Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, With the Address of the President to Congress December 7, 1915
File No. 812.00/15251.
The Brazilian Minister to Mexico to the Secretary of State ad interim.
Mexico City, June 16, 1915—11 a.m.
643. I beg to transmit following note delivered to me yesterday night.
[Untitled]
Mr. Minister: With respect to the declarations publicly made by His Excellency President Wilson as to the policy he will pursue in Mexican affairs, the Sovereign Revolutionist Convention has seen fit to authorize the citizen in charge [Page 713] of the Executive Power to make the following declarations in accordance with the basis approved by the said Sovereign Convention and most dutifully entreating you to be pleased to transmit them to the Washington Government.
The Revolution which overthrew a government born of murder and usurpation and which, as President Wilson declared, had all of his and the American people’s sympathies at the very moment of its triumph and when selfish tendencies took shape that would forcibly and necessarily have prevented the achievement of the demanded reforms and the realization of the sought ideals, split into three great groups whose aspirations, while having many points in common so far as their ends were concerned, very deeply differed and now differ on the form and process of such achievement.
This split, which the great majority of the people did not look for but which to those who knew the openly selfish disposition of one high in the group that headed the Constitutionalist faction, was unavoidable; and the manifestly democratic tendencies of the other groups brought forth the idea of calling a meeting of the leading elements of the factions with a view to arriving at a harmonious adjustment of all their differences and thus warding off another strife that would again stain our country with blood.
Such was the origin of the Sovereign Revolutionist Convention whose labors, originally undertaken at Aguascalientes, were exclusively bent on bringing together within a broad democratic formula all the interests and aspirations of the several revolutionist groups.
Unfortunately, fusion could not be completed. One of the groups, the Carrancistas, refused without reason and in spite of the oath taken by the members of the groups to carry out the resolutions of the Convention to obey the decree confirming General Eulalio Gutierrez in the office of Provisional President of the Republic; and that refusal started another war no less fierce than that waged to uproot the regime of the Huerta usurpation.
Notwithstanding the lack of excuse for the Carrancista rebellion, in spite of its representatives’ promise on their honor to obey the resolutions of the Convention, notwithstanding the offensive conduct of its newspapers in striking contrast with the dignified and serene attitude of the Conventionist press, notwithstanding unlooked-for defections, the Convention persisted in its noble task of bringing together all the revolutionist elements; and recently, but prior to the note which gave occasion for these declarations, another appeal was made to that end to the leading Carrancista chiefs, to whom it was at once referred to arrange an armistice as the indispensable foundation for a satisfactory agreement.
There is no reason to believe that in the trying conditions now experienced by the country the Carrancista group will on this occasion stubbornly turn a deaf ear to the appeal now made to it; but if so, if it should once more refuse to listen to this call of fraternity and concord, upon that faction will rest the historic responsibility for the prosecution of a fratricidal war at the awe-compelling moment when the fatherland demands as its supreme hope for life that all those who confronted death that it might live prosperous and free, unite.
But whatever may be the outcome of the unification endeavor that has been undertaken and in so far as that end may be reached, the Conventionist Government will invariably aim at establishing the reign of law and restoring Constitutionalist order by setting up beforehand all those reforms which are the goal of the Revolution, which the Convention examined and proposes, to which the people are entitled and without which stable and organic peace can never be established. * * *
The Conventionist Government does not see, does not wish to see in the substance of the declarations made by His Excellency President Wilson anything more than an advice, a friendly suggestion to induce the contending groups to wipe out their differences and lead them into the path to the end pursued by the Revolution. Coming to the declaration that if we Mexicans can not settle our differences within a very short time the Government of the American Union will find itself constrained to decide as to what means it shall use to bring it about, the Conventionist Government can not understand how President Wilson previously declares in the same note that the United States does not desire or claim any right to settle the affairs of Mexico; and more to the same effect. The same chief of the American nation made at Indianapolis the following categorical declarations:
“I am proud to belong to a powerful nation which says that country Mexico which we could crush will enjoy the same liberty in the management of its affairs as we enjoy. If I am strong I should be ashamed to dictate to the weak in the measure of my strength. My pride consists in keeping my strength free and not in oppressing another people with it.”
If, contrary to the interpretation which in the most friendly sense the Conventionist Government puts upon President Wilson’s declarations, this closing part should signify a denial of the instinctive sympathy generously demonstrated to the Mexican Revolution and should further signify pressure or threat, the Conventionist Government, still harboring the consciousness of its sacrifice, will maintain the dignity of the Mexican people. We continue, however, to conjecture that the general idea of the Government of the United States is to help us in a friendly way to bring to an end our fratricidal struggle which would be for the greatest good of the country. The Government is ready to bring about by all means consistent with its dignity the fusion of all the contending groups, to initiate all the economic, political and social reforms aimed at by the Revolution and to establish a strong stable Government with which all tendencies and all legitimate interests will find the fullest favor and enjoy the guaranties which our fundamental law provides; and this course, which will invariably govern its acts, will be the fullest justification of the conduct of the Conventionist Government, in the hope that it will be duly appreciated by all the Governments with which it cultivates friendly relations.
Francisco Lagos Cházaro.
June 14, 1915.
In compliance with the express order of the Sovereign Revolutionist Convention, I express to you the cordial thanks of this Honorable Assembly for the good offices tending to find a worthy solution of the present conflict
I renew to you for my part my most distinguished consideration and special regard.