File No. 812.00/15294.
Special Agent Carothers to the Secretary of State.
The following is General Villa’s reply to the note of President Wilson:
The consideration and respect which the President of the United States of America has won, both in his own country and outside of it, due to his high sense of justice, and more particularly among the middle and lower classes in Mexico, a consideration and respect which I share, oblige me to make—in reply to his solemn and public declaration respecting the future policy of his Government concerning our present civil war and the entreaties which he has made to the armed factions to reestablish harmony among themselves—the following declaration, equally public and solemn. I believe that I am justified in making it also in the name of the faction whose political sentiments are represented by the Government of the Convention and supported by the army under my command.
The Mexican people recognize the fact that the American people observed with the same horror as ourselves the assassination of President Madero and Vice President Pino Suarez, and for this reason generously sympathized with the Constitutionalist movement which had for its principal object the deposing the usurper from power and the reestablishing of our Constitution in order to effect through the law the social betterment of the people, as was the aim of the Revolution of 1910.
Because of the moral aid which the people of the United States lent us in those circumstances, the usurpers charged the American Government and ourselves with giving and receiving, respectively, material aid in fomenting the revolution. The Mexican people feel a sincere gratitude toward the American people for that generous sympathy and moral support and it pleases me to note that President Wilson recognizes that the people and the Government of the United States have no wish to take any part in the settling of our internal affairs.
It is an unfortunate circumstance that after achieving our triumph dissensions arose between us, causing a renewal of civil war; but we should consider that while there may enter in part in this condition the ambition of certain men, there is also a matter of principle which should be understood in order that superficial judgment be not passed upon all as infamously ambitious, who in one or the other group seek to apply the triumph to the benefit of the people.
The false belief of certain “leaders” that within the constitutional order it was impossible to carry out the principles of the revolution—a false belief selfishly defended by those who in its name attempted to keep themselves in power indefinitely, without laws, without tribunals, without any principle of discipline—within one month plunged us into utter anarchy in our own capital and in almost all the places occupied by the forces of the First Chief of the Constitutionalist Army. So also the tactlessness of Señor Carranza brought us into strained relations with friendly nations. Surely these nations have not forgotten the insubordinate acts, perpetrated even yet, against the persons and property of diplomatic representatives by officers and soldiers serving [Page 702] under the banner of Senor Carranza, which he has never been in a position to check.
In view of the loss of prestige to the Revolution through such disorder—the indefinite postponement of reorganization of finances, credits and interior administration, the failure to return to constitutional government and to install fundamental laws based on revolutionary principles—the Chiefs of the Division of the North and of other corps, in accord with a large element of civilians, proposed to the First Chief that he assume the Provisional presidency of the Republic and form a respectable cabinet who would at once reopen the courts of justice and in a short time call general elections and organize civil constitutional government.
Those proposals, presented in the month of September, last to Mr. Carranza by General Alvaro Obregón and by me as chiefs of the Corps of the Northwest and the Division of the North, were given no attention. The First Chief and his followers, in place of calling the people together, preferred to call an essentially military convention, claiming that in order to confirm the triumph of the Revolution it was necesssary to have a long preconstitutional period during which to insert in the Constitution of 1857 the reforms demanded by the Revolution. We believed such a system would ruin the Nation and that constitutional reforms should be made by a congress, elected by the people. There was also in the background of our judgment something more lofty than a question of personalities and Carranza himself has now justified us, for in a manifesto which he issued at Vera Cruz, after the Convention of Aguascalientes had declared him a rebel, he agreed, if he was finally victorious, that he would call a national election of deputies to a constitutional congress.
Therefore no substantial differences exist between the parties. But we decline to admit responsibility for the blood that has been shed. Before this new hatred was engendered, we pledged ourselves to the principle of popular elections and proposed that they be called.
It is my duty as one of the leaders of the Conventionist party to refute the general charges in President Wilson’s note. This note says that, “A central authority at Mexico City is no sooner set up than it is undermined and its authority denied by those who were expected to support it.” Such a charge is not entirely just. The authority of Mr. Carranza was not recognized because he did not recognize the platform of the Revolution and its fundamental principle of reestablishing the force of the Constitution. Later, the Aguascalientes Convention proclaimed its sovereignty, which we all recognized. Since then we Conventionists have loyally supported the supreme authority of that Convention. Mr. Carranza and his followers, however, repudiated the Convention although they themselves had convoked it.
