An Address on Mexican Affairs to a Joint Session of Congress

Title

An Address on Mexican Affairs to a Joint Session of Congress

Creator

Wilson, Woodrow, 1856-1924

Identifier

WWP17976

Date

1913 August 26

Source

Wilson Papers, Library of Congress, Library of Congress, Washington, District of Columbia

Subject

Wilson, Woodrow, 1856-1924--Correspondence

Relation

WWP17977

Text

(Message on Mexico, Aug. 26, 1913.)
It is clearly my duty to lay before you, very fully and without any sort of reservation, the facts concerning our present relations with the Republic of Mexico. The deplorable posture of affairs in Mexico I need not describe, but I deem it my duty to speak very frankly of what this government has done and should seek to do in fulfilment of its obligations to Mexico herself, as a friend and neighbour, and to American citizens whose lives and vital interests are daily affected by the distressing conditions which now obtain beyond our southern border.
Those conditionrs touch us very nearly. Not merely because they lie at our very doors. That of course makes us more vividly and more constantly conscious of them, and every instinct of neighbourly interest and sympathy is arroused and quickened by them; but that is only one element in the determination of our duty. We are glad to call ourselves the friends of Mexico, and we shall, I hope, have many an occasion, in happier times as well as in these days of trouble and confusion, to show that our friendship is genuine and disinterested, capable of sacrifice and every generous manifestation. The peace, prosperity, and contentment,and propers prosperity of Mexico mean more, much more, to us than merely an enlarged field for our commerce and enterprise. It They means an enlargement of liberty an enlargement of the field of self government and the realization of the hopes and rights of a nation with whose best asperations, so long suppressed and disappointed, we deeply sympathize. We shall yet prove to the Mexican people that we know how to serve them without first thinking how we shall serve ourselves.
But we are not the only friends of Mexico. The whole world desires her peace and progress; and the whole world is interested as never before. Mexico lies at last where all the world looks on. Central America is about to be touched by the great routes of the world’s trade and intercourse running free from ocean to ocean at the Isthmus. The future has much in store for Mexico, as for all the states of Central America; and but the best gifts can come to her only if she be ready and free to receive them and to enjoy them honourably. America in particular, —America north and south and upon both continents,—waits upon the development of Mexico; and that development can pbe sound and lasting only if it be the product of a genuine freedom, a just and ordered government founded upon law. Only so can it be peaceful or fruitful of the benefits of peace. Mexico has a great and enviable future before her, if only she choose and attain the paths of honest constitutional government.
The present circumstances of the Republic, I deeply regret to say, do not seem to promise even the foundations of such a peace. We havoe waited many months, months full of peril and anxiety, for the conditions there to improve, and they have not improved. They have grown worse, rather. [Insert I.]¹ War and disorder, devastation and confusion, seem to threaten seem toen to become the settled fortune of the distracted country. As friends we could wait no longer for a solution which every week seemed further away. It was our duty at least to volunteer our good offices—to offer to assist, if we might, in effecting some arrangement which would bring relief and peace and set up a universally acknowledged political authority there.² Accordingly, I took the liberty of sending the Honourable John Lind, formally Governor of Minnesota, as my presonal spokesman and representative, to the City of Mexico, with the following instructions: [Here copy the instructions Mr. Lind carried with him.]Mr. Lind executed his delicate and difficult mission with singular tact, firmness, and good judgment, and made clear to the authorities at the City of Mexico, not only the purpose of his visit, but also the spirit in which it had been undertaken. But the proposals he submitted were rejected, in a note the full text of which I take the liberty of laying before you.² I am led to believe that they were rejected partly because the authorities at Mexico City had been grossly misinformed and misled upon two points. They did not realize the spirit of the American people in this matter, their earnest friendliness and yet sober determination that some just solution be found for the Mexican difficulties; and they did not believe that the present administration spoke, through Mr. Lind, for the people of the United States. The effect of this unfortunate misunderstanding on their part is to leave them singularly isolated and without friends who can effectually aid them:. but sSo long as the misunderstanding continues we can only await the time of their awakening to a realization of the actual facts. We cannot thrust our good offices upon them. tThe situation must be given a little more time to work itself out in the new circumstances; and I believe that only a little while will be necessary. For the circrumstances are new. The rejection of our friendship makes them new and will inevitably bring its own alterations in the whole aspect of affairs. The actual situation of the authorities at Mexico City will presently by revealed.
