Brief biography of Matías Romero

Matías Romero was an army of one for Mexico as he lobbied incessantly to get the Union to declare war on France over their violation of the Monroe Doctrine. Millions of Mexicans WELCOMED the puppet Emperor Maximilian when he arrived in Mexico City in 1864. War with France would have meant war with Mexico also and that would have meant an end to the United States and the retention of slavery in the New World.

Matías Romero was born in 1837 in Oaxaca, in southwestern Mexico, the birthplace of fellow Mexican Liberal leaders Benito Pablo Juarez, Porfirio Diaz, and Ignacio Mariscal. He was educated as a lawyer, but immediately upon finishing his studies he joined the Liberal government under President Benito Juarez during the War of the Reforma (1857-61). As a protege of Juarez, Romero served for a time as an unpaid employee in Relaciones Exteriores before being given a salaried post. Thus although he was young when he entered diplomatic service in the Mexican legation in the United States early in 1859, he was not totally inexperienced. When the outbreak of the American Civil War thrust considerable responsibility upon him, the twenty-four-year-old Romero already had spent four years in the Mexican foreign service, including two years in the United States as secretary of the legation and charge d'affaires. Romero served as charge until mid-1863, when he resigned because he lacked sufficient funds to conduct a proper lobbying campaign to persuade the United States to act against the French in Mexico. He returned to Mexico hoping to serve in the army against the French. Juarez and Minister of Foreign Relations Sebastian Lerdo de Tejada, however, persuaded him to return to the United States by promising prompt payment of his salary, adequate funds to maintain an active legation, and the rank of minister. By October 1863, Romero was back in Washington, where he remained until late 1867. The need to resolve outstanding American claims so as to preserve Mexico's credit rating with potential investors brought him back to the United States in mid-1868. After negotiating the United States-Mexican claims agreement of 1868, which arranged for the adjudication of all outstanding claims, Romero again returned to Mexico. At the age of thirty-one, he became Juarez's secretary of the treasury.

Displeased by Juarez's decision to seek reelection in 1872, Romero resigned to pursue an activity he had long advocated-coffee culture in southern Mexico. This phase of his life lasted only three years, in part because of the hostility of Guatemalan President Justo Rufino Barrios, who feared that Romero's presence near Guatemala's frontier portended future Mexican expansion into his country, and in part because in 1875 Romero was elected to the Mexican Senate. Two years later, Porfirio Diaz named Romero secretary of the treasury. Romero's health declined in 1879, compelling him toiesign. Battling recurring stomach problems that had plagued him since his youth, Romero traveled to the United States to consult medical specialists. In 1880 and 1881, while recuperating, he was involved inseveral railroad schemes with former United States President Ulysses Grant, Albert K. Owen, Hiram Barney, and others. From 1882 until his death, Romero served as Mexican minister to the United States, except for a short period from mid-1892 until early 1893, when he returned to Mexico for his third period as secretary of the treasury. Porfirio Diaz's second marriage to Romero's daughter no doubt secured and stabilized Romero's role in Mexican politics and increased his influence within the Diaz administration. Romero died in Washington on December 30, 1898, after an attack of appendicitis.

Throughout his service in the 1860s in the United States, and especially after his return in 1863, Romero viewed it as his chief responsibility to lobby for moral and material support against the French. His,,jnemorandums are valuable in revealing the specific actions and policies he planned or adopted to achieve his purposes. Romero believed that he could shape Union political and public opinion by distributing information, by coordinating his work with people who seemed to share Mexico's objectives, by traditional lobbying devices such as subsidies to create a favorable press, by the use of congressional resolutions to bring key ideas and documents to the public attention, and by wining and dining the political elite. Shaping opinion, he hoped, would result in public attitudes and political actions advantageous to Mexico in its struggle against foreign intervention. His plan required inching toward his goals rather than advancing by dramatic giant steps. He hoped to change opinion and policy over the long run by constant, slow pressure.

Reference

Schoonover, Thomas D. Mexican Lobby. Matías Romero in Washington 1861-1867. The University Press of Kentucky, 1986.