The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 72, July 1968 - April, 1969 Page: 426
498 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
That correspondence, together with this author's recent research on
the diplomat in his native Normandy, enables a modest start in the
process of sifting fact from legend and re-evaluating the Frenchman's
role in the history of the Republic.
Will revisionism alter the image of Saligny? Can the French agent
be rehabilitated? It appears not. Even the briefest acquaintance with
the new material and with his personal file in the French foreign
ministry yields disconcerting discrepancies in dates, accounts of other
petty imbroglios in other countries similar to the "Pig War," and a
series of reprimands and recalls for conduct ranging from the im-
prudent to the dishonorable. He was, as the French would say, un per-
sonnage peu sympathique, and ended his career in well deserved
obloquy.
The deviousness of his character emerges at once. Saligny habitually
represented himself, in forms and legal documents, as younger than
he really was, sometimes by only a few years, sometimes by as many
as seven and one-half years, as on the occasion of his marriage in
Mexico in the 186o's to a lady much younger than himself.' When
through a great deal of luck and the help of obliging French friends,
I finally established his birthplace to have been the town of Caen in
Normandy, I learned that he had been born in April, 1809, not July,
1812, as he had written in forms filed in the French foreign ministry.
Moreover, his birth certificate explodes the myth that he was the
"Count de Saligny," a member of the French nobility. He was born
the son of one Jean Baptiste Isidore Dubois, a tax collector, and of
Marie Louise Rose Bertrand.5 Where the "Saligny" came from, which
he tacked on later, remains a mystery. The French foreign minister,
in addressing him, would grant him "de Saligny," but always preceded
it with "Mr. Dubois," and if he saw a reference to "Count" in con-
Republic of Texas: A French View," Southwestern Historical Quarterly, LXXI (October,
1967), 181-193-
'Personal letters of Dubois de Saligny (Archives du Ministre des Affaires Etrang&res,
Paris); Acte de Mariage of Dubois de Saligny and Demoiselle Marie de la Luz Jos6phine
Brigitte du Coeur de Jesus de Ortiz de la Borbolla, Mexico, December 23, 1863 (tran-
script; City Hall of the VI Arrondissement, Paris). The author is indebted to Me
Maurice Paz, lawyer and historian, for a copy of this transcript. His extensive research
on the agent's career in Mexico is incorporated in a book to appear under the title,
"L'Enigme Mexicaine: La Grande Pensee de l'Empereur."
5Extrait d'Acte de Naissance (Archives, Ville de Caen, Department du Calvados,
France) . In his Acte de D&c&s of November 6, 1888, he is entered as "Jean Pierre Isidore
Alphonse Dubois de Saligny, comte Romain [Roman Count]," Mairie de St. Martin du
Vieux Bellime, Orne. The title might possibly have been an honorary one, or one that
he had purchased from the papacy.326
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 72, July 1968 - April, 1969, periodical, 1969; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth117146/m1/380/: accessed May 5, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.