File No. 837. 911/32.
In consequence of this letter the President has pardoned Maza. The press
has expressed much satisfaction over our action in this matter. While
profusely welcoming Maza’s release, I have noticed no attempt to
exculpate his act or revive the feeling against our Government to which
the assault upon Mr. Gibson was attributed.
[Inclosure.]
Minister Gonzales
to the President of Cuba.
American Legation,
Habana,
July 2, 1914.
My Dear Mr. President: With an
understanding of that courtesy between nations that precludes the
Government of one country from extending clemency to one of its
nationals for an offense committed against another country without
the consent of the offended country, representatives of the
Asociacion de la Prensa de Cuba and the Sociedad de Bobineras have
sought my intercession in behalf of Enrique Maza, who, on October 7,
1912, began serving a prison sentence of 2½ years as punishment for
an assault upon Mr. Gibson, then Chargé d’Affaires of the United
States in Cuba.
I am authorized to say to Your Excellency on behalf of my Government
that the time already served by Maza might well be considered by the
Cuban Government as sufficient satisfaction of his sentence, and
that the United States has no desire for his further
confinement.
This attitude of my Government must not be taken as indicating that
the offense of an attack upon the person of the representative of
the United States, in resentment of his official acts, is viewed in
other than the most serious light.
I wish to take this opportunity to deny the assumption that because
Maza had a journalistic connection his act represents the press. It
is futile, as it is unreasoning and narrow, to expect that the
customs and standards of one people should take the mold of another
people, but the spirit of a free press is universal. It knows the
boundaries of no countries. Liberty, when first given the press by
the people, was for service performed and expected for the people. A
free press is unknown except among self-governing people, and for
such people respect for the law of the land is the surest guaranty
of justice and safety for the masses.
If the press has a mission, it is to stand unfalteringly for good
government, and therefore to contend always for those prime
essentials of good government, honesty in the affairs of government,
and obedience to the law by all classes. The true patriot is not one
who loudly proclaims his patriotism and makes protest against
alleged wrongs to his country by violating law and bringing reproach
upon that country; it is the one who practices and preaches good
citizenship.
The journalist who indulges in lawless acts debars himself from
defending the law and places himself in antagonism to the spirit of
that press which is worthy its constitutional liberty. Such a
journalist may no more become the champion of law and order and
defender of the people’s rights than the newspaper that prostitutes
itself, by secretly selling its influence against public welfare,
may assail dishonesty and immorality. The spirit of the press that
earned a right to free speech, because its voice was raised against
dishonesty, injustice and crime, and which is unbought and
unpurchasable, stands unfalteringly for law and order, equality
before the law and responsibility for infraction of the law.
The spirit of the press is the spirit of patriotism; it has nothing
in common with unbridled passions or lawlessness—those are bred of
the spirit of anarchy.
With renewed assurance [etc.]
