No. 378.
Mr. Blaine
to Señor Ubico.
Washington, June 16, 1881.
Sir: I have had the pleasure to give attentive perusal to the note, of yesterday’s date, which you were pleased to address me concerning the question of boundaries between Guatemala and Mexico, in respect whereof your government makes an appeal to that of the United States “as the natural protector of Central American integrity.”
Few subjects can more cordially commend themselves to the good judgment and sympathy of the President than the preservation of peace and friendship between the republics of Spanish America, in their common interest no less than in our own.
The President does not understand that your presentation of the causes and course of the long pending disagreement with Mexico as to the respective rights or territorial limits of the two countries in the districts of Soconusco and Chiapas, calls upon him for any expression of opinion as to the extent of the just jurisdiction of either. It is not the policy or the desire of this government, to constitute itself the arbiter of the destinies, in whole or part, of its sister republics. It is its single aim to be the impartial friend of each and all, and to be always ready to tender frank and earnest counsel touching anything which may menace the peace and prosperity of its neighbors, and in this it conceives that it responds to its simple and natural duty as the founder and principal upholder of the true principles of liberty and a republican form of government upon the American continent. The government of the United States is, above all, anxious to do any and everything which will tend to strengthen the indispensable and natural union of the republics of the continent in the face of the tendencies which operate from without to influence the internal affairs of Spanish America. It is especially anxious in the pursuance of this broad policy, to see the Central American republics more securely joined than they have been of late years in protection of their common interests. It feels that anything which may lessen the good will and harmony, so much to be desired between the republics of the American isthmus, must in the end disastrously affect their mutual well-being.
The responsibility for the maintenance of this common attitude of united strength, is, in the President’s conception, shared by all, and rests no less upon the strong states than upon the weak.
Entertaining these views, and without, however, in any way prejudging the contention between Guatemala and Mexico, the President has deemed it his duty to instruct the diplomatic representative of the United States in Mexico to set before that government his conviction of the danger to republican principles which must ensue should international boundaries be disregarded, or force resorted to in support of rights not made clear by recourse to the peaceful procedures recognized by the modern code of intercourse.
In taking this course, the President is sure that Mexico, no less than Guatemala, will see therein the most signal proof of the impartial good will we bear toward both.
Accept, &c.,