File No. 812.2311/42.

The Secretary of State to the President.

My Dear Mr. President. I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letters of the 22d1 and 23d1 instant relative to a letter from Mr. Sidney Austin Witherbee on the subject of granting to the Mexican Government permission to move Mexican troops across United States territory, and of your previous letter of the 18th1 instant directing me to comment upon the advisability of such action.

Mr. Witherbee called at the Department on April 23, and upon rereading the letter he had written to you said that it gave a somewhat incorrect impression as to the idea he wished to convey. He said that at the time he wrote it newspaper reports to the effect that this Government would intervene in Mexico were so insistent that he thought such action imminent, and that, such being the case, he greatly preferred permitting the Madero Government to pass troops over United States territory to sending United States troops into Mexico.

If such an alternative were forced upon this Government, this Department would be inclined to express a preference similar to Mr. Witherbee’s. Mr. Witherbee agrees with the Department, however, that until conditions grow so bad that this Government is compelled to intervene or to take other action to effectually remedy them—a very remote contingency—it would be unwise to allow Mexican troops to pass over United States territory, primarily, on account of the appearance such action would have that this Government was taking sides with the Madero Government as against the insurrectionists, and the consequent reprisals this apparent favoritism I might cause insurrectionists to make upon American citizens resident in territory under rebel control.

This is the chief objection perceived by the Department to acting upon the suggestion contained in Mr. Witherbee’s letter as it stands; but another objection, possibly of equal force, would be that the granting of this permission would precipitate further fighting along [Page 894] the boundary, and almost certainly bring about a dangerous situation and such an incident as the deplorable occurrence at Agua Prieta and Douglas of last year and that which threatened at El Paso in the early part of February last.

Still another objection is found in the attitude of the Governor and people of Texas as exhibited early in the present year when a request for permission for Mexican troops to pass across a part of the State of Texas was presented to this Government by the Mexican Embassy. It will be recalled that at that time the Governor of Texas, in response to the Department’s inquiry, stated that there was no objection on the part of the State of Texas to granting permission for the troops to cross Texan soil, but that shortly thereafter the Governor telegraphed that as he had learned that these troops were intended for the purpose of giving battle to the rebellious forces near the Texas border the Governor felt compelled to withdraw his permission, as such action was contrary to the wishes of the people of Texas.

I may also say that as the Embassy at Mexico City has been instructed to intimate to the Mexican Government that this Government would much prefer that no request to move troops across United States territory should be made, it would appear to be inadvisable for this Government to raise the question on account of the objections to granting such permission as above stated, and because it might, encourage the Mexican Government to renew its request of last February, which, again, for the reasons above stated, it would be embarrassing for this Government to have to deal with.

I have [etc.]

P. C. Knox.

Note.—With his dispatch No. 16431 dated September 6, 1912, the American Ambassador transmitted to the Department a copy of the note that he had sent to the Mexican Minister for Foreign Affairs, September 3, 1912, in compliance with the Department’s telegraphic instruction of September 2, 1 p.m.2 The note requested a general increase in the activity of the Mexican Federal troops and the establishment of additional garrisons along the border, where the chaotic conditions were causing the Government of the United States great anxiety, and then added:

In thus advising your excellency of the deep apprehension entertained by my Government relative to the situation on the border and in conveying to your excellency the expression of its opinion relative to the military dispositions necessary to in some measure guarantee protection to life and property, I am directed also to say that my Government will favorably consider a request from your excellency’s Government to permit the passage of Mexican troops, designed for the immediate establishment of these garrisons, across the territory of the United States.

In his reply,3 September 5, to this note the Mexican Minister for Foreign Affairs responded to the above-quoted sentence as follows:

By express direction of the President I beg to express to your excellency the most sincere thanks of the Mexican Government for the favorable reception on the part of your excellency’s Government which would be given to a request on the part of my Government that our troops might pass over the territory of [Page 895] the United States for the purpose of establishing garrisons at certain points, a request which is not made, because the Constitution empowers only the Senate to permit the passage of troops outside of the national territory. The Senate is not now in session and its convocation in special session would be a cause for alarm that should be avoided; but my Government believes that the sending of the troops referred to above will bring safety to the region in the north that has been threatened with disturbances.

The Minister’s formal reply to the Ambassador’s note was accompanied by an informal letter (see p. 837), in part as follows:

Although it appears from the official note that I have to-day addressed to your excellency that a request for the passage of troops over American territory will not be made, the President has thought it proper to solicit this authorization in order to demonstrate once more the interest that he takes in the protection of the lives and properties of Americans, and to this end he has given orders for the convocation of the Senate in extraordinary session.

  1. Not printed.
  2. Not printed.
  3. Not printed.
  4. See pp. 836837.
  5. See p. 833.
  6. See p. 837.