Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, With the Annual Message of the President Transmitted to Congress December 6, 1910
File No. 822,032.
Minister Fox to the Secretary of State.
Quito, August 20, 1910.
Sir: I have the honor to inclose herewith translations of the message of the President of Ecuador to the Congress of 1910.
I have, etc.,
Message of the President of the Republic to the National Congress of 1910.
Honorable Legislators: I have the satisfaction to congratulate you upon the opening of the congress, whose patriotic and effective work will solve, in the most advantageous manner, the difficult and trying problems, which now justly occupy the mind of the nation.
The hostile attitude of the Peruvian Republic, the concentration of her army in the frontier Department of Piura, the pertinacity with which she has refused all means of conciliation, show clearly her decided purpose to protect by force her unfaithful proceedings in Madrid. War was imminent, but the Governments of Washington, Rio de Janeiro, and Buenos Aires offered in a spontaneous manner their highly esteemed mediation, which has come to upset the warlike and vicious plans of our gratuitous enemies.
The mediating powers have obtained the retirement of the troops encamped on the frontier, thus avoiding an imminent outbreak of hostilities; but it is regrettable to announce to you that, as regards the principal question, the very cause of the disagreement, the way to arrange the boundary question, the mediating Governments have not been able as yet to arrive at any practical and definite conclusion; for Peru persists in refusing to comply with article 6 of the arbitration treaty of 1887. Ecuador accepted the mediation upon that basis; and it is not possible for her to separate, in any manner, from the conditions stated in the note of May 24 last, without causing damages which may be irreparable for the nation.
The obstinate work of Peru in endeavoring to have a decision pronounced, which was before known and which would reduce Ecuador to the smallest geographical expression, can not be pardoned in any way. Since such an impetuous pretension is at variance with justice and law and with the sentiments of Americanism developed and praised by the people of our continent, and even with the special considerations which our neighbors on the south should show, corresponding to our noble actions.
During the war of the Pacific, Ecuador could have recovered all the Amazon region without any effort; and she received repeated suggestions that such an easy opportunity should be taken advantage of. President Veintemilla, interpreting the generosity of the country, answered that it would be very dishonorable to increase the difficulties which were weighing down Peru by using force to retake the oriental territory. Ecuador in this and in other occasions has clearly shown her extreme sentiments of fraternity for Peru and always harbored confidence in that that Republic [Page 434] would have esteemed our friendly manifestations, and, above all, the justice of our cause, aided by the treaty of 1829, by the Mosquera-Pedemonte protocol, and by the diplomatic documents of different kinds, in which our rights were recognized. But, regrettable to state, the people of Ecuador are finally convinced that the Peruvian Government depends for all her future prosperity in the most complete despoliation of Ecuador. That it judges this to be impossible to obtain if she deviates in the slightest from the Spanish arbitration.
Since the time of my first administration there have been rumors which were not favorable to us as regards the decision which Spain was going to pronounce; these were to such an extent that a notable Central American diplomat who came from Madrid was not afraid to state that the decision would be entirely adverse to Ecuador. I received this information in 1900 from Gen. Leonidas Plaza, who came from Costa Rica; and I used it within my power to free the country from such a peril.
In the last days of July, 1901, Mr. Agustin Arroyo, envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of the Argentine Republic, arrived in Quito and confidentially told me that the principal object of his mission was to obtain that my Government should take steps conducive to the carrying out of the arbitral judgment which should solve our boundary question with Peru. I repeated to him the information I had received in this respect and stated to him that such was the justice of our cause and the confidence which Ecuador had in the honesty of the Argentine president, that I would not hesitate to name him arbitrator. Mr. Arroyo listened to me with surprise, for at this time the relations between Chile and Argentine were so strained that war was feared for the near future and Peru was secretly counted upon as an ally of the latter nation. It appeared to be certain, for this reason, that Peru would have the fullest confidence in the Argentine Government, at that time her protector on this continent. Nevertheless she evaded with cleverness the proposition which was made in the premises. Mr. Arroyo did not have authority to accept my suggestions and cabled his Government and the Peruvian foreign office. The minister for foreign affairs of Argentine also telegraphed to the foreign minister of Peru, asking for his acceptance according to what Mr. Arroyo had communicated to him. But the Peruvian Government, as far as I know, made no response either by cable or mail up to the end of my administration, in August, 1901. On account of such an unusual proceeding, Señor Arroyo was convinced that justice was due to Ecuador in its fullest extent.
