James Madison Papers

To James Madison from Manuel de Mier y Terán, 18 June 1816 (Abstract)

From Manuel de Mier y Terán, 18 June 1816 (Abstract)

§ From Manuel de Mier y Terán.1 18 June 1816, Tehuacán. The exposition which Mr. William Robinson has made to Mier y Terán of the generous feelings of their continental neighbors the republicans of the North, and in particular those of JM, about the struggle they are having in their unfortunate country with their oppressors the Spaniards causes him to address JM in order to show his gratitude.2 Has learned that Mr. Robinson has come with views of gaining impressions about the current state of Mexico, and as Mier y Terán considers it useful to his country that Robinson should succeed in his intention, has tried to provide him with facts so that he can form exact ideas of their situation, which he can describe to JM. Mier y Terán agrees, like every liberal and unprejudiced man, that the war in Mexico is being fought, not out of rapacity or for personal advantage, as the tyrants claim, but to vindicate the rights of man in society, horribly violated in these regions by a government that does not want to recognize any social relation between it and its people except that of slaves in relation to absolute masters. The Spaniards would already have lost their unjust domination over Mexico, and this country would be like the fortunate regions of Washington if the Spaniards, in enslaving the Mexican people, had not known how to deprive them completely of the means by which liberty is recovered; if from the chaos of a revolution a well ordered army could appear, and above all if Mexicans could have been favored, with relations, with those nations whom either policy or sentiment, always inspired by five million living beings condemned to chains, would have united to cooperate with Mexico’s efforts in this great and necessary enterprise. Now that heaven has willed that their hopes of relations with the United States should continue to increase, according to documents from that government which he has before him, and that the cause of the Mexican patriots should be considered in its true light as that of all the new continent, Mier y Terán avails himself of the opportunity, which the return of Mr. Robinson offers, to send with him Mr. José Maria Niño de Rivera, empowered by this province to devote his energies to the rapid accomplishment of two contracts in favor of the civil laws of this country, which Mr. Robinson will present to JM, convinced that with their execution and others, without the need of any other aid of the same class which the generosity of their continental neighbors might easily grant them, they will surely obtain the independence and freedom for which they are fighting. In the meantime, he prays JM will kindly admit Mr. Robinson’s information and the petitions of his companion.

RC (PHi). 3 pp.; in Spanish. First page of RC bears the following summary in an unidentified hand: “Mr. Robinson has represented to him the friendly feelings of the U.S. concerning their Struggle with the Spaniards, he has tried to furnish Mr. Robinson with all facilities in order that he should have exact ideas of the condition of Mexico.

“Mr. Robinson & Citizen José Maria Nino de Rivere are sent as agents to represent their sad condition to Mr. Madison and the United States.”

1Mexican-born José Manuel Rafael Simeón de Mier y Terán (1789–1832) was trained as an engineer and was a participant in the early stages of the movements for Mexican independence led by José Maria Morelos and Ignacio Rayón. By 1816 his forces were on the defensive against the Spanish Royalists (see n. 2 below). After 1821 he served as a Mexican cabinet minister and surveyed the boundary lines of Texas (Ohland Morton, “Life of General Don Manuel de Mier y Terán: As It Affected Texas-Mexican Relations,” Southwestern Historical Quarterly 46 [1942]: 22–23, 27–43; ibid., 48 [1944]: 193, 195–96, 199, 212, 216).

2Early in 1816 William Davis Robinson made an agreement in Tehuacán with Mier y Terán to deliver four thousand muskets and ammunition to the mouth of the Goazacoala River. In July they set out for the coast, but were surprised by Royalist forces. Robinson was taken prisoner and by February 1817 Mier y Terán had also submitted to Spanish authorities (ibid., 46 [1942]: 40–43).

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