It is my duty to call your attention to a situation which has arisen in
our dealings with General Victoriano Huerta at Mexico City which calls
for action, and to ask your advice and cooeperation in acting upon it. On
the 9th of April a paymaster of the U.S.S. _Dolphin_ landed at the
Iturbide Bridge landing at Tampico with a whaleboat and boat's crew to
take off certain supplies needed by his ship, and while engaged in
loading the boat was arrested by an officer and squad of men of the army
of General Huerta. Neither the paymaster nor anyone of the boat's crew
was armed. Two of the men were in the boat when the arrest took place
and were obliged to leave it and submit to be taken into custody,
notwithstanding the fact that the boat carried, both at her bow and at
her stern, the flag of the United States. The officer who made the
arrest was proceeding up one of the streets of the town with his
prisoners when met by an officer of higher authority, who ordered him to
return to the landing and await orders; and within an hour and a half
from the time of the arrest orders were received from the commander of
the Huertista forces at Tampico for the release of the paymaster and his
men. The release was followed by apologies from the commander and later
by an expression of regret by General Huerta himself. General Huerta
urged that martial law obtained at the time at Tampico; that orders had
been issued that no one should be allowed to land at the Iturbide
Bridge; and that our sailors had no right to land there. Our naval
commanders at the port had not been notified of any such prohibition;
and, even if they had been, the only justifiable course open to the
local authorities would have been to request the paymaster and his crew
to withdraw and to lodge a protest with the commanding officer of the
fleet. Admiral Mayo regarded the arrest as so serious an affront that he
was not satisfied with the apologies offered, but demanded that the flag
of the United States be saluted with special ceremony by the military
commander of the port.
The incident cannot be regarded as a trivial one, especially as two of
the men arrested were taken from the boat itself--that is to say, from
the territory of the United States--but had it stood by itself it might
have been attributed to the ignorance or arrogance of a single officer.
Unfortunately, it was not an isolated case. A series of incidents have
recently occurred which cannot but create the impression that the
representatives of General Huerta were willing to go out of their way to
show disregard for the dignity and rights of this Government and felt
perfectly safe in doing what they pleased, making free to show in many
ways their irritation and contempt. A few days after the incident at
Tampico an orderly from the U.S.S. _Minnesota_ was arrested at Vera Cruz
while ashore in uniform to obtain the ship's mail, and was for a time
thrown into jail. An official dispatch from this Government to its
embassy at Mexico City was withheld by the authorities of the
telegraphic service until peremptorily demanded by our charge d'affaires
in person. So far as I can learn, such wrongs and annoyances have been
suffered to occur only against representatives of the United States. I
have heard of no complaints from other Governments of similar treatment.
Subsequent explanations and formal apologies did not and could not
alter the popular impression, which it is possible it had been the
object of the Huertista authorities to create, that the Government of
the United States was being singled out, and might be singled out with
impunity, for slights and affronts in retaliation for its refusal to
recognize the pretensions of General Huerta to be regarded as the
constitutional provisional President of the Republic of Mexico.
The manifest danger of such a situation was that such offenses might
grow from bad to worse until something happened of so gross and
intolerable a sort as to lead directly and inevitably to armed conflict.
It was necessary that the apologies of General Huerta and his
representatives should go much further, that they should be such as to
attract the attention of the whole population to their significance, and
such as to impress upon General Huerta himself the necessity of seeing
to it that no further occasion for explanations and professed regrets
should arise. I, therefore, felt it my duty to sustain Admiral Mayo in
the whole of his demand and to insist that the flag of the United States
should be saluted in such a way as to indicate a new spirit and attitude
on the part of the Huertistas.
Such a salute General Huerta has refused, and I have come to ask your
approval and support in the course I now purpose to pursue.
This Government can, I earnestly hope, in no circumstances be forced
into war with the people of Mexico. Mexico is torn by civil strife. If
we are to accept the tests of its own constitution, it has no
government. General Huerta has set his power up in the City of Mexico,
such as it is, without right and by methods for which there can be no
justification. Only part of the country is under his control. If armed
conflict should unhappily come as a result of his attitude of personal
resentment toward this Government, we should be fighting only General
Huerta and those who adhere to him and give him their support, and our
object would be only to restore to the people of the distracted Republic
the opportunity to set up again their own laws and their own government.
But I earnestly hope that war is not now in question. I believe that I
speak for the American people when I say that we do not desire to
control in any degree the affairs of our sister Republic. Our feeling
for the people of Mexico is one of deep and genuine friendship, and
everything that we have so far done or refrained from doing has
proceeded from our desire to help them, not to hinder or embarrass them.
We would not wish even to exercise the good offices of friendship
without their welcome and consent. The people of Mexico are entitled to
settle their own domestic affairs in their own way, and we sincerely
desire to respect their right. The present situation need have none of
the grave implications of interference if we deal with it promptly,
firmly, and wisely.
No doubt I could do what is necessary in the circumstances to enforce
respect for our Government without recourse to the Congress, and yet not
exceed my constitutional powers as President; but I do not wish to act
in a matter possibly of so grave consequence except in close conference
and cooeperation with both the Senate and House. I, therefore, come to
ask your approval that I should use the armed forces of the United
States in such ways and to such an extent as may be necessary to obtain
from General Huerta and his adherents the fullest recognition of the
rights and dignity of the United States, even amidst the distressing
conditions now unhappily obtaining in Mexico.
There can in what we do be no thought of aggression or of selfish
aggrandizement. We seek to maintain the dignity and authority of the
United States only because we wish always to keep our great influence
unimpaired for the uses of liberty, both in the United States and
wherever else it may be employed for the benefit of mankind.