HISTORY OF MEXICO: The Black Decree of October 3 (Part 1)

Eighteen sixty five marked the third year of the “French intervention” in Mexico, the imposition of the second Mexican empire with Archduke Maximilian of Austria as emperor; a puppet ruler installed by Napoleon III of France. It was a well-thought out plan to instill a monarchy in America and Napoleon’s timing was excellent: the United States was involved in its own civil war and took its eyes and efforts away from a foreign invasion of their neighbor to the south.

Ever since 1821 when Mexico ousted the Spanish and became a sovereign nation, there had been a struggle between liberal and conservative factions. The liberals wanted a democratic, representative republic, while the conservatives pushed for a return to monarchy.

Initially the conservatives won and installed Agustin Iturbide as emperor in 1822, beginning a two-year monarchic power named the First Mexican Empire. Following Iturbide’s death by firing squad in 1824, the country became a representative republic with a series of presidents over the next 30 years.

Benito Juarez was elected president in 1861, but the conservatives would not give up on the idea of a monarchy and in 1863 managed to impose a second empire headed by Maximilian I.

Although brought in by the conservatives, Maximilian was a progressive at heart and he promoted many of the programs endorsed by the liberals. He began reforms to abolish child labor, restrict workers’ hours, cancelled any debts over 10 pesos owed by peasants, restored communal property rights and abolished corporal punishment. He was a proponent of education for the indigenous population and for women.

And Maximilian truly began to love Mexico and the people, his “subjects,” and hoped to have that love reciprocated. That never happened. Mexicans could never see him other than a foreign leader installed by a foreign power. No matter how much he attempted to ingratiate himself with the populace, he could never be accepted other than by the conservative faction that had wanted a monarchy from the start.

 While Maximilian was on the throne in Mexico, there still existed a legitimate, democratically elected government with Benito Juarez as president. Since Mexico City had been overtaken by Maximilian, Benito Juarez had to flee the capital and thus created an itinerant presidency moving from San Luis Potosi to Monterrey, Saltilla, Chihuahua, and Paso del Norte (today Ciudad Juarez). Had Juarez abandoned the country, his presidency could have been considered null and void, but he never left Mexico. His supporters continued to fight for the restoration of a republican government, and many clashes took place between the imperial armies and the rebels with fatalities on both sides.

Neither the French troops, sent by Napoleon III to protect Maximilian’s empire, nor the imperial army made up of Mexicans fighting on his behalf could suppress the rebels. Maximilian, disheartened by this and afraid of the opposition issued a decree on October 3, 1865. He claimed that he had made every effort to achieve peace but that he could no longer accept "those who persist in defending a cause that had long since been lost." He claimed that Benito Juarez was gone, somewhere outside of Mexico, and therefore the rebellious efforts could not be considered a legitimate defense of an existing republican government. Maximilian denounced the rebels as bandits, criminals, and vandals attacking his government, and on that basis justified his decree.

The draconian measures that Maximilian installed stated that all those rebels found with weapons in their hands and anyone who even by mere rumor was said to be supporting the republicans, were to be shot immediately without a trial. This became known as the October 3 law, or better named “the black decree.”

On October 11, the commander-in-chief of the invading army, sent a circular to the military leaders telling them: “Savage rebel leaders [engage in] the war of barbarism against civilization...all these bandits, including their leaders, have been outlawed... I charge you to inform the troops under your command that I do not admit that they take prisoners: any individual, whoever he may be, caught with weapons in hand will be shot.” He furthermore instructed that there would be no exchange of prisoners, therefore their soldiers must understand that they must never surrender. “This is a war to the death; a fight without quarter…It is necessary, on both sides, to kill or be killed."

The exact number of deaths directly caused by the October 3, 1865 decree is not specified, but it a great number. Following the decree, 623 people were executed in March 1866 and 470 in April 1866 alone. The decree fueled the ongoing violence, which eventually resulted in a total of 31,962 killed during the French intervention, including 11,000 who were executed.

On October 25, 1865 Maximilian sent a letter to Napoleon in which he attempted to justify himself: "The draconian law I have had to enact against the guerrillas, the results of which will be favorable... If we had not lacked troops, we could have ended this plague in the country long ago."

Maximilian’s extreme dictum, the unreasonable and inhumane order to shoot without benefit of a trial became the biggest blotch on his reputation. In the end, the moral and legal aftershock of his decree came back to haunt him.

We will look at what followed in the second part of this article.