Peru has not desired, then, to seek the solution of her differences with Ecuador in any other manner than the arbitration of Spain; and her manifest blind confidence that the decision will be favorable to her has come to support and increase the just fears of the Ecuadorian people. Notwithstanding all this the cleverness of Peruvian diplomacy was able to make the Government of Gen. Plaza accede to their wishes and the treaty of 1887 was put into execution, a treaty which the most eminent statesmen of both countries had refused, considering it a certain source of future discord.
When I came back to power in 1906 the uneasiness of Ecuador was general and was becoming more justified day by day on account of the reports which came from Spain. Then I considered it my duty to act directly in this vital and difficult situation. Being desirous to maintain peace with the neighboring Republic, I employed all possible means to get Peru to agree to a fitting and just arrangement. The sterility of my labor has convinced me that Peru will not back out of her pretensions of despoiling us of territories which have never been in dispute and which we never imagined we were going to lose by an unjust decision. Referring to the project of the award, now known to all the world, and in which the overstepping of authority by the arbitrator is clear and the ignorance of our irrefutable rights is so manifest, that the opposition of the Ecuadorians to the above-mentioned arbitration is justified in the eyes of the world.
It is my duty to justly declare that the honesty of character of His Majesty King Alfonso has avoided the despoliation of Ecuador, since the above-mentioned sovereign, listening to the claims of our ministers, has suspended the pronunciation of the award, in order that the high parties in dispute shall look for the most satisfactory solution in conformity with their respective interests. But there can be no doubt as to the erroneous and adverse manner of thinking of the counselors of the king, who have passed over all rules of justice, over all our titles and rights, and have even included in the arbitral award territories which have never been the object of dispute, and who have gone so far as to reduce us to the highlands of the Andes in such a manner that there was reason to compare us to Switzerland. It is certain that the wisdom and honesty represented by Messrs. Canalejas, Sanchez, Roman, and Maura have come out of the proverbial honesty of Spain; but such illustrious defenders of justice, unfortunately, were in the minority; nevertheless their wise and convincing words [Page 435] have been heard and echoed through all the nations of America and even in the Spanish Peninsula.
These antecedents being known, the project of the award being published, the tenacious resistance of Peru against a direct and conciliatory arrangement being seen, it would be too unjust to censure the decided attitude and the efforts used by the Government to get back the best territory which has been usurped from us; efforts and attitude which have been so much censured in Peru and which her illustrious president has lamented in his last message to the national congress. There is no reason to complain of the means which we take to protect our most cherished interests, since the conduct of the Peruvian Government is very far from the spirit of fraternity which should reign between two neighboring nations, bound by ties which should be unbreakable. The Government of Peru, not content with sustaining at any risk her unjustifiable pretensions upon our territory, has used all efforts to turn and denaturalize the most noble sentiments of the Peruvian people, instilling into them an implacable and deep hate against Ecuador and making them desire war as a necessary means of preserving the national honor. Peru is anxious for the armed strife and places all sorts of obstacles in the way of the reestablishment of South American harmony; Peru believes in her military superiority and is continually threatening to attack us, feeling that she is secure; Peru does not rest in making her propaganda against us, heaping discredit and distrust upon Ecuador by forbidden means. Peru is stirring up sentiment against us in all parts and is now trying the patience of our people.
Nevertheless I desire that that Government should recognize the depth of the abyss into which it is dragging two peoples of the same origin and equal aspirations; and in order that finally it may conform itself to repairing the immense injury it has done us and render homage to the laws of reason and justice, even though it may not do this except for its own expediency. But if such a blindness finally produces its dire results, if war should break out in spite of our efforts to avoid it, I have full confidence that the Ecuadorian army, the incarnation of outraged right and justice, will conquer all resistance and will obtain by force of arms that which is refused us by the most pacific and conciliatory means.
