WITH MAXIMILIAN IN MEXICO
When Maury reached St. Thomas in the West Indies, about the middle of
May, 1865, he learned from the newspapers that the Confederacy had
completely collapsed, but he continued his voyage to Havana. From here
his son Matthew, Jr. was sent on home to Virginia; while Maury himself
waited to consider what was best for him to do—an old man now broken
in health and ruined in finances, separated from family and friends,
and without home or country.
Though he had saved practically nothing from the wreck of his financial
fortunes, caused by the war, yet his sterling honesty would not permit
him to sell the torpedo material and appropriate the money, to which
he then had as good a right as any other individual. His conduct of
the affairs of the Confederacy in England had been marked with this
same scrupulous honesty, in the expenditure of nearly $400,000. Before
leaving that country, all the vouchers for that sum were turned over
to Bulloch, correct to a figure, as attested by the following letter:
“Neither can I close this, perhaps my last letter on business matters,
without observing that although the custom here would have sanctioned
your receiving a large _per centum_ in the way of commission on
contracts, purchases, and disbursements made by me, yet you constantly
set your face against it and never to my certain knowledge received one
shilling”.
Maury came out of the war, with no money but with a clear conscience.
“I left”, he wrote his wife, “$30,000 or $40,000 worth of torpedoes,
telegraphic wire, etc. which I bought for the defense of Richmond.
Bulloch paid for them but they were left in Havana at the breakup,
subject to my orders. I write by this mail directing that they be
turned over to Bulloch. Now they don’t belong to him, neither do they
to me. But it is quite a relief to get rid of them by transferring them
to a man who I am sure will make the most proper use of them. I did not
want any of the $10,000 or $20,000 which they will bring, though some
one will get it who has no more right to it than I have”.
[Illustration:
MAURY HALL, UNITED STATES NAVAL ACADEMY, NAMED IN HONOR OF MAURY]
Now that Virginia had laid down her arms, Maury thought it proper
to write a formal surrender of his sword. He accordingly sent the
following letter to the officer in command of the United States naval
forces in the Gulf of Mexico: “In peace as in war I follow the fortunes
of my native old state (Virginia). I read in the public prints that she
has practically confessed defeat and laid down her arms. In that act
mine were grounded also. I am here without command, officially alone,
and am bound on matters of private concern abroad. Nevertheless, and
as I consider further resistance worse than useless, I deem it proper
formally so to confess, and to pledge you in the words of honor that,
should I find myself before the final inauguration of peace within
the jurisdiction of the United States, to consider myself a prisoner
of war, bound by the terms and conditions which have been or may be
granted to General Lee and his officers. Be pleased to send your
answer through my son (Colonel R. L. Maury), a prisoner of war on
parole in Richmond. In the meantime, and until I hear to the contrary,
I shall act as though my surrender had been formally accepted on the
above-named terms and conditions”.
The status of Confederate agents abroad, at the close of the war, was
a very precarious one. As Bulloch writes, “The civil as well as the
military and naval representatives of the Confederate States abroad
were excluded from ‘pardon’, under the so-called Amnesty Proclamations,
which were issued immediately after the war, and none of them could
have returned to the United States without the certainty of arrest,
imprisonment, or, under the most favorable circumstances, the
alternative of taking what has not been inaptly called the ‘iron-clad
oath’”.[20]
All of Maury’s friends were united in advising him not to return to
the United States until the feeling in the North should become less
hostile. “Do not come home”, wrote his daughter, “General Lee told me
the other day to tell you not to”. It was their opinion that his letter
of surrender would not place him under General Lee’s parole, because
of the association of his name with the fitting out of Confederate
privateers, and that he would be arrested immediately upon his arrival.
His brother-in-law, Dr. Brodie Herndon, wrote him a long letter, giving
him information concerning the family and the future of Virginia, and
advised him not to return for the present. “In view of the state of
the public mind in the North at present”, he wrote, “I think it would
be decidedly unsafe for you to return to this country. Your absence
abroad in a semi-diplomatic character, your prominence, and the earnest
part taken by you in the cause, would make you a decided object of
that ‘vengeance against leaders’ so openly proclaimed and so plainly
visible. In time, I hope, these vindictive feelings will subside, and
then, and only then, would it be safe and prudent for you to return”.
