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Treaty between the United States of America and the Republic of Mexico for the Extradition of Criminals. Concluded at Mexico, December 11, 1861. Ratification exchanged at Mexico, May 20, 1862. Proclaimed by the President of the United States, June 20, 1862.
WHEREAS a treaty between the United States of America and the Republic of Mexico, for the extradition of criminals, was concluded and signed at the city of Mexico on the eleventh day of December, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, which treaty, as amended by the Senate of the United States, and being in the English and Spanish languages, is, word for word as follows:
The United States of America and the United Mexican States having judged it expedient, with a view to the better administration of justice and to the prevention of crime within their respective territories and jurisdictions, that persons charged with the crimes hereinafter enumerated, and being fugitives from justice, should, under certain circumstances, be reciprocally delivered up, have resolved to conclude a treaty for this purpose, and have named as their respective plenipotentiaries, that is to say:
The President of the United States of America has appointed Thomas Corwin, a citizen of the United States, and their Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary near the Mexican Government; and the President of the United Mexican States has appointed Sebastian Lerdo de Tejada, a citizen of the said States, and a Deputy of the Congress of the Union, who, after having communicated to each other their respective full powers, found in good and due form, have agreed upon and concluded the following articles:
It is agreed that the contracting parties shall, on requisitions made in their name, through medium of their respective diplomatic agents, deliver up to justice persons who, being accused of the crimes enumerated in article third of the present treaty, committed within the jurisdiction of the requiring party, shall seek an asylum, or shall be found within the territories of the other: Provided, That this shall be done only when the fact of the commission of the crime shall be so established as that the laws of the country in which the fugitive or the person so accused shall be found, would justify his or her apprehension and commitment for trial if the crime had been there committed.
In the ease of crimes committed in the frontier States or Territories of the two contracting parties, requisitions may be made through their respective diplomatic agents, or through the chief civil authority of said States or Territories, or through such chief civil or judicial authority of the districts or counties bordering on the frontier as may for this purpose be duly authorized by the said chief civil authority of the said frontier States or Territories, or when, from any cause, the civil authority of such State or Territory shall be suspended, through the chief military officer in command of such State or Territory.
Persons shall be so delivered up who shall be charged, according to the provisions of this treaty, with any of the following crimes, whether as principals, accessories, or accomplices, to wit: Murder, (including assassination, parricide, infanticide, and poisoning;) assault with intent to commit murder; mutilation; piracy; arson; rape; kidnapping, defining the same to be the taking and carrying away of a free person by force or deception; forgery, including the forging or making, or knowingly passing or putting in circulation counterfeit coin or bank notes, or other paper current as money, with intent to defraud any person or persons; the introduction or making of instruments for the fabrication of counterfeit coin or bank notes, or other paper current as money; embezzlement of public moneys; robbery, defining the same to be the felonious and forcible taking from the person of another of goods or money to any value, by violence or putting him in fear; burglary, defining the same to be breaking and entering into the house of another with intent to commit felony; and the crime of larceny, of cattle, or other goods and chattels, of the value of twenty-five dollars or more, when the same is committed within the frontier States or Territories of the contracting parties.
On the part of each country the surrender of fugitives from justice shall be made only by the authority of the executive thereof, except in the case of crimes committed within the limits of the frontier States or Territories, in which latter case the surrender may be made by the chief civil authority thereof, or such chief civil or judicial authority of the districts or counties bordering on the frontier as may for this purpose be duly authorized by the said chief civil authority of the said frontier States or Territories, or, if, from any cause, the civil authority of such State or Territory shall be suspended, then such surrender may be made by the chief military officer in command of such State or Territory.
All expenses whatever of detention and delivery effected in virtue of the preceding provisions skull be borne and defrayed by the Government or authority of the frontier State or Territory in whose name the requisition shall have been made.
The provisions of the present treaty shall not be applied in any manner to any crime or offense of a purely political character, nor shall it embrace the return of fugitive slaves, nor the delivery of criminals who, when the offense was committed, shall have been held in the place where the offense was committed in the condition of slaves, the same being expressly forbidden by the Constitution of Mexico; nor shall the provisions of the present treaty be applied in any manner to the crimes enumerated in the third article committed anterior to the date of the exchange of the ratifications hereof.
Neither of the contracting parties shall be bound to deliver up its own citizens under the stipulations of this treaty.
This treaty shall continue in force until it shall be abrogated by the contracting parties, or one of them; but it shall not be abrogated except by mutual consent, unless the party desiring to abrogate it shall give twelve months' previous notice.
The present treaty shall be ratified in conformity with the constitutions of the two countries, and the ratifications shall be exchanged at the city of Mexico within six months from the date hereof, or earlier if possible.
In witness whereof we, the Plenipotentiaries of the United States of America and of the United Mexican States, have signed and sealed these presents.
Done in the city of Mexico, on the eleventh day of December, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, the eighty-sixth of the independence of the United States of America, and the forty-first of that of the United Mexican States.
THOMAS CORWIN. [L. S.]
SEB'N LERDO DE TEJADA, [L. S.]
And whereas the said Treaty, as amended, has been duly ratified on both parts, and the respective ratifications of the same were exchanged in the city of Mexico on the twentieth ultimo:
Now, therefore, be it known that I, ABRAHAM LINCOLN, President of the United States of America, have caused the said Treaty to be made public, to the end that the same, and every clause and article thereof, may be observed and fulfilled with good faith by the United States and the citizens thereof
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the City of Washington, this twentieth of June, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred, and sixty-two, and of the independence of the United States of America the eighty-sixth.
By the President:
WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.Document Text
Statutes of the United States - Volume 12