Nelson Jarvis Waterbury O’Shaughnessy

Title

Nelson Jarvis Waterbury O’Shaughnessy

Creator

O’Shaughnessy, Nelson Jarvis Waterbury

Identifier

WWP18122

Date

1913 October 24

Description

Nelson O’Shaughnessy writes about the Mexico situation.

Source

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

Subject

Wilson, Woodrow, 1856-1924--Correspondence

Text

Amembassy,
Mexico City, Mexico.

You will please call at the foreign office and dleliver the following message: QuoteThe President construes General Huerta’s statement of yesterday as an announcemenst of his purpose to overthrow constitutional government in Mexico and to convert that nation into a limited despotism in which force shall dominate regardless of either the wishes or the interests of the people. This government which, by reason of its position, is and must continue to be of paramount influence in the Western Hemisphere, cannot, without a sacrifice of its grave responsibilities, permit the ambitions of one man or group of men to check the upward progress of a sister republic or the development of its civilization. The people of Mi Mexico have a right to determine their own destiny and they have intimated no desire to turn from the path of civilization back to the instruments and methods lof barbarism. This Government refused to recognize the Huerta government because it was conceived in absolutism fast fastened upon the country by methods abhorrent to the conscience of the world and has been administered with contempt toward all that is good in modern civilization. The President, desiring to qassist the unhappy people of Mexico, offered friendly mediation to secure a basis upon which peace could be restored and constitutional government re-established with hope of endurfance. These overtureds were rejected and in due time the real aims and purposes of General Huerta baecame known and it scarcely required the doissolution of Congress, the arrest of its members and the assumption of autocratic power to prove to the world how utterly impossible it is for him to conceive or consturuct a government in keeping with modern times. This Government having, in the announcement and maintenance of the Monroe doctrine, shown its willingness to protect the people of this hemisphere from encroachment at the hands of European powers, having proven by its actions in the Venezuelaen contest its willingness to protect a little republic in its rights to have itts controversies with great nations settled by artibration rather than by force, is now prepared to assert with equal emphasis its unwillingness to have an American Republic exploited by the commercial interests of uour own or any other country through a government resting upon force. If the influences at work in Mexico were entirely domestic, this gGovernment would be willing to trust the people to protect themselves against any ambitious leader who might arise; but since such a leader relies for his strength, not upon the sympathy of his own people but upon the influence of foreign people. This Government, whether that foreign capital is from the United States or from other countreies, would be derelict in its duty if by silence or inaction it seemed to sympathize with such an interference in the rights and welfare of Mexico. While this Government is glad to encourage in every legitimate way investments by its citizens in the countries of Laitin America, these investments must be made with the understanding that our nation’s interest in the advancement of these countries and in their working out of a great destiny, is greater than in any possible profits that may come from such investments. As in Cuba, the United States was willing to lend its assistance in the securing of independence from a foreign political power, so in Mexico this nation is willing to assist in maintaining Mexico’s independence of foreign financial power. The President has confidence that the people of Meixico, if free to choose their own rulers, would choose men in sympathy with the nation’s highest aspirations -- men who would regard it a duty and a pleasure to carry out the will of the people. It will not, therefore, recognize as a legitimate government a government established by force and terrorism, whether the force and terrorism be exercised, as they were, in the establishment of the Huerta regime or are secured through the empty forms of a mock election. As this Government assisted the people of Cuba in securing free and fair elections, through which the voters could express themselves, so it is willing to assist the people of Meixico to give expression to theirn wishes at a free and fair election, giving to the people of Mexico and the world its pledge of disinterestedness and of genuine friendship.

[N. O’Shaughnessy]

Original Format

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Files

http://resources.presidentwilson.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Temp00601.pdf

Tags

Citation

O’Shaughnessy, Nelson Jarvis Waterbury, “Nelson Jarvis Waterbury O’Shaughnessy,” 1913 October 24, WWP18122, First Year Wilson Papers, Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library & Museum, Staunton, Virginia.