McLane-Ocampo Treaty (1859)

McLane-Ocampo Treaty (1859), an agreement between the United States and Mexico regarding transit rights. Negotiations were conducted during the War of the Reform (1858–1860) by Robert M. McLane (1815–1898), United States ambassador to the Liberal government of Benito Juárez in Veracruz, and Melchor Ocampo, Minister of Foreign Affairs. The treaty gave U.S. citizens transit rights across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec and also across northern Mexico from the Gulf of California to the vicinity of the lower Rio Grande, and allowed the U.S. government to send in military personnel to protect the route and U.S. citizens in transit. U.S. citizens would not be charged for transit at a rate different from that charged to Mexicans. In exchange for these transit rights, the United States was to pay Mexico $4 million, half upon ratification and the other half to be applied to the claims of citizens of the United States against the government of Mexico. The treaty was rejected by the U.S. Senate in 1860 and a subject of much controversy in Mexico, where some feared the loss of significant territory to the United States. Had it been ratified, it would have given the United States a large measure of control over areas of Mexico that were considered to be crucial to the passage of persons and goods to and from California.

See alsoOcampo, Melchor; United States-Latin American Relations.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Edward J. Berbusse, "The Origins of the McLane-Ocampo Treaty of 1859," in The Americas 14 (1958): 223-243.

Agustín Cue Cánovas, El tratado McLane-Ocampo: Juárez, los Estados Unidos y Europa, 2d ed. (1959).

Salvador Ysunza Uzeta, Juárez y el tratado McLane-Ocampo (1964).

                                           Charles R. Berry