File No. 832.00/6172c.
The Secretary of State to the American Ambassador.
Washington, February 15, 1913—midnight.
The President received the following telegram on February 14, at 9 p.m., from President Madero:
[Translation.]
I have been informed that the Government over which Your Excellency worthily presides has ordered warships to Mexican coasts with troops to be disembarked to come to this capital to give protection to Americans. Undoubtedly the information which you have and which has caused you so to determine is erroneous or exaggerated, since the lives of the Americans in this capital will be in no danger if they quit the firing zone and concentrate themselves at certain places in the city and in suburban towns in which there is absolute tranquillity and in which the Government can give them every measure of protection. If you will instruct Americans resident in the capital to do this, according to the practice established by one of your former messages, all danger to the lives of American and foreign residents will be avoided. With regard to material damages to property, the Government does not hesitate to accept all the responsibility imposed upon it by international law.
I request, then, that Your Excellency order your ships not to disembark troops, since this will cause a conflagration with consequences inconceivably more vast than that which it is desired to remedy. I assure Your Excellency that the Government is taking all measures to the end that the rebels in the citadel shall do the least damage possible and I have hopes that soon everything will be settled. It is true that my country is passing at this moment through a terrible trial, and the disembarkation of American forces would only make the situation worse; and, through a lamentable error, the United States would do a terrible wrong to a nation which has always been a loyal friend, and will tend to make more difficult the reestablishment in Mexico of a democratic [Page 714] government similar to that of the great American nation. I appeal to the sentiments of equity and justice which have been the rule of your Government and which undoubtedly represent the feelings of the great American people over whose destinies you have presided with such skill.
This evening the Mexican Embassy has presented a note embodying the following instruction from the Mexican Government:
[Translation.]
At the suggestion of Ambassador Wilson, with a part of the Diplomatic Horns, one of its members was commissioned to request President Madero to resign in order to solve the present conflict in the city. The President refused to recognize the right of the diplomatic representatives who had come together to interfere in the domestic affairs of the nation and informed them that he was resolved to die at his post before permitting foreign interference. The Ambassador, in view of local circumstances, will try, perhaps, to disembark marines, and this will produce an unnecessary international conflict of terrible consequences. It is urgent, therefore, to avoid disembarkation. We will give all possible protection to Americans and their interests.
The President before replying would like to know as soon as possible just what the Embassy has said to the Mexican Government regarding the landing of forces and what part the Embassy had in the reported request to President Madero in regard to resigning, made by a part of the Diplomatic Corps.