Before any of this advice could reach him, Maury made his decision as
to the course he thought would be best for him to pursue. This was to
go to Mexico and take service under Maximilian. Even before leaving
England, he had considered this as a possible eventuality, and had
written to his friend Jansen about the possibilities of a colonization
scheme in Mexico. Furthermore, this item in his diary, written while at
sea on his way to the West Indies, shows that the plan was then in his
mind: “Secession has failed, I fear, and noble old Virginia is about to
pass _sub jugum_, all owing to the President who, not being a statesman
himself or a judge of one to call statesmen around him, has sacrificed
our sons, our fortunes, and country. At least, so I fear. Where I am
bound events will determine. I follow the fortunes of Virginia. If she
succumbs, I shall expatriate myself, I think. Events alone will decide
my course. Hey ho!” Before his arrival in Cuba, he had made up his
mind. In a letter to Dr. Tremlett, written off San Domingo, he declared
that he expected to go to Mexico to arrange for emigration from
Virginia and other Southern states. “If Max. is wise”, he continued,
“and will encourage my plans I can assist mightily to make firm the
foundations of his dynasty.”
It was natural that Maury’s thoughts should have turned to Maximilian.
Before the war, he had sent to the Archduke, then Commander in Chief
of the Imperial Royal Austrian Marine, a complete set of his “Sailing
Directions”; and it was through Maximilian’s hands that the Austrian
gold medal of arts and sciences was conferred on him. Two years later
(June 6, 1860) he wrote Maury, enclosing the meteorological diary
which had been kept on board the _Elizabeth_ on a voyage to South
America. These marks of the Archduke’s favor, together with Maury’s
more recent correspondence concerning the possible coöperation of the
Southern Confederacy and the new Empire of Mexico, fully warranted
Maury’s confidence in believing that he might not do better at this
crisis in his affairs than to go to Mexico and serve under Maximilian.
By the first of May, 1865, Maury had reached Vera Cruz. From here he
went to Mexico City and wrote to General de la Peza, Minister of War,
offering to demonstrate his electric torpedoes to him confidentially.
Soon thereafter he offered his services to Maximilian, and was warmly
welcomed by the Emperor and the Empress Carlotta. He at once laid
before them his immigration scheme, which was very favorably received.
By the first of August, the Emperor had decided to try the plan, and
appointed Maury to the office of Imperial Commissioner of Colonization,
with a salary of $5000 a year. In addition to this, he was made on
September 23 the Director of the Astronomical Observatory.
None of Maury’s family was pleased with his going to Mexico, because of
the uncertainty of Maximilian’s throne, and would have preferred him to
return to England or even to go to Russia or Brazil. His friends were
of the same opinion. “The people of Virginia”, wrote Captain Jansen,
“have shown themselves to be as brave as any people ever have been;
but courage is coupled, in patriotism, with perseverance in suffering
until better times come for Virginia. All who love her for what she
has done ought to love her enough to suffer with her and for her
sake. If the best people who have made Virginia what she is desert
her at this critical moment, it would be like children leaving their
mother in distress. There is no virtue without sacrifice, and, if the
Virginians possess the virtue of patriotism, they ought to bring her
now the sacrifice of pride. Don’t emigrate! Stand by your country with
stern courage; learn the patience to bear without shame and with all
the dignity of self-command.... I don’t think you can now return to
Virginia; but in three or four years great changes will take place in
opinions, and you nor your family won’t find a country which would be
able to give you anything like her sympathy, or to take Virginia out of
your hearts and souls. You ought to go back to your dear state as soon
as you can do so safely; and if you had followed my advice you would
never have left England, but would have asked Madame Maury to join you
there. After a long journey and great inconveniences, perhaps suffering
in your health and mind, you’ll come back without gaining anything but
a sad experience”. A month later the same friend wrote, “As long as
Max. tries to make what is called a civilized government, his position
is unstable and I should not like you to stay there, how sweet and
pleasant it may be in the shade of an Emperor’s crown. But if he starts
on an Eastern policy and succeeds, you may run the chance as his prime
minister to become a prince of the empire, or to be hung or shot or
something worse”.
