Treaty at once, had he not been displeased by the rejection, by the Mexican Congress, of a "very proper" Treaty negotiated by Sir Charles Wyke. Mr. Corwin had, Mr. Seward said, given Sir Charles Wyke all the support in his power, and had declined to conclude his own Treaty when he found that the Treaty made by Sir Charles had been rejected. I told Mr. Seward that I had received a private letter from Sir Charles Wyke, speaking in the highest terms of Mr. Corwin. Mr. Seward observed that, as the Draft of the Treaty was before the Senate in Secret Session, it would not be right for him to acquaint me with the exact sum to be advanced by the United States, or with other details. I have reason to suppose that Mr. Corwin was instructed not to engage for the payment of money by the United States unless the Mexican Government should previously come to such an arrangement with Great Britain as should render it pretty certain that the money would not be paid in vain; that it would not fail to prevent the combined expedition, or at all events to prevent Great Britain taking part in it. Some of the details of Mr. Corwin's draft have transpired; or at any rate very confident assertions are made concerning them. It is stated that the sum to be advanced is in all 9,000,000 dollars; 500,000 dollars to be paid at the expiration of thirty days from the ratification of the Treaty, and a like sum at the expiration of each successive period of thirty days, until 5,000,000 have been advanced; the remaining 4,000,000 to be advanced in half-yearly payments of 2,000,000; the first to be made six months after the payment of the last sum of 500,000. As security the American Government is to have a mortgage on all the public lands, minerals, &c., of Lower California, Chihnahua and two other provinces bordering on the United States. A Commission composed of three Mexicans and two Americans is to assume the administration of the land, &c., thus mortgaged. It is understood, however, that Mr. Corwin will still be instructed to abstain from signing the Treaty, unless there be a reasonable prospect of it attaining the object the United States Government have in view; that of removing the combined fleets to a distance from the Gulf of Mexico and the coasts of this country. (signed) LYONS Back to Table of Contents: Booklet No. 8, Mexico 1861-67 Back to El Dorado List of Issues Back to Master Magazine List © Copyright 2000 by The South and Central Military Historians Society This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com