Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, With the Address of the President to Congress December 7, 1915
File No. 812.00/15106.
The Special Envoy from President Gutierrez to the Secretary of State.
Sir: My note to your excellency expressing my mission to the United States as the Envoy of President Gutierrez of Mexico, will be handed to you personally by the General Counsel of the Mexican Government in the United States, Joseph R. Wilson Esq., of Philadelphia, who will give your excellency any further information that you may desire in connection with said note.
With high esteem [etc.]
[Untitled]
The Citizen Provisional President of the United States of Mexico, General Eulalio Gutierrez, in consideration of your patriotism has ordered your appointment as General Representative of the Government of Mexico before the Government of the United States of America, with all the faculties of an Especial and Extraordinary Envoy, with power to act as superior officer over all the diplomatic representatives, consuls or agents of any rank who may be acting for this Government in the said United States of America.
Which I communicate to you for your guidance, protesting to you my esteem’.
February 23, 1915.
To the Citizen José Vasconcelos,
Attorney at Law and Secretary of
Education.
Special Envoy Vasconcelos to the Secretary of State.
Sir: Acting under instructions of President Gutierrez of Mexico, I have the honor to submit the following:
After the overthrow of Huerta, the Revolution in Mexico ended by forming a Convention in which all the chiefs and generals of the victorious army met together and elected a [Page 677] President. A new Government was thus formed with General Gutierrez as the head of it, and the Government of the United States was properly notified through its special agent, Mr. Leon J. Canova.
[Review of political and military events.]
The Convention of Aguascalientes that had elected Gutierrez President, came in a body to Mexico City with Gutierrez. At the last meeting celebrated in Aguascalientes it was decided that the Convention would reassemble in Mexico City on the first January, 1915, and that a previous call for the first meeting would be published, signed by a permanent committee, which committee was duly appointed. * * * At that time, President Gutierrez had no troops in Mexico City, and he was depending, for the execution of his orders, only on the troops of Villa and Zapata, with the result that President Gutierrez was never consulted and always disobeyed whenever Villa or Zapata decided to execute some one of their enemies, or to exact money from any of the residents of the country. In view of this situation, the permanent Committee of the Convention left Mexico City for San Luis Potosi, the headquarters of President Gutierrez’ own troops. When the delegates to the Convention arrived at San Luis Potosi, they found that Villa was preparing to send troops after them. They then left for Vanegas, in the State of San Luis Potosi, and from there they issued a statement which was wired to all the delegates of the Convention, to all the authorities in the country, and I believe to the United States’ press, declaring that the Convention of Aguascalientes could not reassemble in Mexico City the first day of January of the present year, as had been agreed upon, because the troops of General Villa and Zapata did not afford protection, as already two of the members of the Convention had been shot by the aforesaid Generals and many delegates had to flee to avoid the same fate. President Gutierrez therefore decided at the end of December to depose Villa and Zapata, and he began to send special agents to all the governors and military chiefs of the country, notifying them of his intentions.
In the meanwhile, Villa and Zapata called together a group of their personal friends and endeavored to organize with them a Convention, to substitute the Convention of Aguascalientes and if possible to take its name and legal capacity. On the first of January, 1915, this group of Villa’s and Zapata’s friends, headed by Villa himself, by Rodolfo Fierros, the murderer of Benton, and many others, met in the building of the Mexican Congress, and declared itself a Revolutionary Convention. This new convention did not contain more than twenty-five delegates from the original Aguascalientes Convention.
This group of men offered President Gutierrez the ratification of his appointment as Provisional President of the country. This offer President Gutierrez refused to discuss, as he did not want to acknowledge any rights in these men, who were trying to usurp the Convention of Aguascalientes, At the same time he did not want to protest openly against their acts until he was ready to carry out his plan of deposing Villa and Zapata, and to announce to the public the manner in which both of said generals had succeeded in preventing the Convention of Aguascalientes from continuing its work. On the 17th of January, 1915, President Gutierrez called a meeting of his Cabinet; Ministers Blanco, Robles, Felicitos, Villareal, Gama, and Vasconcelos were present. Gutierrez reported that it had become indispensable for the Government to dismiss Villa and Zapata from its service; that he counted on the support of Villa’s own generals; and that he was sure that the Carranza generals would comply with their promise to recognize the Gutierrez government as soon as Villa and Zapata were deposed.