General Lee also advised Maury against his Mexican scheme. “We have
certainly not”, he declared, “found our form of government all that
was anticipated by its original founders; but this may be partly our
fault in expecting too much, and partly due to the absence of virtue
in the people. As long as virtue was dominant in the Republic, so
long was the happiness of the people secure. I cannot, however,
despair of it yet; I look forward to better days, and trust that time
and experience—the great teachers of men under the guidance of our
ever-merciful God—may save us from destruction, and restore to us the
bright hopes and prospects of the past. The thought of abandoning the
country, and all that must be left in it, is abhorrent to my feelings,
and I prefer to struggle for its restoration, and share its fate rather
than to give up all as lost. I have a great admiration for Mexico:
the salubrity of its climate, the fertility of its soil, and the
magnificence of its scenery, possess for me great charms; but I still
look with delight upon the mountains of my native state. To remove our
people to a portion of Mexico which would be favorable to them would
be a work of much difficulty. Did they possess the means, and could
the system of apprenticeship you suggest be established, the United
States government would, I think, certainly interfere; and, under the
circumstances, there would be difficulty in persuading the free men to
emigrate. Those citizens who can leave the country, and others who may
be compelled to do so, will reap the fruits of your considerate labors;
but I shall be very sorry if your presence will be lost to Virginia.
She has now sore need of all her sons, and can ill afford to lose you.
I am very much obliged to you for all you have done for us, and hope
your labors in the future may be as efficacious as in the past, and
that your separation from us may not be permanent. Wishing you every
prosperity and happiness, I am, Most truly yours, R. E. Lee”.
Unfortunately, this advice from his friends did not reach Maury until
after he had committed himself to the scheme. He was not the type of
man who might have sat with hands folded in Havana, waiting for some
one to offer him a position. Knowing that it would not be wise for him
to return to Virginia at that time, and feeling the responsibility of
having a family dependent upon him for support, he pursued the course
which seemed to him wisest under the circumstances. If he had been in
Virginia at the close of the war, and had been in immediate touch with
the situation there and known the attitude of the people toward their
future prospects, he would almost certainly have been in agreement with
the views of General Lee, and other friends and relatives.
Maury, accordingly went forward with his plan, the main features of
which are embodied in the following decree which Maximilian issued on
September 5, 1865: “We, Maximilian, Emperor of Mexico, in consideration
of the sparseness of the population in the Mexican territory, in
proportion to its extent, desiring to give to immigrants all possible
security for property and liberty and having heard the opinion of our
Board of Colonization, do decree as follows:
Article 1. Mexico is open to immigrants of all nations.
Article 2. Immigration agents shall be appointed, whose duty it will
be to protect the arrival of immigrants, install them on the lands
assigned them, and assist them in every possible way in establishing
themselves. These agents will receive the orders of the Imperial
Commissioner of Immigration, especially appointed by us, and to whom
all the communications relative to immigration shall be addressed.
Article 3. Each immigrant shall receive a duly executed title,
incommutable, of landed estate, and a certificate that it is free of
mortgage.
Article 4. Such property shall be free from taxes for the first year,
and also from duties on transfers of property, but only on the first
sale.
Article 5. The immigrants may be naturalized as soon as they shall have
established themselves as settlers.
Article 6. Immigrants who may desire to bring laborers with them, or
induce them to come in considerable numbers, of any race whatever, are
authorized to do so; but those laborers will be subject to special
protective regulations.
Article 7. The effects of immigrants, their working and brood animals,
seeds, agricultural implements, machines, and working tools, will enter
free of custom-house and transit duties.
Article 8. Immigrants are exempted from military service for five
years. But they will form a stationary militia for the purpose of
protecting their property and neighborhoods.
Article 9. Liberty in the exercise of their respective forms of
religious worship is secured to immigrants by the organic law of the
Empire.
Article 10. Each of our Ministers is charged with carrying out such
parts of this Decree as relate to his department”.
Maury prepared a memorandum to accompany the decree, a set of
regulations forty-two in number, and some general remarks on
the mineral wealth, climate, general geographical features, and
agricultural opportunities to be found in Mexico. The immigrants were
to be divided into two classes: Class A were those who had lost
all in the war, while Class B were those who were not in straitened
circumstances. The first class were to receive a free passage to
Mexico and fare at the rate of a _real_ a mile to certain lands of the
public domain which had not as yet been under cultivation, 160 acres
to be allotted to a single man and 320 to a man with a family “with
pre-emption right to as much more in each case”. The other class were
to buy lands from the government, which had been more or less under
cultivation, and also private haciendas, both at about one dollar per
acre.
