Part 10 (2/2)
One of the chief objects of my administration will be to cultivate the friendshi+p and deserve the confidence of our sister republics of Central and South America, and to promote in every proper and honorable way the interests which are common to the peoples of the two continents I earnestly desire theand cooperation between the peoples and leaders of America, and, therefore, deem it my duty to make this brief statement:
”Cooperation is possible only when supported at every turn by the orderly processes of just governular force We hold, as I aovernovernoverned, and that there can be no freedom without order based upon law and upon the public conscience and approval We shall look to make these principles the basis of mutual intercourse, respect, and helpfulness between our sister republics and ourselves _We can have no syovernment to advance their own personal interests or ambition_”
Two considerations animated the President in the formulation of his Mexican policy and cohout his administration, namely:
_The firm conviction that all nations, both the weak and the powerful, have the inviolable right to control their internal affairs
The belief, established from the history of the world, that Mexico will never becohbour of the United States until she has been permitted to achieve a permanent and basic settlement of her troubles without outside interference_
Steadfastly, Woodrow Wilson refused to recognize Huerta as the Provisional President of Mexico He said: ”Huerta, the bitter, iressive and hues of the old scientifico group which he represented, openly defied the authority of the United States and sneered at the ' proclaih idealism which lay behind it” To him the declaration of the American President that ”we can have no syovernment to advance their own personal interests or aesture, too puerile to be seriously considered
While Huerta in Mexico was blatantly denouncing this benevolent policy of cooperation and helpfulness, aid and cooistic criticisress and throughout the country, ed on by the oil interests, in their mad delirium, cried out for a blood-and-iron policy toward Mexico Resisting the American interests in Mexico was a part of the President's task Those who cried loudest for intervention were they who had land, orous American policy” which they demanded was a policy for personal enrichment
It ith this phase of the matter in mind that the President said: ”I have to pause and remind myself that I aroup of Americans with vested interests in Mexico”
But the new President, having ht with a great deal of danger to his ad about the moral isolation of Huerta himself, calmly moved on, apparently unmindful of the jeers and ridicule of his critics in A,” he said, ”no matter what my personal fortunes may be, to play for the verdict of mankind Personally, it will be a matter of indifference to me what the verdict on the 7th of Noveree of confidence that when a later jury sits I shall get their judgment in my favour Not my favour personally--what difference does that make?--but reat nation”
What an utterly foolish thing, said his critics, it is to attempt in this day to oust a Mexican dictator byphrases!
When Wilson said: ”The situation iven a little more time to work itself out in the new circumstances; I believe that only a little while will be necessary We reat nation which realizes its own strength and scorns to ed their shoulders and said, with disgust: ”Well, what's the use? what can you expect from a dreamer of dreams, a mere doctrinaire? Doesn't Wilson, the historian, know that force and force alone can bring that grizzly old warrior Huerta to his senses?”
What was the President seeking to do in proclai to establish in Pan-American affairs the principle that no president of a South American republic who came to power by usurpation and assassination should receive, while he was president, the recognition of the United States This doctrine was not only good statesmanshi+p, but it was likewise sound into find bitter criticis to find the eneh his own Cabinet officers Lindley Garrison, his own Secretary of War, had no sympathy for this idealistic policy His only antidote for as happening in Mexico was force and intervention and he honourably urged this view upon the President, but without succeeding in bringing about the consummation so dear to his heart
And one denies, and one forsakes, and still unquestioning he goes, who has his lonely thoughts
But the President stood firm in his resolve that the people of Mexico should not be punished for the ainst great odds, he moved forward to vindicate his policy, unmindful of the jeers and criticisms of his enemies The heart of that policy he eloquently exposed when he said: ”I am more interested in the fortunes of oppressed hts whatever The people of Mexico are striving for the rights that are fundamental to life and happiness--fifteen million oppressed men, overburdened woe in their own home of fertile lands and inexhaustible treasure! Some of the leaders of the revolution may often have been mistaken and violent and selfish, but the revolution itself was inevitable and is right The unspeakable Huerta betrayed the very coovernment of which he was a trusted part, impudently spoke for the very forces that had driven his people to rebellion hich he had pretended to sympathize The men who overcame him and drove him out represent at least the fierce passion of reconstruction which lies at the very heart of liberty; and so long as they represent, however ile for deliverance, I a as the power of recognition rests with me the Government of the United States will refuse to extend the hand of welcome to any one who obtains power in a sister republic by treachery and violence”
But the President's policy of watchful waiting did win The days of the Huerta regime sloended their uneasy way Huerta suspended the Mexican Constitution and, having iress, proceeded to administer the Governan to feel the hty pressure of the unfriendly Governht to unite behind hi to provoke theainst the United States To hold his power he illing to run the risk ofhis own country a bloody shamble, but President Wilson had the , and soon his efforts to isolate hiave a listening ear to the oft-repeated stateerm of a prophecy:
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 eneher and finer satisfactions of conscience and of honour!
Little by little the usurper was being isolated By e were perceptibly cru His collapse was not far ahen the President declared: ”We shall not, I believe, be obliged to alter our policy of watchful waiting” The can of Woodrow Wilson to force Huerta finally triuned and departed from Mexico Wilson's humanity and broad statesmanshi+p had won over the system of cruel oppression for which the ”unspeakable Huerta”
had stood
During the Huerta controversy a thing happened which aggravated the Mexican affair, and which culminated in the now-famous Tampico incident
On April 9, 1914, a paymaster of the United States steae at Tampico with a whaleboat and boat's crew to obtain supplies needed aboard the _Dolphin_ While loading these supplies the paymaster and his men were arrested by an officer and squad of the army of General Huerta Neither the paymaster nor any of the boat's creere ar both at the bow and stern Two of the men were in the boat when arrested and hence were taken from United States ”soil” Admiral Mayo, senior American officer stationed off Tampico, immediately demanded the release of the sailors Release was ordered after the paymaster and the sailors had been detained about an hour Not only did Admiral Mayo demand the release of the sailors but insisted on a for of a twenty-one-gun salute to the flag
During the critical days following the refusal of Huerta to accede to Admiral Mayo's request the State Department was notified that there would arrive at Vera Cruz the Gero_ about to deliver to Huerta 15,000,000 rounds of auns
About 230 o'clock in theof the 21st day of April, 1914, the telephone operator at the White House calledme from bed, informed me that the Secretary of State, Mr Bryan, desired to speak to ent and serious matter I went to the telephone and was informed by Mr Bryan that he had just received a wireless inforabout ten o'clock and that he thought the President ought to be notified and that, in his opinion, drastic measures should at once be taken to prevent the delivery of these munitions to the Custo, Mr Daniels, the Secretary of the Navy, got on the wire and confirmed all that Mr Bryan had just told me Soon the President was on the 'phone, and in a voice indicating that he had just been aroused fro conversation with Messrs Bryan, Daniels, and myself: Mr Bryan reported to him the situation at Vera Cruz and informed him of the receipt of the wireless: