File No. 812.00/13774.
Special Agent Canova to the Secretary of State.
President Gutiérrez has requested me to transmit the following to the Secretary of State:
Hon. Leon J. Canova,
Confidential Agent of the American
Government:
I have to ask you the favor of transmitting to his excellency the Secretary of State of the United States of America, for him to bring to the attention of His Excellency the President, the following note:
The Republic has undergone in the last few years a terrible crisis in which the democratic ideals of government and the yearnings of the people for justice and economic improvement have triumphed. The last civil strife ended with [Page 621] the overthrow of General Huerta’s dictatorship; since then the Constitutionalist forces have occupied the capital of the Republic and Senor Venustiano Carranza has assumed charge of the executive power ad interim. It was thought, in view of the prevailing disagreement, that the best way to establish a government acceptable by all was to hold a national convention where all militant factions should be represented. After various conferences between the various chiefs, it was agreed to designate this city of Aguascalientes as the meeting place, and on October 10 the Military Convention of Aguascalientes was organized, with representatives of all the revolutionist elements. Subsequently the said assembly declared itself to be the sovereign power of the Republic, as being the representative of the people in arms who had fought to reconstitute the nation.
By virtue thereof the Convention proceeded to elect the Provisional President of the Republic, and I was designated by a majority of votes to hold that office. In so proceeding the Convention gave expression to the purposes of the revolution and endeavored to demonstrate that no government can exist in Mexico that does not emanate from the will of the people, for the time of dictatorships born of violence and personal ambitions has passed forever.
In the same democratic form and voicing the sentiment of the revolutionary and reforming majority, the Convention is continuing its work in formulating the program of government with which my Provisional Administration must comply, and preparing the reforms which are the object of the revolutionary movement. It will also appoint a date on which the elections will be held to designate the Constitutional Powers of the Republic.
In the meanwhile I will strive to adapt the policy of the Government to the needs of the country and scrupulously guarantee the life and property of the foreigners who have come, under the protection of our hospitality and laws, to cooperate with us in the aggrandizement of the nation.
The new Government in my charge will move to Mexico City and achieve the complete pacification of the country; it will try to meet the just demands of all the inhabitants, although without swerving from the performance of its duties.
In announcing to your excellency’s Government the establishment of a new regime in Mexico, I rely on the strong sympathies which the President of your Republic has always shown to the Mexican people and their institutions, and I am gratified to hope that the good relations that have united us with the powerful and civilized American nation will subsist in the future and that the forces of your Government will very soon be withdrawn from our port of Vera Cruz; then will our relations be again completely cordial and close, as is to be desired between adjoining peoples who are brothers by civilization and common ideals.
The Provisional President of the Republic,
E. Gutiérrez.
Aguascalientes, November 13, 1914.