File No. 812.00/16988.
Special Agent Silliman to the Secretary of State.
I am requested to transmit the following:
reply of general carranza to the pan american note.
Castillo de San Juan de Ulloa, September 10, 1915.
Your Excellencies: Having acquainted Citizen Venustiano Carranza, First Chief of the Constitutionalist Army in charge of the Executive Power of the Union, with the considerate note41 in which you say that you signed in your official capacity the note42 you sent him under date of August 15 last, inviting him to a conference with the chiefs of the rebel party to consider the Mexican situation and establish peace, he has seen fit to direct me to address your excellencies as I now have the honor to do and say to you in his name that as First Chief of the Constitutionalist Army in charge of the Executive Power of the Republic he cannot consent to a discussion of the domestic affairs of the Republic by mediation or on the initiative of any foreign government whatever, since it is the imperative duty of all to respect the sovereignty of the several nations and inasmuch as acceptance of the invitation of your excellencies would deeply affect the independence of the Republic and set a precedent for foreign intervention [intromisión] in the settlement of our internal questions. This consideration alone would suffice to prevent this Government, in the legitimate defense of the sovereignty of the Mexican people and of the other American peoples, from accepting it. But besides this fundamental consideration there are others which I do not wish to pass over; I desire, rather, to bring to your minds the intimate conviction that the action of the First Chief in charge of the Executive Power in adopting this course is prompted solely by the highest duties laid upon him by his high office. I am sure that your excellencies do not doubt that Mexico is now stirred by a genuine revolution, which aims at doing away with the last vestiges of colonial times as well as with all errors and excesses of past administrations, and [Page 747] satisfying the noble yearning of the Mexican people for well-being and improvement. In the course of our civil strife the aspirations of our people have been refined and clarified, our men have made themselves known, and, under the guidance of the most pressing needs of the nation, the First Chief has proclaimed a complete program of reforms, which has served as the foundation of a new social organization that has begun to take root and of the constitutional government hereafter to be established.
On the other hand, your excellencies may have noticed, from the replies made to your note addressed to the civil and military chiefs under the First Chieftainship, that the First Chief is the only authority that could and does pass upon the question that was submitted to the consideration of those who gave in their answers eloquent examples of discipline and solidarity and striking evidence of the First Chief’s ability to maintain unity in the Constitutionalist Government in the face of a protracted struggle and the ignoble and persistent intrigues of our enemies with the object of relaxing discipline in the Constitutionalist Army and corrupting its leading commanders. On the First Chief, therefore, rests the immense responsibility of realizing the national aspirations; and he cannot, through a compromise [transacción], endanger the fatherland nor permit the enemies of the cause he represents to take direct part in the government. Neither does he deem it just or wise to let the blood spilt on the soil of the Republic go to waste by entering the path which your excellencies courteously and disinterestedly show to him but which, from the teachings of our experience, he believes to be wrong.
Started by Don Francisco I. Madero, the Revolution of 1910 could not be carried out because of the compromise [transacción] effected at Ciudad Juarez with the old régime. The treaties there concluded allowed the enemies of the people a footing and formed one of the main causes of the tragic events of February, 1913, which are surely known to your excellencies, and in the contriving of which no small part was taken by several foreign ministers accredited to the Government of Mexico. After the assassination of President Madero and the consummation of one of the most infamous treasons, the First Chief of the Constitutionalist Army, then Constitutional Governor of the State of Coahuila, took the position he was bound to take under the Constitution. Refusing to recognize General Victoriano Huerta as Chief of the Executive Power and issuing an appeal to the Governors of the other States and commanders of forces to second him in his endeavor to free the people from the ignominious dictatorship of the usurper of the public power, his call was enthusiastically responded to by the people, and long and bloody was the struggle. The Citizen First Chief conquered the usurper, who had at his disposal the largest army the Republic ever had. However, while that conquest was being completed, the reactionaries bribed one of the Constitutionalist generals, Francisco Villa, who made his appearance as chief of a new reactionary movement, availing himself of the powerful forces with which he had been entrusted by the First Chief and mainly aided by those who had supported Huerta the usurper. After the deplorable spectacle of the Aguascalientes Convention and through a renewed fierce struggle the cause of the people again won. The strife is now nearing its end and the reactionary faction, annihilated, is seeking refuge on the northern border, controlling only the State of Chihuahua, a small part of the State of Sonora, and, in the center, the State of Morelos, which the Constitutionalist forces will soon occupy. The First Chief with an army of 150,000 men now dominates the greater part of the national territory and in the vast region under his authority all the departments of public government have been reestablished, all the ways of communication have been repaired, connections have been restored for railway traffic, and in the fields and cities there is a renascence of the activity and bustle of ordinary life.
I have no doubt that your excellencies will draw from the foregoing statement the conviction that by entering into agreements with the vanquished faction the First Chief would not only relinquish the victory won at the cost of so many sacrifices but also the First Chieftainship of the Constitutional Army and the Executive Power of the nation and thereby foil the faith and confidence reposed in him by the Mexican army and people.
Furthermore, your excellencies must not forget that the yearning of this people for freedom and democracy is entirely legitimate and that nobody has a right to prevent their enjoyment in the not distant future of the fruits of their trying struggle.
[Page 748]In view of the foregoing, the Citizen First Chief of the Constitutionalist Army in charge of the Executive Power directs me to say to you, as I now have the honor to do, that he regrets his inability to accept your courteous invitation under the conditions and for the purposes stated therein; but that, imbued with the sincerity and noble desires of the Governments of your excellencies to contribute to the restoration of peace in Mexico (soon to be restored by the forces of the Constitutionalist Government) and by way of responding to the courtesy of your excellencies and in evidence of the harmony and true friendship that must exist among the American Republics, he in his turn has the pleasure of inviting you to join—in person or by a committee appointed from among your excellencies—in a conference with him, which can be held at one of the border towns on the banks of the Rio Grande held by his forces which might be agreed on in advance, for the purpose of discussing Mexican affairs from the international standpoint, with the sole object of determining whether your excellencies consider that the First Chief of the Constitutionalist Army in charge of the Executive Power, Citizen Venustiano Carranza, exercises a de facto government in the Republic with all the attributes for recognition as such, and, if so, of recommending to your respective Governments that he be recognized in that character.
This would afford a further occasion for drawing closer the relations of friendship between the people and Governments of your excellencies and the Mexican people and Government.
I have the honor [etc.]
Jesús Acuña,
Secretary in charge of the Department of
Foreign Relations.