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Plácido Vega: A Mexican Secret Agent in the United States, 1864–1866

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

Robert Ryal Miller
Robert Ryal Miller*
Affiliation:
New Mexico State University, University Park, New Mexico
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Extract

Mexico in the 1860's was torn by bloody civil war between liberals and conservatives, aggravated by the intervention of thousands of French troops who supported the conservative faction. This latter group set up a monarchy in Mexico headed by Emperor Maximilian von Hapsburg and soon controlled most of the country. However, the liberals and republicans under President Benito Juárez were never completely conquered; they eventually rallied and their triumph was symbolized by the execution of Maximilian in 1867. The European intervention forced President Juárez to seek aid from the United States, and he dispatched several secret agents north with orders to secure arms, men, and moral support for his government.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 19 , Issue 2 , October 1962 , pp. 137 - 148
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1962

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References

1 The mission of one agent has been described by the author in “Gaspar Sánchez Ochoa: A Mexican Secret Agent in the United States,” The Historian, XXIII (May, 1961), 316–329.

2 Data on Vega’s military and political life in his personnel file, Expediente XI/111/3–1736, Archivo Defensa Nacional, México, D. F., cited hereafter as ADN. See also Buelna, Estaquio, Apuntes para la historia de Sinaloa, 1821–1882 (Mazatlán, 1924), pp. 48, 54, 60, 65.Google Scholar

3 General Plácido Vega Papers, Vol. XIII, Balance Gral., Bancroft Library, University of California, cited hereafter as Vega Papers followed by volume and page or folio number. Letters from Vega refer to draft copies written in San Francisco.

4 Original instructions in Vega Papers, I, 9–11.

5 Supplementary instructions dated Sept. 10, 1863, Vega Papers, I, 28–31; a third set dated March 30, 1864, reiterated earlier orders.

6 Arellano to Vega, October 22, 1863; Vega to Arellano, December 21, 1863; Arellano to Vega, January 29, 1864, Vega Papers, I, 107, 346, 371–378.

7 San Francisco, Daily Alta California, March 21, 1864, p. 1. Elsewhere Vega erroneously says he embarked at Mazatlán in April, Vega to McDowell, November 2, 1864, Vega Papers, I, 768–782.

8 Vega Papers, X, 334; Bancroft, Hubert Howe, The History of Mexico (6 vols.; San Francisco, 1883), VI, 116, note 44.Google Scholar

9 Vega to Beale, May 10, 1864; Vega Papers, I, 469; see Carmen Island brochure, Vega Papers, I, 16; Spanish edition, III, 1.

10 Cazotte to Drouyn de L'Huys, April 6, July 21, 1864, Archives du Ministère des Affaires Etrangères, Correspondence Politique des Consuls, Etats Unis, Vol. XIX, ff. 280–281, 292, microfilm, Bancroft Library, cited hereafter as AAE/CPC followed by volume and folio number.

11 For a survey of this case and its aftermath see Frazer, Robert W., “Trade Between California and the Belligerent Powers during the French Intervention in Mexico,” Pacific Historical Review, 15 (December, 1946), 391–399.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

12 Beale to James, July 16, 1864, Charles James Papers, Bancroft Library, Vol. I, 14–18, hereafter cited as James Papers; see also Brown to James, July 16, 1864, James Papers, I, 6–9. Correspondence printed in 38 Cong., 2d sess., Sen. Exec. Doc. 15, 9–13, and 39 Cong., 1st sess., H. Exec. Doc. 73, II, 143–147.

13 James to Beale, July 20, 1864, James Papers, I, 19–20.

14 Seizure reported in Alta California, August 6, 1864, p. 1.

15 Cazotte to Drouyn de L'Huys, December 21, 1864, AAE/CPC, XIX, 318–319.

16 Frazer, 392–393; 38 Cong., 2d sess., Sen. Exec. Doc. 33, 1–14.

17 Vega to Romero, Nov. 22, 1864, enei, in Romero to minister of foreign affairs, Dec. 29, 1864, Correspondencia de la Legación Mexicana en Washington durante la intervención extrangera, 1860–1868 (10 vols.; Mexico, 1870–1892), IV, 505; the protests also in 39 Cong., 1st sess., H. Exec. Doc. 73, II, 166.