It is not necessary to speak to you of the noble patriotism of the Ecuadorian people, who are ready at any moment to take up arms and march in the defense of the national honor; ardent and true patriotism is the sure pledge of victory; but I shall speak to you of the sympathies upon which our cause is counting among other nations; in such a manner that if occasion arises Ecuador will have many generous allies in the work of recovery, which ridiculed justice and good faith demand from us.
The minister for foreign affairs will inform you of all the details of the international situation; also as to the approval of the Peralta-Uribe treaty of alliance unanimously accepted by the Colombian assembly; also accepted by you in the last extraordinary congress.
In the message which I presented to the national congress in its ordinary session of 1898 I said the following: “The veneration which I have for the heroes of our independence, who gave us a country, the most powerful in Central and South America, impels me to fix my attention upon our actual debility and smallness, and I say to you that, in my judgment, it would be expedient to form a grand brotherhood in order to assure ourselves a tranquil future.”
At the present time it is impossible to consider the reconstruction of the ancient and glorious Colombia of Bolivar, but it will be easy to form a confederation which will present united before the world the peoples who won their independence in the battles of Carabobo, Boyaca, and Pichincha. This union effected, these nations would continue to control their destinies in their internal affairs as they best see fit, just as they have been doing up to the present time; but concerning foreign relations they would form a single political unity, composed of Venezuela, Colombia, and Ecuador, in confederation, with a total of 8,000,000 inhabitants, scattered from the shores of the Orinoco and the Amazon basin to the Gulf of Guayas—that is to say, in all of the richest territory in the continent of Colon.
A diet, composed of plenipotentiaries from the three Republics, will be called to organize this great national unity, which would make us strong and respected before the other powers and will permit us to take a great position as a nation in the life of the future. Moreover, we would then have the advantage that our boundary questions, so dangerous and so important to-day, which are insignificant when arranged by a practical fraternity, would be settled by amphictyonic commissions, in the same manner as family quarrels. The union and cordiality of the peoples who formed the grand Colombia of the liberators have been shown before the world in such an eloquent and striking manner in the great patriotic festivals that the most opportune moment appears to have arrived for the realization of the vast and useful idea of the [Page 436] Colombian confederation. This is the thought which to-day burns in the minds of all the Ecuadorian statesmen and of those of our two sisters on the north; it is the fervent aspiration of all the peoples who have inherited the glorious rainbow flag; it is the key to prosperity and the future growth of the three divisions of the Republic of Bolivar. I recommend to you to closely study this great problem, and if you think as I do you will agree to authorize me to negotiate the respective preliminaries with the Governments of Caracas and Bogota.
The great Republic of Chile, after the retirement of Minister Pinto Aguero, who has left such pleasant remembrances with us, has accredited as envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary the distinguished and well-known diplomat, Mr. Victor Eastman; and I take pleasure in informing you that the actions of the new representative of that friendly country have been in entire conformity with the sentiments of fraternity and harmony which unite the two countries.
The Government of Chile, in our actual conflict with Peru, has worked with interest in order that we should arrive at a pacific and satisfactory solution.
A few days ago I had the satisfaction to solemnly receive his excellency Mr. Alfredo Barros Moreira, minister resident of the United States of Brazil, accredited to my Government; and his presence among us is an eloquent proof of the sincere and reciprocal sympathy which exists between Ecuador and the noble Brazilian people.
The distinguished diplomatic corps which honors us with its residence in the capital is composed of prominent persons who have received, on account of their great merit, the general appreciation and special distinctions on the part of the Government.
I will end this part of my message by recommending to you, as a proof of friendship and deference to Brazil, that you approve in first sessions the Arévalo-Rio Branco Treaty of Commerce and Fluvial Navigation, which was submitted to you at the proper time.