That Maury enjoyed the utmost confidence and respect of the Emperor
and Empress is revealed in this letter referring to his treatment at
the palace of Chepultepec: “There were present the Empress, and one
of her ladies, four German naval officers, and a Mexican—all were
of his household, I believe. It was mail-day for Europe; the Emperor
had been busy at the palace writing, he told me, seventeen letters
for the steamer. I got there a moment before he did, so he went into
the sitting-room which joins the Empress’s chamber. He opened her
chamber-door and said, ‘Carlotta, here’s Mr. Maury’. She came out
immediately and commanded me to be seated, the Emperor and the other
gentlemen standing. Presently her lady-in-waiting came in; I rose, but
she touched me gently on the arm and said, ‘The Emperor wishes you
always to be seated’. The lady stood also. In a few minutes dinner was
announced. The Emperor led off, and we all followed in single file.
As I passed through the door, one of the aids—a baron—whispered in
my ear, ‘On the Emperor’s left’. The dinner—excepting the wines, the
number of servants, and the liveries—reminded me very much of those
Lucy Ellen (Mrs. Maury’s sister-in-law) used to give us in our summer
visits to Fredericksburg.
“After dinner—say three-quarters of an hour—we, the gentlemen, led
by the Emperor, went into the smoking-room. Gilt cigars were handed
round; the Emperor did not smoke. Here he drew an armchair up into the
corner, and seated me again, he and the others standing until their
cigars were nearly finished. Then he took a seat, and commanded the
others to be seated. Dispatches were handed him, some of which he
handed to me to look into. Presently he dismissed the gentlemen, and
said, ‘Mr. Maury, you have something to say to me?’ ‘Yes, sire; I can’t
manage immigration through the Ministers. I must transact business with
you directly, and not through them; nor must they have anything to do
with it’. ‘That’s what I intend’, said he”. A short time afterwards
colonization was placed entirely in Maury’s hands and unlimited power
to draw on the treasury was also intrusted to him; this indeed was a
mark of great confidence.
During the latter part of October, Maury’s son Richard with his
wife and young son came to Mexico to assist his father and also to
prepare himself to take over the work in his absence, for Maury was
then planning to make a visit to England to meet his wife and his
four younger children. Mrs. Maury had been unwilling to come to
Mexico,—indeed to leave Virginia at all; but she at last consented
to go to England where the children might enjoy better educational
advantages. Maury and his son worked along energetically on the
immigration project, but he had already begun to have his doubts as to
its success. This feeling of uncertainty was caused, not by the lack of
immigrants but by the unreadiness of the Mexican government. It was
not prepared to offer them lands on any terms, and many first-rate men
from various parts of the South, who had been looking for homes, had
gone away in disgust. The fundamental reason for failure should not,
indeed, be laid at Maury’s feet. But by this time the instability of
the Mexican throne had begun to betray itself in the slowness of action
and the lack of decision of the Emperor. “The indecision and weakness
of Maximilian”, writes Stevenson, “prevented his taking full advantage
of the opportunity then offered to strengthen the empire. The delay
caused by a vacillating policy discouraged the would-be colonists, and
before long the flood of immigration was checked”.[21]
Still some progress continued to be made. On Maury’s recommendation,
General Magruder, formerly of the Confederate States army, was placed
in charge of the land office, under whom was to be a large number of
surveyors, most of whom were former Confederates. Among the other
prominent men who had come to Mexico in the summer of 1865 were:
Generals Kirby Smith, Shelby, Slaughter, Walker, and Terrell of Texas;
Governor Price of Missouri; Ex-Governor Isham G. Harris and General
Wilcox of Tennessee; General Hindman of Arkansas; Governor Reynolds
of Georgia; Judge John Perkins, Colonel Denis, and Pierre Soulé of
Louisiana; and Major Mordecai of North Carolina. Across the frontier
had been brought horses, artillery, and everything that could be
transported. Both large and small bands of Confederate soldiers had
come over into Mexico, and some 2000 citizens had left the United
States with the intention of colonizing Sonora in Northern Mexico,
though Maury had no connection with this undertaking.
He did, however, send General Price, Judge Perkins, and Governor Harris
as a commission to examine lands near Cordoba in the state of Vera
Cruz. They handed in a very favorable report, and here a colony, named
the “Corlotta” in honor of the Empress, was planted. Of its prospects
Maury wrote enthusiastically: “In the olden times Cordoba was the
garden spot of New Spain. There stands on one side, and but a little
way off, the Peak of Orizaba, with its cap of everlasting snow, and on
the other the sea in full view. These lands are heavily in debt to the
Church, and as the Church property has been confiscated—not by the
Emperor, though—Max. took possession of these lands for colonization.
