President Taft to the President of Mexico.
Washington , February 5, 1910 .
Highly Esteemed Mr. President: I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your valued letter of December 31, 1909, which your ambassador, Señor Don Francisco L. de la Barra, so courteously handed to me on January 21.
This letter I highly appreciate as a mark of the sincere friendship felt by yourself and the Government and people of Mexico for the Government and the people of the United States and as a proof of the relations of cordial and mutual regard which so happily unite the two countries.
Your sending to Washington, accredited in the capacity of confidential agent, such a distinguished representative as Señor Don Enrique C. Creel, your former ambassador here, I also esteemed as equally an evidence of your courteous and friendly disposition toward us. I received Señor Creel with much pleasure, and occasion arose for me to indicate briefly to him the attitude of the United States toward granting refuge to the ex-President of Nicaragua, Señor Don Jose Santos Zelaya. That attitude had been precisely and fully set forth to the confidential agent by the Secretary of State, and since you make reference to the matter in your courteous letter I have now requested the Secretary of State to cause our embassy in Mexico to hand to the foreign office a detailed statement of what was said on the subject to Señor Creel in Washington and communicated by Rear Admiral Kimball to the Mexican minister at Managua
It is a source of great gratification, Mr. President, to me to know that you and your Government have viewed with satisfaction the attitude of this Government’ in regard to the refuge accorded to Señor Zelaya, and in conclusion I am happy to assure you that I shall in the future, as in the past, be happy to receive Señor Francisco L. de la Barra, your ambassador at this capital, with that high degree of cordiality which he deserves, both on account of his character, as your excellency’s representative, and his personal talents and qualities.
Believe me, Mr. President, to be your cordial friend,