After peace was reestablished in Mexico, relations between Mexico and the United States were as warm as they had ever been. U. S. Ambassador Marcus Otterbourg, who arrived in 1867, was instructed not to press the damage claims of U. S. citizens so that the liberals would have time to put their affairs in order. The liberals, firm believers in international trade, sought U. S. investments and technology to develop the Mexican economy.30
Juarez commented on U. S.—Mexican relations during his 1867 state of the nation address:
The same cordial relations are now maintained with the United States as existed during the
Mexican people’s struggle against the French republic. Americans’ sympathy and the moral
Support the U. S. government lent the Mexican nation merited and still merits the sympathy
And respect of the people and government of Mexico.31
An incident in May of 1870 indicated the degree of cordiality in U. S.—Mexican relations. The U. S. Navy steamship Mohican, under the command of Captain W. W. Low, was sailing along the Pacific Coast of Mexico. Upon learning that a pirate boat was pillaging the coast, the Mohican gave chase. The smaller pirate boat took refuge in the Teacapan River, seventy-five miles north of San Blas. Since the larger Mohican could not enter the river, some of its crew took to whale boats, rowed forty miles up the river, and captured and burned the pirate boat. The Mexican government simply accepted this as welcome assistance, even though it was unauthorized by either government. To show their gratitude, fourteen villages in the area the pirates had victimized melted down silver coins, had them converted into a silver service, and presented it to Low as a token of appreciation.32
During the early 1870s, border conflict began to undermine the existing goodwill between Mexico and the United States. From an American perspective, border conflict resulted from Mexican cattle rustlers who would cross to the north side of the Rio Grande, steal cattle, and retreat back across the river. In 1872, Texas rancher Mifflin Kenedy testified to a congressional committee that along the 135-mile strip of the river between Roma and the Gulf of Mexico, 400,000 head of cattle and 20,000 horses had been stolen since the end of the Civil War. In one spectacular 1875 raid, some fifty mounted Mexicans made their way to the Corpus Christi area and looted stores. Women and children were sent out to sea for their protection. U. S. forces repeatedly crossed the border into Mexico in “hot pursuit” of rustlers and raiders during the Lerdo de Tejada administration.33
Claims for damages that U. S. and Mexican citizens filed against the opposite nation also soured relations. In 1868, a Joint Claims Commission was established to handle the claims that had accumulated since 1848. Many of these claims had their origins in Indian raids. The commission worked for almost a decade, evaluated more than 2,000 claims, and dismissed the vast majority of them. The value of claims by U. S. citizens that were upheld exceeded the value of upheld Mexican claims by $3.975 million. Mexico agreed to pay this sum in annual installments of $300,000, beginning in 1877.34
Relations between the United States and Mexico remained almost quaintly simple. In 1873, when U. S. Ambassador John Foster (the grandfather of John Foster Dulles) arrived in Mexico, only 130 American adults lived in the Federal District. Ships sailing at what Foster described as “rare intervals” provided communication between the two nations. That year, trade with Mexico only accounted for about 1 percent of U. S. foreign trade. In the 1870s, U. S. exports to Mexico totaled between $6 million to $8 million a year, below the peak reached before the Mexican—American War. The United States imported from Mexico even less—never more than $5 million a year in the 1870s.35
Even though trade between the United States and Mexico remained low during the Lerdo de Tejada administration, U. S. commercial interests were producing a shift in U. S. policy toward Mexico. The U. S. Civil War dramatically shifted the balance of power between the United States and Mexico. Virtually all the fighting in the United States was confined to the south, allowing the north to make unprecedented industrial advances. In contrast, the War of Reform and the French intervention devastated the Mexican economy. U. S. factories and mechanized farms were soon producing more than the United States could consume. In response, U. S. producers turned to overseas markets. As a result, economic goals replaced territorial aspirations. As Seward stated, the United States should “value dollars more, and domination less.”36
The Homestead Act, post-Civil War reconstruction, rapid industrialization, and the shifting of the United States’ attention to its own west absorbed vast amounts of U. S. capital and human resources, reducing expansionist pressure. Neither the Republican nor the Democratic platforms of 1868, 1872, 1876, and 1880 contained a word about Latin America. Both parties broke their twenty-four-year silence in 1884, but then only to voice support for trade with the region.37
World History