Mexico City, where this Cabinet meeting took place, was occupied at the time by 6,000 or 7,000 of the Zapata troops and about 7,000 of the Villa troops. General Robles, Minister of War, informed the Cabinet that he could count on the loyalty of some 3,000 troops, but as this was not enough to protect the Government, he advised that the seat of government be changed to the city of Pachuca, some 60 miles distant from Mexico City. General Robles further informed the Cabinet that he had received information that Villa had ordered the arrest and execution of President Gutierrez and his Cabinet the moment they tried to leave Mexico City.
At this meeting President Gutierrez, supported by all of the Ministers present, ordered the deposition from command of Villa and Zapata, and addressed a communication to the so-called Revolutionary Convention, stating that he refused to acknowledge it or its authority, as it did not represent even 20% of the Convention of Aguascalientes and had assembled without any proper call from the permanent Committee of the Aguascalientes Convention, and also because the delegates to the Convention of Aguascalientes had been unable to reassemble in Mexico City on account of the murders and atrocities of Villa and Zapata.
When the meeting ended it was 3 or 4 o’clock in the morning, and the President, with the other members of his Cabinet and some 3,000 troops, left for Pachuca. On his arrival at Pachuca, the President and his Cabinet were received by the Governor of the state, who placed all his troops under the command of General Robles, Gutierrez’ Minister of War. General Victor Elizondo, Governor of Aguascalientes, immediately thereafter manifested his decision to support President Gutierrez and to receive orders only from him. General Villa promptly had him arrested and shot, and the government of the state was placed in the hands of one of Villa’s officers. General Elizondo was the first victim of Villa in his rebellion against the Mexican Government.
In order to join the main body of his troops, which was located at San Luis Potosi. President Gutierrez left Puchuca on horseback, accompanied by his Cabinet and loyal troops.
When he arrived in the vicinity of San Luis Potosi, about 20 days later, he found that the city had been captured by Villa’s troops. Prom that time up to the present, President Gutierrez has been organizing his troops and has established his Government in the City of Doctor Arroyo, State of Nuevo Leon. From this place he is directing affairs, and has under his command a considerable army, composed of the original troops of Generals Blanco, Robles, Benavidos and others. He is also in close touch with General Carrera Torres, who has over 10,000 men in the southern part of Tamaulipas, and with General Cedillo, who has about 8,000 men in the eastern part of San Luis Potosi. Both of these last-named generals are also faithful to the Government of the Convention of Aguascalientes.
In presenting all of these facts to the State Department of the United States, which I have the honor to do, I am acting under the special instructions of President Gutierrez, he having clothed me with proper credentials, of which I [Page 678] enclose translated copies. I also avail myself of the opportunity to enclose a translated copy of the Manifesto22 issued by President Gutierrez, explaining the situation of the Mexican Government and its attitude toward Carranza, Villa and Zapata.
President Gutierrez, whose Government represents the will of the party of the Revolution of Mexico, is perfectly informed of the attitude of the United States Government towards his country. The fact that the United States’ policy has been one of non-interference in Mexican affairs has reaffirmed the bonds of friendship which for many years have united the two neighboring nations.
President Gutierrez will at the first opportunity reassemble the Convention of Aguascalientes, and before that legal body he will offer to resign his power, in order to leave the Convention free to elect as President any man who may answer to the necessities and the rights of all of the Mexican people.
It is my duty to call your attention to the fact that President Gutierrez has a just claim to universal respect, inasmuch that during his administration in Mexico City and thereafter not a single complaint has been filed against him or his lieutenants, either from natives or foreigners. He has shown respect for the law and human life, and has tried to bring about peace by peaceful means, and not through war.
All of which is respectfully submitted to the American Government on behalf of the Government of Mexico by [etc.]
- See ante.↩