Letter from Colonel John T. Pickett, of the Southern Confederacy, to Senor Don Manuel de Zamacona, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mexico

Abstract

Early in 1861, Colonel John T. Pickett of Virginia was sent to Mexico as the diplomatic agent of the Confederate States. He soon found that, while Corwin, the minister from the United States, and the people from the North who happened to be in the country were in high favor, he himself was regarded coldness and suspicion. The unfriendliness of the Mexicans towards him and his government was augmented by the efforts of the Northerners, one of whom-an unlucky pill-vender by the name of Bennett-he got into a quarrel. Bennett refused to respond to a challenge to a duel and the Southern diplomat went to the former's place of business and, after calling him a liar, struck and kicked him. This incident resulted in Pickett's arrest by the Mexican authorities on the charge of assault and battery. Pickett claimed immunity on the basis of his diplomatic character, and, this being refused him, finally secured his release from jail by means of bribery. In December he left Mexico, by which time the government of the Republic had virtually ceased to function, and the European creditors of the hapless nation had begun to crowd it badly. Among the Pickett Papers in the Map Division of the Library of Congress are to be found copies of the Mexican correspondence of Pickett, from which the following letter (marked with No. 10), which indicates the nature of Pickett's negotiations and the general character of the correspondence, has been reproduced. The volume containing the copy of the letter is number 26 of the Papers of the Confederate States. MARY WILHELMINE WILLIAMS.