817.00/5935: Telegram
The Minister in Nicaragua (Eberhardt) to the Secretary of State
[Received 10 p.m.]
318. Legation’s August 18, 4 p.m.53 On August 20th the Conservative member of the National Board presented a statement opposing the acceptance by the Board of General Moncada’s nomination for the Presidency on the following grounds.
[Page 504]1. That Moncada is a Senator whose term does not expire until 1930 who cannot be relieved from that office except:
- (1)
- By accepting appointment under the Executive;
- (2)
- By resignation accepted by a two-thirds vote of the Senate;
- (3)
- By formal declaration of two-thirds of Congress that there is ground for criminal prosecution against him.
As it would be impossible to occupy both positions at the same time it was argued that Moncada could not legally be elected President while still a member of the Senate.
2. That Moncada was ineligible under the provisions of article 2 of the General Treaty of Peace and Amity of 192354 because he was Minister of War in a revolutionary government. The Conservative member cited the action of the United States in the case of Carias in Honduras in 1924 to support his contention.55
3. That Moncada had been guilty of fraud against the public treasury. Evidence including a detailed statement signed by Hill as High Commissioner was presented to show that Moncada while occupying a position in the Senate in 1925 had obtained passage of a law ordering payment to him of a sum of money which he had already collected several years previous. It was alleged that the old document presented to support his claim had been mutilated in such a way as to prevent identification in the records of the Treasury Department.
On August 21st the National Board, with the dissenting vote of the Conservative member, decided to accept Moncada’s nomination. General McCoy presented a statement in which he rejected the constitutional arguments of the Conservative member by pointing out that the Constitution contained no express prohibition against the election of a Senator to the Presidency and that there could not be set up an implied prohibition because the Constitution specifically stated in every other case the circumstances which would disqualify persons from holding office. General McCoy’s position on this point is fully sustained by a precedent established in 1919 when a member of the Chamber of Deputies was elected to the Senate and permitted to take office in that body, thus showing that the theory that a member of Congress cannot be relieved from his position to accept election to another position is entirely untenable.
General McCoy’s statement further pointed out that the Central American treaty referred to recognition by other Governments and could not affect constitutionally the eligibility of a Presidential candidate. It contained also the following paragraph:
“The conclusive answer to the objection to General Moncada’s candidacy, based on the above-mentioned treaty, is that no recognized [Page 505] Government was overthrown by the revolution in which he participated. Therefore the treaty does not apply. If General Moncada comes into power he will do so, not in succession to a revolutionary government in which he participated, but in succession through legal election to a constitutionally established Government.”
On the third point General McCoy stated that the National Board of Elections could not reject a candidate merely because of an informal accusation made against him.
- Not found in Department files.↩
- See Conference on Central American Affairs, Washington, December 4, 1922–February 7, 1923 (Washington, Government Printing Office, 1923), pp. 287, 288.↩
- See Foreign Relations, 1924, vol. ii, pp. 300–301.↩