The railway hence to Vera Cruz passes right through them; and I am now
selling these lands to immigrants, as fast as they can be surveyed,
at $1.00 the acre on five years’ credit. There are about forty of our
people already there. Perkins has bought himself a house and has sent
for his family; so has Shelby, and so have a number of others. Mr.
Holeman of Missouri, an Episcopal clergyman, with his family—nice
people—has been engaged by the settlement as pastor and teacher. I
am going to reserve land for a church, cemetery, and school-house.
Thus you see, my sweet wife, colonization is a fact, not a chimera. By
the time these lands are paid for they will be worth, even if no more
settlers come to the Empire, $20, $30, or even $100 the acre, for they
produce everything under the sun, and yield perpetual harvests”.
Maury’s son Richard secured 640 acres of land in this colony; and by
the first of the year 1866 about thirty families had been located
there. Other colonies had been established by that time in Chihuahua
by Bryant of Arkansas, on Rio Verde in San Luis Potosi by Mitchell of
Missouri, and in Jalisco by Terrell of Texas. Furthermore, the last
of February, 1866, two ship loads of immigrants, who had been refused
permission by General Sheridan to embark from New Orleans, arrived at
Vera Cruz by way of Havana. This was the condition of immigration when
Maury left Mexico for a visit with his family in England.
Tentative permission for such a visit had been granted in September
of the preceding year, and early in the following year Maximilian
graciously made good his promise in the following letter: “My dear
Counselor Maury,—I have the pleasure of answering your kind letter of
the 22nd of January in which you express your just desire to see your
family again. If on the one hand I behold with regret your absence for
some time from the Capital where you are so effectively helping us
with your intelligence; on the other hand, I realize that it is quite
necessary to fulfill one’s most sacred duties toward one’s family, and
in consideration of this I cannot oppose your voyage, and my only wish
is that you carry it out successfully and that you return with your
family. I hope furthermore on returning from my journey to Cuernavaca
to see you in Mexico (City) before you undertake yours, in order to
take leave of you in person. Your most affectionate, Maximilian”.
This letter was accompanied by one from the Empress, as follows:
“My dear Sir,—I have spoken to the Emperor respecting our conversation
of Friday last, and he wishes me to tell you first, that he grants
you a complete leave of absence to arrange your affairs in England
and allows you to set off by the next French packet, but that if he
returns to Mexico in the meantime, he hopes yet to have the pleasure
of seeing you; secondly, that he quite agrees with your purchasing
the instruments for studying the rainy season; and thirdly, that he
approves of any effort you may make to introduce the cinchona tree, and
authorizes you to have sent from Kew a few specimens of this valuable
plant. Hoping to have fulfilled my errand to your satisfaction, I only
want to renew my best wishes for your voyage and successful exertions
in England, whilst I remain, Yours sincerely, Charlotte”.
Here it should be said that, in the matter of cinchona cultivation,
Maury left a lasting blessing to Mexico. Before leaving England in
1865, he had discussed the possibility of the introduction of this
febrifuge-yielding tree into certain mountainous districts of Mexico,
with Mr. Clements Markham, who had established the cinchona plantations
in India and was then in charge of all matters relating to them in the
India Office. The feasibility of such an introduction of the plant
having been agreed to, Maury on his return to England secured three
packets of seeds from Markham, which were sent to Mexico, and from
them successful plantations were established near Cordoba and in other
sections of the country. Thus Maury left a living monument to himself
in the country of his adoption and short residence.
Though the letters of both the Emperor and the Empress indicate an
expectation of Maury’s return to Mexico, yet in a letter to his wife,
written before his departure, he leaves the impression that conditions
in that country might not render this advisable. It was also understood
by some of his friends in the United States that he was going to
England to assist in the laying of a telegraph cable from England to
the West Indies and Mexico, and his son Richard thought his father
would not return if the cable succeeded. Though Maury did not become
connected with this enterprise, yet there developed in Mexico very
soon after his departure conditions which made his return inadvisable.
In fact, events in that unhappy country were fast moving toward
Maximilian’s tragic end; and Maury was destined never to see that
country nor its unfortunate rulers again.