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ADDRESS ON MEXICAN AFFAIRS DELIVERED AT A JOINT SESSION OF THE

TWO HOUSES OF CONGRESS,

AUGUST 27, 1913

A sympathetic yet discriminating critic of Mexico, the late John W. Foster, formerly Secretary of State of the United States, was accustomed to say that the one great and fundamental mistake of the late Porfirio Diaz, President of Mexico from 1876-1880, 1884-1911, was that he did not educate his fellowcountrymen in the practice and the responsibilities of constitutional government, and that, because of his failure so to do, he was leaving his countrymen without training in government and without a leader to succeed him trained in a constitutional régime. From time to time rebellions broke out, which were speedily crushed. In 1911, however, a serious insurrection, under the leadership of Francisco I. Madero, caused President Diaz, his Vice-President and the members of his cabinet to resign; whereupon Francisco de la Barra, who had been appointed Secretary of State, succeeded to the presidency ad interim until an election could be held. At this election, held on October 15, 1911, Mr. Madero was chosen President of Mexico. A rebellion under the leadership of Felix Diaz, nephew of the late President, broke out, and as a consequence Madero and his Vice-President, yielding to the pressure of General Victoriano Huerta, resigned under duress and Huerta, Secretary of War, became by the resignation of Madero, the President, Vice-President and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, President ad interim. His authority as such was not recognized by his countrymen as a whole, although it might have been had not Madero and the Vice-President, on their way from the palace to the prison, been assassinated, in which assassination, rightly or wrongly, Huerta was implicated. Carranza, under Madero, Governor of the State of Chihuahua, opposed Huerta, and, gathering around him a strong body of partisans under the title of Constitutionalists, he was eventually recognized by the United States as President de facto on October 19, 1915. He was elected President on March 11, 1917; an American Ambassador had in the meantime been appointed, on February 25, 1916, and had repaired to Mexico, and on February 17, 1917, Carranza's government was recognized by the United States not merely as the de facto but as the duly constituted government of Mexico.

GENTLEMEN OF THE CONGRESS:

It is clearly my duty to lay before you, very fully and without reservation, the facts concerning our present relations with the Republic of Mexico. The deplorable posture of affairs in Mexico I need not describe, but I

deem it my duty to speak very frankly of what this Government has done and should seek to do in fulfillment of its obligation to Mexico herself, as a friend and neighbor, and to American citizens whose lives and vital interests are daily affected by the distressing conditions which now obtain beyond our southern border.

Those conditions touch us very nearly. Not merely because they lie at our very doors. That of course makes us more vividly and more constantly conscious of them, and every instinct of neighborly interest and sympathy is aroused and quickened by them; but that is only one element in the determination of our duty. We are glad to call ourselves the friends of Mexico, and we shall, I hope, have many an occasion, in happier times as well as in these days of trouble and confusion, to show that our friendship is genuine and disinterested, capable of sacrifice and every generous manifestation. The peace, prosperity, and contentment of Mexico mean more, much more, to us than merely an enlarged field for our commerce and enterprise. They mean an enlargement of the field of self-government and the realization of the hopes and rights of a nation with whose best aspirations, so long suppressed and disappointed, we deeply sympathize. We shall yet prove to the Mexican people that we know how to serve them without first thinking how we shall serve ourselves.

But we are not the only friends of Mexico. The whole world desires her peace and progress; and the whole world is interested as never before. Mexico lies at last where all the world looks on. Central America is about to be touched by the great routes of the world's trade

and intercourse running free from ocean to ocean at the Isthmus. The future has much in store for Mexico, as for all the States of Central America; but the best gifts can come to her only if she be ready and free to receive them and to enjoy them honorably. America in particular-America north and south and upon both continentswaits upon the development of Mexico; and that development can be sound and lasting only if it be the product of a genuine freedom, a just and ordered government founded upon law. Only so can it be peaceful or fruitful of the benefits of peace. Mexico has a great and enviable future before her, if only she choose and attain the paths of honest constitutional government.

The present circumstances of the Republic, I deeply regret to say, do not seem to promise even the foundations of such a peace. We have waited many months, months full of peril and anxiety, for the conditions there to improve, and they have not improved. They have grown worse, rather. The territory in some sort controlled by the provisional authorities at Mexico City has grown smaller, not larger. The prospect of the pacification of the country, even by arms, has seemed to grow more and more remote; and its pacification by the authorities at the capital is evidently impossible by any other means than force. Difficulties more and more entangle those who claim to constitute the legitimate government of the Republic. They have not made good their claim in fact. Their successes in the field have proved only temporary. War and disorder, devastation and confusion, seem to threaten to become the settled fortune of the distracted country. As friends we could wait no longer for a solu

tion which every week seemed further away. It was our duty at least to volunteer our good offices-to offer to assist, if we might, in effecting some arrangement which would bring relief and peace and set up a universally acknowledged political authority there.

Accordingly, I took the liberty of sending the Hon. John Lind, formerly governor of Minnesota, as my personal spokesman and representative, to the City of Mexico, with the following instructions:

"Press very earnestly upon the attention of those who are now exercising authority or wielding influence in Mexico the following considerations and advice:

"The Government of the United States does not feel at liberty any longer to stand inactively by while it becomes daily more and more evident that no real progress is being made towards the establishment of a government at the City of Mexico which the country will obey and respect.

"The Government of the United States does not stand in the same case with the other great Governments of the world in respect of what is happening or what is likely to happen in Mexico. We offer our good offices, not only because of our genuine desire to play the part of a friend, but also because we are expected by the powers of the world to act as Mexico's nearest friend.

"We wish to act in these circumstances in the spirit of the most earnest and disinterested friendship. It is our purpose in whatever we do or propose in this perplexing and distressing situation not only to pay the most scrupulous regard to the sovereignty and independence of Mexico-that we take as a matter of course to which we are bound by every obligation of right and

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