Though he had saved practically nothing from the wreck of his financial fortunes, caused by the war, yet his sterling honesty would not permit him to sell the torpedo material and appropriate the money, to which he then had as good a right as any other individual. His conduct of the affairs of the Confederacy in England had been marked with this same scrupulous honesty, in the expenditure of nearly $400,000. Before leaving that country, all the vouchers for that sum were turned over to Bulloch, correct to a figure, as attested by the following letter: “Neither can I close this, perhaps my last letter on business matters, without observing that although the custom here would have sanctioned your receiving a large per centum in the way of commission on contracts, purchases, and disbursements made by me, yet you constantly set your face against it and never to my certain knowledge received one shilling”.
Maury came out of the war, with no money but with a clear conscience. “I left”, he wrote his wife, “$30,000 or $40,000 worth of torpedoes, telegraphic wire, etc. which I bought for the defense of Richmond. Bulloch paid for them but they were left in Havana at the breakup, subject to my orders. I write by this mail directing that they be turned over to Bulloch. Now they don’t belong to him, neither do they to me. But it is quite a relief to get rid of them by transferring them to a man who I am sure will make the most proper use of them. I did not want any of the $10,000 or $20,000 which they will bring, though some one will get it who has no more right to it than I have”.
Maury Hall, United States Naval Academy, Named in Honor of Maury
Now that Virginia had laid down her arms, Maury thought it proper to write a formal surrender of his sword. He accordingly sent the following letter to the officer in command of the United States naval forces in the Gulf of Mexico: “In peace as in war I follow the fortunes of my native old state (Virginia). I read in the public prints that she has practically confessed defeat and laid down her arms. In that act mine were grounded also. I am here without command, officially alone, and am bound on matters of private concern abroad. Nevertheless, and as I consider further resistance worse than useless, I deem it proper formally so to confess, and to pledge you in the words of honor that, should I find myself before the final inauguration of peace within the jurisdiction of the United States, to consider myself a prisoner of war, bound by the terms and conditions which have been or may be granted to General Lee and his officers. Be pleased to send your answer through my son (Colonel R. L. Maury), a prisoner of war on parole in Richmond. In the meantime, and until I hear to the contrary, I shall act as though my surrender had been formally accepted on the above-named terms and conditions”.
The status of Confederate agents abroad, at the close of the war, was a very precarious one. As Bulloch writes, “The civil as well as the military and naval representatives of the Confederate States abroad were excluded from ‘pardon’, under the so-called Amnesty Proclamations, which were issued immediately after the war, and none of them could have returned to the United States without the certainty of arrest, imprisonment, or, under the most favorable circumstances, the alternative of taking what has not been inaptly called the ‘iron-clad oath’”.[20]
All of Maury’s friends were united in advising him not to return to the United States until the feeling in the North should become less hostile. “Do not come home”, wrote his daughter, “General Lee told me the other day to tell you not to”. It was their opinion that his letter of surrender would not place him under General Lee’s parole, because of the association of his name with the fitting out of Confederate privateers, and that he would be arrested immediately upon his arrival. His brother-in-law, Dr. Brodie Herndon, wrote him a long letter, giving him information concerning the family and the future of Virginia, and advised him not to return for the present. “In view of the state of the public mind in the North at present”, he wrote, “I think it would be decidedly unsafe for you to return to this country. Your absence abroad in a semi-diplomatic character, your prominence, and the earnest part taken by you in the cause, would make you a decided object of that ‘vengeance against leaders’ so openly proclaimed and so plainly visible. In time, I hope, these vindictive feelings will subside, and then, and only then, would it be safe and prudent for you to return”.
Before any of this advice could reach him, Maury made his decision as to the course he thought would be best for him to pursue. This was to go to Mexico and take service under Maximilian. Even before leaving England, he had considered this as a possible eventuality, and had written to his friend Jansen about the possibilities of a colonization scheme in Mexico. Furthermore, this item in his diary, written while at sea on his way to the West Indies, shows that the plan was then in his mind: “Secession has failed, I fear, and noble old Virginia is about to pass sub jugum, all owing to the President who, not being a statesman himself or a judge of one to call statesmen around him, has sacrificed our sons, our fortunes, and country. At least, so I fear. Where I am bound events will determine. I follow the fortunes of Virginia. If she succumbs, I shall expatriate myself, I think. Events alone will decide my course. Hey ho!” Before his arrival in Cuba, he had made up his mind. In a letter to Dr. Tremlett, written off San Domingo, he declared that he expected to go to Mexico to arrange for emigration from Virginia and other Southern states. “If Max. is wise”, he continued, “and will encourage my plans I can assist mightily to make firm the foundations of his dynasty.”
It was natural that Maury’s thoughts should have turned to Maximilian. Before the war, he had sent to the Archduke, then Commander in Chief of the Imperial Royal Austrian Marine, a complete set of his “Sailing Directions”; and it was through Maximilian’s hands that the Austrian gold medal of arts and sciences was conferred on him. Two years later (June 6, 1860) he wrote Maury, enclosing the meteorological diary which had been kept on board the Elizabeth on a voyage to South America. These marks of the Archduke’s favor, together with Maury’s more recent correspondence concerning the possible coöperation of the Southern Confederacy and the new Empire of Mexico, fully warranted Maury’s confidence in believing that he might not do better at this crisis in his affairs than to go to Mexico and serve under Maximilian.
By the first of May, 1865, Maury had reached Vera Cruz. From here he went to Mexico City and wrote to General de la Peza, Minister of War, offering to demonstrate his electric torpedoes to him confidentially. Soon thereafter he offered his services to Maximilian, and was warmly welcomed by the Emperor and the Empress Carlotta. He at once laid before them his immigration scheme, which was very favorably received. By the first of August, the Emperor had decided to try the plan, and appointed Maury to the office of Imperial Commissioner of Colonization, with a salary of $5000 a year. In addition to this, he was made on September 23 the Director of the Astronomical Observatory.