The Secretary of State to the Nicaraguan Chargé.
Washington, December 1, 1909.
Sir: Since the Washington conventions of 1907, it is notorious that President Zelaya has almost continuously kept Central America in tension or turmoil; that he has repeatedly and flagrantly violated the provisions of the conventions, and, by a baleful influence upon Honduras, whose neutrality the conventions were to assure, has sought to discredit those sacred international obligations, to the great detriment of Costa Rica, El Salvador, and Guatemala, whose Governments meanwhile appear to have been able patiently to strive for the loyal support of the engagements so solemnly undertaken at Washington under the auspices of the United States and of Mexico.
It is equally a matter of common knowledge that under the régime of President Zelaya republican institutions have ceased in Nicaragua to exist except in name, that public opinion and the press have been throttled, and that prison has been the reward of any tendency to real patriotism. My consideration for you personally impels me to abstain from unnecessary discussion of the painful details of a régime which, unfortunately, has been a blot upon the history of Nicaragua and a discouragement to a group of Republics whose aspirations need only the opportunity of free and honest government.
In view of the interests of the United States and of its relation to the Washington conventions, appeal against this situation has long since been made to this Government by a majority of the Central American Republics. There is now added the appeal, through the revolution, of a great body of the Nicaraguan people. Two Americans [Page 456] who, this Government is now convinced, were officers connected with the revolutionary forces, and therefore entitled to be dealt with according to the enlightened practice of civilized nations, have been killed by direct order of President Zelaya. Their execution is said to have been preceded by barbarous cruelties. The consulate at Managua is now officially reported to have been menaced. There is thus a sinister culmination of an administration also characterized by a cruelty to its own citizens which has, until the recent outrage, found vent in the case of this country in a series of petty annoyances and indignities which many months ago made it impossible to ask an American minister longer to reside at Managua. From every point of view it has evidently become difficult for the United States further to delay more active response to the appeals so long made, to its duty to its citizens, to its dignity, to Central America, and to civilization.
The Government of the United States is convinced that the revolution represents the ideals and the will of a majority of the Nicaraguan people more faithfully than does the Government of President Zelaya, and that its peaceable control is well-nigh as extensive as that hitherto so sternly attempted by the Government at Managua.
There is now added the fact, as officially reported from more than one quarter, that there are already indications of a rising in the western Provinces in favor of a presidential candidate intimately associated with the old régime. In this it is easy to see new elements tending toward a condition of anarchy which leaves, at a given time, no definite responsible source to which the Government of the United States could look for reparation for the killing of Messrs. Cannon and Groce, or, indeed, for the protection which must be assured American citizens and American interests in Nicaragua.
In these circumstances the President no longer feels for the Government of President Zelaya that respect and confidence which would make it appropriate hereafter to maintain with it regular diplomatic relations, implying the will and the ability to respect and assure what is clue from one state to another.
The Government of Nicaragua which you have hitherto represented is hereby notified, as will be also the leaders of the revolution, that the Government of the United. States will hold strictly accountable for the protection of American life and property the factions de facto in control of the eastern and western portions of the Republic of Nicaragua.
As for the reparation found due, after careful consideration, for the killing of Messrs. Cannon and Groce, the Government of the United States would be loath to impose upon the innocent people of Nicaragua a too heavy burden of expiating the acts of a régime forced upon them or to exact from a succeeding Government, if it have quite different policies, the imposition of such a burden. Into the question of ultimate reparation there must enter the question of the existence at Managua of a Government capable of responding to demands. There must enter also the question of how far it is possible to reach those actually responsible and those who perpetrated the tortures reported to have preceded the execution, if these be verified; and the question whether the Government be one entirely dissociated from the present intolerable conditions and worthy to be trusted to make impossible a recurrence of such acts, in which [Page 457] case the President, as a friend of your country, as he is also of the other Republics of Central America, might be disposed to have indemnity confined to what was reasonably due the relatives of the deceased and punitive only in so far as the punishment might fall where really due.
In pursuance of this policy the Government of the United States will temporarily withhold its demand for reparation, in the meanwhile taking such steps as it deems wise and proper to protect American interest.
To insure the future protection of legitimate American interests, in consideration of the interests of the majority of the Central American Republics, and in the hope of making more effective the friendly offices exerted under the Washington conventions, the Government of the United States reserves for further consideration at the proper time the question of stipulating also that the constitutional Government of Nicaragua obligate itself by convention, for the benefit of all the Governments concerned, as a guaranty for its future loyal support of the Washington conventions and their peaceful and progressive aims.
From the foregoing it will be apparent to you that your office of chargé d’affaires is at an end. I have the honer to inclose your passport, for use in case you desire to leave this country. I would add at the same time that, although your diplomatic quality is terminated, I shall be happy to receive you, as I shall be happy to receive the representative of the revolution, each as the unofficial channel of communication between the Government of the United States and the de facto authorities to whom I look for the protection of American interests pending the establishment in Nicaragua of a Government with which the United States can maintain diplomatic relations.
Accept, etc.,