CHAPTER XIII

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”.

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.