William Jennings Bryan to Nelson Jarvis Waterbury O’Shaughnessy

Convey the following, in confidence, to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, in view of his recent conversations with you, and the impressions you have received from them:

1. That the President of the United States feels that the recent coup d’etat was in direct contravention of the assurances that had been conveyed to his government by General Huerta;

2. That, unless General Huerta now voluntarily and as if of his own motion retires from authority and from all attempt to control the organization of the government and the course of affairs, it will be necessaryvfor the President of the United States to insist upon the terms of an ultimatum, the rejection of which would render it necessary for him to propose very serious practical measures to the Congress of the United States.(Suggest here as of from your own mind, the countenance and active assistance of the constitutionalistas by the United States.)

3. That the government odf the United States is anxious to avoid extreme measures, for Mexico’s sake no less than for the sake of the peace of America, and is therefore willing to do anything within reason to spare General Huerta’s feelings and dignity and afford him personal protection;

4. That it, therefore, suggests the following course: the choice of some man or small group of men, as little as possible identified with the recent troubles (elderly men now in retirement, for example, who enjoy the general public confidence) to constitute a provisional government and arrange for early general elections at which both a new congress and a new executive shall be chosen, and the government put upon a constitutional footing;

5. That some such course, approved by the government of the United States, is now absolutely necessary, that government being firmly and irrevocably resolved, by one method or another, to cut the government of Huerta off, if he persists, from all outside aid or countenance, and that Huerta will only for a very few days longer be free to act with apparent freedom of choice in the matter. His retirement and an absolutely free field for a constitutional rehabilitation being the least the United States can accept. This government cannot too earnestly urge him to make the inevitable choice wisely and in full view of the terrible consequences of hesitation or refusal.6. That the attempt to substitute Blanquet or any other representative of Huerta and the Huerta coup would lead to deeper irritation on the part of the United States and the inevitable final rupture, as would also any attempt to carry out the pretended or apparent choices of the recent elections, either as regards the presidency or the congress.