Meanwhile, what is it our duty to do? Clearly, everything that we do must be rooted in patience and done with calm and disinterested deliberation. Impatience on our part would be childish, and would be fraught with every risk of wrong and folly. We can afford to exercise the self-restraint of a really great nation which realizes its own strength and scorns to misuse it. It was our duty to offer our active assistance. It is now our duty to show what true neutrality will do to enable the people of Mexico to set their affairs in order again.
While we wait the contest of the rival forces will undoubtedly for a little while be sharper than ever, jurst because it will be plain that an end must be made of the existing situation, and that very promptly; and with the increased activity of the contending factions will come, it is to be feared, increased danger to the non-combatants in Mexico, as well as to those actually in the field of battle. The position of outsiders is always particularly trying and full of hazard where there is civil strife and a whole country is upset. We should earnestly urge all Americans to leave Mexico at once, and should assist them to get away in every way possible,—not because we woould mean to slacken in the least our efforts to safeguard their lives and their interests, but because it is imperative that they should take no unnecessary risks when it is physically possible for them to leave the country. We should let every one who assumes to exercise authority in any part of Mexico know in the most unequivocal way that we shall vigilantly watch the fortunes of those Americans who cannot get away, and shall hold those respornsible for their sufferings and losses to a definite reckoning. That can be and will be made very plain beyond the possibility of a misunderstanding.For the rest, I shall exercise the authority conferref upon me by the law of 1911 to see to it that neither side to the struggle now going on in Mexico receive any assistance from this side the border. I shall follow the best practice of complete and literal nations in the matter of neutrality by forbidding the exportation of arms or munitions of war of any kind from the United States to any part of the Republic of Mexico,—a policy suggested by several interesting precedents and certainly dictated by many manifest considerations of practical expediency. We cannot in the circumstances be the partisans of either party to the contest that now distracts Mexico, or constitute ourselves the virtual umpire between them.I am happy to say that several of the great governments of the world have given this Government their generous moral support in urging upon the provisional authorities at the City of Mexico the acceptance of our proffered good offices in the spirit in which they were made. We have not acted in this matter under the ordinary principles of international action obligation. All the world expects us in such circumstances to act as Mexico’s nearest friend and intimate adviser. This is our immemorial relation towards her. There is nowhere any serious question that that we have the moral right in the case or that we are acting in the interest of a fair settlement and of good government, not for the promotion of any some selfish interest of our own. If further motive were necessary than our own good will towards a sister republic and our own deep concern to see peace and order prevail in Central America, this consent of mankind to what we are attempting, this attitude of the great nations of the world to toward what we may attempt in dealing with this distressed people at our doors, should make us feel the more solemnly bound to go to the utmost length of patience and forbearance in this painful and anxious business. The steady pressure of moral force will before many days break the barriers of pride and prejudice down, and we shall triumph as Mexico’s friends sooner than we could triumph as her enemies,—and how much more handsomely, with how much higher and finer satisfactions of conscience and of honour!Insert I.
The territory in some sort controlled by the provisional authorities at Mexico City has grown smaller, not larger. The prospect of the pacification of the country, even by arms, has seemed to grow more and more remote; and its pacification by the authorities at the capital is evidently impossible by any other means than force. Difficulties more and more entangle those who claim to constitute the legitimate government of the Republic. They have not made good their claim in fact. Their successes in the field have proved only temporary

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Citation

Wilson, Woodrow, 1856-1924, “An Address on Mexican Affairs to a Joint Session of Congress,” 1913 August 26, WWP17976, First Year Wilson Papers, Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library & Museum, Staunton, Virginia.