Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, With the Address of the President to Congress December 8, 1914
File No. 812.00/12263½.
Specially Commissioner Lamar to the Secretary of State.
Sir: After returning this afternoon from the [third plenary] conference, at which the first item33 of the plan was definitely agreed upon,34 we received a note from Mr. Rabasa with an enclosure setting out the objections of the Mexican delegates to the plan proposed by the American commissioners. That note and enclosure we send herewith, calling attention to several unfavorable expressions.
With assurances [etc.]
The Mexican Delegation to the American Delegation.
Niagara Falls, June 12, 1914.
My Dear Mr. Lamar: I beg to send you a memorandum in which are set forth the objections which the Mexican Delegation has to the propositions submitted by the Delegation [over] which you preside. My colleagues and I have thought it advisable to clearly explain the bases of our objections, so that the American Delegation can consider them carefully and weigh their importance.
With assurances [etc.]
memorandum.
The proposition submitted by the American Delegation show that the aim and end of its policy is to obtain an unconditional and absolute triumph for the revolution, and in pursuing it it takes upon itself the direction of Mexico’s internal affairs, definitely decides to follow the way which leads to immediate intervention and assumes the responsibility for the new order of things which it establishes.
The American Government, through its Delegates, exacts: (1) That the Provisional President shall be a Constitutionalist; (2) That the electoral board shall contain a Constitutionalist majority; (3) That the land and naval forces of the United States of America shall remain in Mexico and in Mexican waters for a length of time which the Washington Government can make indefinite and extend to the time of the election. All the foregoing conditions imply the right to impose a President on Mexico at the forthcoming elections; for, if all the elements of the Provisional Government are to be revolutionary, the liberty of the elections will be a fraud.
By insisting now that Carranza and his followers shall form the Provisional Government, the Washington Government forces the elections in favor of the [Page 528] former. This is bad for Mexico, bad for the United States of America, and even bad for Carranza. Bad for the two nations because of the natural and just feelings of hostility which the procedure of the United States of America will create in Mexico. Bad for the revolutionary chief and his partisans because public opinion in Mexico will accuse them of having brought about the intervention of a foreign power in the country’s affairs and of being subject to a foreign government.
For the above reasons the Mexican Delegation has immediately declared to the Mediators that it rejects the proposal to hand over the government of Mexico to the Constitutionalists, and that it does so of its own accord, without consulting the Government, as it firmly refuses to be made a party to proceedings which place the election of the President of Mexico in the hands of the Washington Government.
What are the Washington Government’s objections to the proposal made by the Mediators for the establishment of a neutral provisional government—a proposal accepted by the Mexican Delegates without discussion? The world will have but one answer to this question, and that will be that the Washington Government does not want Mexico to have electoral liberty. It is obvious that a free election in a country unused to the exercise of suffrage can only be held under an impartial government. The establishment of a neutral government is the only course that can be proposed in fairness to the Mexican people, whose welfare has constantly been proclaimed by President Wilson as the motive of his attitude. If the good of the Mexican people is really under consideration, the views of that people on the matter must be consulted; their good cannot be imposed upon them.
The Washington Government and its Delegation draw an inference which is illogical. “The advance of the revolution,” they say, “shows that the national sentiment is with it, and, consequently, that the nation wants Carranza for President.” Better logic makes an opposite deduction. It takes into account the fact that the revolution holds no sway in the central and western States (among which are Oaxaca, Vera Cruz, Guanajuato, Jalisco, Puebla and Mexico, each with over a million inhabitants) and, all of them together, with a total population of over ten million—an undeniable fact which proves that two-thirds of Mexicans are anti-revolutionary.
But let us accept the supposition on which the Washington Government founds its strange demand. If the nation really wants Carranza for President his election is a foregone conclusion under a neutral government, and it is therefore unnecessary to impose him by means of a provisional government of his partisans. If the nation wants Carranza, why stain his election with the suspicion of fraud and violence, why foul it with the show of American intervention?
Carranza raised to the dignity of First Magistrate by the national will, expressed through a free election, will be a President worthy of respect, capable of unifying the public spirit and of laying the foundations of definite peace in Mexico. Carranza owing his position to a prearranged move from Washington will be a President without the slightest prestige, rendered useless for anything good, against whom will be raised the popular clamor to accuse him of treachery and of an abiding subjection to the will of the White House.
If the Washington Government insists on the propositions which the Mexican Delegation can under no circumstances accept, an agreement will be impossible and the negotiations are doomed to failure. The struggle in Mexico will continue, and the Washington Government cannot deny that a rebel triumph means the bloodiest battles, the death of thousands of combatants, the death or outrage of numberless peaceful citizens, the sacking and pillage of cities and the devastation of property. It is not for the Washington Government, the representative of a civilized people of high moral culture, to assume the responsibility for these atrocities for a mere matter of form. If the national sentiment of Mexico upholds the revolution, it is better that this should be made plain at the polls, which honor a people, than in those horrors which shame humanity.
To resume: the matter is of minor importance according to the ideas held by the American Government, as it is one of form. Carranza will become President of Mexico in one way or another, it is asserted. The discussion is whether this end is to be achieved by means of a rebel Provisional Government which shall force his election or by means of a neutral Provisional Government, which will preside over the elections honestly and impartially. And if the question is one of mere form, it is inconceivable that it should be sufficient to [Page 529] cut short the conference and to urge on the combatants in the bloody strife which will continue the devastation of Mexico.
These reasons also prevent our acceptance of a proposition which establishes an electoral board with a Constitutionalist majority and therefore created with the express purpose of obtaining the victory for a given party.
The same reasons prevent us from accepting the proposal which prolongs indefinitely the stay of the naval forces in Mexican waters and that of the land forces in the city of Vera Cruz. Elections in Mexico cannot and must not be held in the presence of a display of material pressure on the people of the country.
June 11, 1914.