over $300,000, was that awards were made against Mexico in favor of United States citizens to the amount of $4,125,622, while $150,498 was awarded to Mexican claimants, the latter sum to be deducted from Mexico's liability, which was to be paid by yearly instalments of $300,000, to begin January 31, 1877.[1]
With regard to the 2,000 claims that were laid before the commission, representing the sum of $556,788,600,[2] the greater portion of them were fictitious, and the legitimate ones exorbitant. The joint commission opened a field for speculation to every class of rascals. Every device was practised to rob one government or the other, the claimants hesitating not at all at perjury and forgery. Before the convention of 1868 the claims filed by American citizens against Mexico amounted to 330; but this number, after the commission was installed, was swelled to over 1,000. Out of 1,017 American claims examined by the commissioner's, 831 were rejected, and out of 998 Mexican claims only 167 received awards.[3]
Notwithstanding this settlement of claims, there were still other matters threatening a rupture between the two countries. There was the refusal of Mexico to exempt United States citizens from the payment of forced loans — by doing which she claimed that she would be surrendering her sovereign right to exact contributions in times of emergency from residents in the country; and the refusal to permit American
- ↑ Consult U.S. House Misc. Doc. 39, 44th cong. 2d sess. For full particulars about the commission, see report of the Mexican agent in Méx., Mem. Relac. Exter., 1876-1877, pp. xii.-xvi., with doc. 7, letter A to G inclu.; Méx. Sinop. Hist. Reclam., 186; Guzman, Dictámen del Comis.; U. S. Foreign Rel., 431 cong. 2 sess., i. p. lxvii.-ix.; Id., ii. p. lix.-lxi., 836-984; U.S. Sen. Jour., 44th cong. 2d sess., 525.
- ↑ The claims against Mexico amounted to $470,126,613, and those against the U. S. to $86,661,891. Méx. Mem. Relac Exter., 1866-1859, p. xii.
- ↑ Grant's message of Dec. 5, 1876, in U.S. Foreign Rel., 44th cong. 21 sess., p. vii. The Mexican government regarded several of the awards as unfair, especially those given to Benjamin Weil and the La Abra Mining Co., respectively in the sums of $487,810 and $681,041. It was held that these claims were supported by false statements. The Mexican government made representations showing their fraudulent character. The first instalment was paid, though the government was compelled to have recourse to a forced loan. Méx. Mem. Relac. Exter., 1876-1877, pp. xiv., xv.