18 Speed to Seward, December 23, 1865, 39 Cong., 1st sess., H. Exec. Doc. 73, II, 229–230.

19 Vega Papers, III, 19.

20 Vega Papers, I, 346, 459, 467, II, 460, 470, 479–480, 500, 503, 514, III, 73–74, 149, 523, VI, comprobante 43; AAE/CPC, XV, 120–123, XIX, 275–276, 280–281, 286–289, 293–294, 312–313, XXII, 242, XXIII, 255–256, 269–274, 278–279, 344–348, 353–354, XXIX, 4, 5, 13, 19–21, 72–73, 83–86, 107–113; Bancroft, , History of Mexico, 6, 181,Google Scholar note 38.

21 Buelna, Estaquio, Breves apuntes para la historia de la Guerra de Intervención en Sinaloa (Mazatlán, 1884), p. 22.Google Scholar

22 José M. Vigil to Vega, November 1, 1864, Vega Papers, I, 759; Vega Papers, VI, comprobante 44; Cazotte to Drouyn de L’Huys, May 29, 1865, AAE/CPC, XXIII, 270–274.

23 Vigil to Vega, November 1, 1864, Vega Papers, I, 759–765.

24 Vega Papers, I, 637; details of the contributions made by the clubs in reports, Vega Papers, I, 615–695.

25 Vega to Pacheco, Nov. 21, 1864, Vega Papers, II, 24; VI, comprobante 51, fol. 7.

26 Vega Papers, IV, Libro Mayor, p. 12; III, 439, 687.

27 Vega Papers, I, 615.

28 Vega Papers, VI, comprobante 49; see also I, 721, 725, 726.

29 Alta California, October 10, 1864, p. 1.

30 Alta California, October 13, 1864, p. 1.

31 Sacramento [California] Daily Union, October 12, 1864, p. 2.

32 Callahan, James Morton, American Foreign Policy in Mexican Relations (New York, 1932), pp. 294–295.Google Scholar

33 Welles, Gideon, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy under Lincoln and Johnson (Boston, 1911), 317, 333.Google Scholar Grant’s support of Juárez is also affirmed by his biographer, Badeau, Adam, Grant in Peace: From Appomattox to Mount McGregor (Hartford, 1887), 391–400.Google Scholar

34 See the author’s article, “The American Legion of Honor in Mexico,” Pacific Historical Review, XXX (August, 1961), 229–241.

35 Telegram, Cazotte to Drouyn de L’Huys, May 24, 1865, AAE/CPC, XXIII, fol. 269 verso. The abortive expedition is detailed in the author’s article, “Californians Against the Emperor,” California Historical Society Quarterly, XXXVII (Sept., 1958), 193–214.

36 Roster of the expedition in Vega Papers, III, 438–439, IV, comprobante 9; the French consul reported 142 filibusters on the Keoka and 150 on the Josephine, Cazotte to Drouyn de L’Huys, July 18, 1866, AAE/CPC, XXIX, 85–86.

37 Deserters listed in Vega Papers, IV, comprobante 9, fol. 2.

38 Vega’s booklet was titled Da cuenta al gobierno de la República Mexicana sobre la comisión que le fué conferida al exterior (Tepic, Mexico, 1867), copy in Vega Papers, III, 708. The arrest order in ADN, Expediente XI/111/3–1736, fol. 1, hoja 28.

39 ADN, Expediente XI/111/3–1736, fol. 1, hojas 34–49, 75. For Vega’s defection and later life see Villegas, Daniel Cosío, Historia moderna de México (7 vols.; Mexico, 1955–1960), 1, 537–539, 857–858Google Scholar; Buelna, , Breves Apuntes, p. 22 Google Scholar; Frias, Hilarion y Soto, , Juárez glorificado y la intervención y el imperio ante la verdad histórica (Mexico, 1905), p. 352.Google Scholar