Another charge made against the parties at war is that, “There is no proper protection either for her, [Mexico’s] own citizens or for the citizens of other nations resident and at work within her territory. Mexico is starving and without a government.” There is not, it is true, any authority recognized throughout the country. It is only in this sense that the statement is correct that Mexico is without a government. This happens, however, in all civil wars, in any nation. But as to there being “no proper protection either for her own citizens or for the citizens of other nations,” I find it my duty to deny the charge as far as it refers to the territory controlled by the forces under my command; and as to the civil government annexed to my general headquarters, I myself need not speak, for Mr. Duval West, representing President Wilson, in a telegram of farewell dated March 10 last, among other things said to me: “I am glad to say that I have received an excellent impression of the prevailing quiet and order wherever I have been, and of the facilities and guaranties given to natives and foreigners in their work.” And in a message dated March 17 sent by his excellency the British Ambassador at Washington to the British Consul at El Paso, he requested him to express to my Government his high appreciation of its prompt action in protecting British interests.
Representatives of the British and American Governments have recognized, therefore, that in the territory dominated by my forces guaranties and protection are afforded to native and foreigner alike, a fact that could be further proved by many telegrams from persons of various nationalities.
It is not extraordinary that the operation of the Government and its institutions is now not normal. The labor of reconstruction is always slow; but still slower when done with one hand while the other is engaged in battle. None the less in the midst of the struggle education has been encouraged, reorganization [Page 703] of the courts in almost all the States has been perfected, the Federal courts are already sitting, mining laws have been amended, free coinage effected, the principles of agrarian law and of fisheries and other natural resources have been amended upon principles of equity; the railroad, postal and telegraph services have been improved and arrangements made to send articles of the most urgent necessity to those sections where the war has produced the most suffering.
It is true that the abundance which existed in times of peace is lacking, but there has been great exaggeration, undoubtedly unintentional, in stating that “Mexico is starving” and “her fields lie unseeded” and “her crops are destroyed.” It is true that in the capital, in Monterrey and in certain other cities there has been at times distress; but this has been due to military operations rather than to lack of foodstuffs in the country.
No, we have not arrived at such a degree of misery and despair that we need foreign assistance and our people do not “flee to the mountains,” for they have faith that either faction of the Constitutionalist party will give them guaranties which they have not had during a century of independence, with the exception of the short administration of Señor Madero. This guaranty is freedom from forced service. The odious conscript system that filled thousands of homes with widows and orphans is now abolished. This is one of our greatest conquests and is engraved on’ the hearts of our people.
But there are loftier considerations, of a moral nature, which have always impelled us to urge harmony among revolutionists and pardon for those who do wrong through weakness, thoughtlessness or inertia rather than through ambition or wickedness. These moral considerations have served to placate the hatreds which result in civil wars, to prevent foreign intervention in our internal affairs, and to eliminate all danger of international conflict.
The Chiefs of the Division of the North and others faithful to the agreement signed at Aguascalientes therefore agreed to treat with our opponents in peace parleys arranged by the Convention of Aguascalientes. Unfortunately, many attended these parleys with the sole desire to blind us with false promises.
It was because of the patriotic moral considerations above mentioned that, when I assumed authority for the Northern Section of the Republic, I offered in my first manifesto to receive in brotherly spirit those who had strayed through error; and later, on April 9th, I authorized the return to the territory controlled by my forces of all Mexicans then refugees on foreign soil, excepting only those concerned in the uprising of Felix Diaz and in the crimes of February, 1913. It is therefore not the warning voice of President Wilson which suggests for the first time that we must seek concord nor is the motive of our resolve a belief that by submitting to foreign suggestions we might obtain the sympathy of a powerful nation.
We, Conventionists have not struggled to obtain power nor do we wish to obtain it except through the free vote of the Mexican people. And in view of the possibility of outside intervention in our national affairs we are willing to invite again to concord all the Mexican people so that we may united work for the establishment of the revolutionary principles, and especially for the solution of the agrarian question and for the dissemination of education among the masses. We except from such conference only those whom President Wilson describes as those “who ignored the constitution of the Republic and used their power in contempt of the rights of the people.”
Miguel Diaz Lombardo,
In charge of the Office of Foreign Relations.
Aguascalientes, June 10, 1915.