PRESIDENT
VENUSTIANO
CARRANZA
Corrects Statements
made by
Senator Knox, of Pennsylvania
in the Senate
Ml XICAN EMBASSY
Washington, D. C.
C'1'rl
PRESIDENT
VENUSTIANO
CARRANZA
Corrects Statements
made by
Senator Knox, of Pennsylvania
in the Senate
MEXICAN EMBASSY
Washington, D. C.
I HAVE read an article which the Pittsburgh Dispatch,
of Pittsburgh, Penna., published on the 2d of May last.
in which it is stated that Senator Knox, of Pennsyl-
vania, ex-Secretary of State, delivered a speech making
reference to the message that I read to the Congress of the
United States of Mexico, on the I5th of April, and in which
IK- undertakes to correct my statements, and submits as
pretended proof of his allegations the copy of a telegram
which, he said, was sent from Saltillo on the 21 st of
February. i<H3, by the American Consul, Holland, to the
Department of State of the Washington Government.
For the information of the public, I transcribe herein what
Senator Knox said, according to the dispatch published by
the paper referred to :
Mr. President, I rise to a matter of personal privilege, which will
take only a few moments. On the 27th day of April, 1916, in a public
address I made in the city of Pittsburgh before the Americus Club,
in speaking of the recognition by large numbers of the Mexican people
and large areas of the Mexican Republic of the accession of Gen.
Huerta. I used this language:
"It was the judgment of the diplomats representing foreign countries
in Mexico that the provisional government in Mexico had been installed
in compliance with the Mexican constitution and Mexican precedent,
and that its speedy recognition would be helpful in restoring normal
conditions throughout the country. The American ambassador shared
this view and asked for instructions. Gen. Carranza, who at that time
was governor of one of the Mexican States, had officially informed this
Government of his adherence to the new government; the Mexican
Congress and courts had recognized its authority, and advices from
our diplomatic and consular officers indicated a very general adherence
to its authority throughout the Republic."
A few days after the publication of that address, on the 7th day of
May. there was published an article in the New York World by Gen.
Carranza in which he referred to the statement I have just read.
Gen. Carranza said:
"It was impossible for me to have adhered to Huerta or to have
notified anyone that I had, for upon the very day I received a message
from Huerta inviting me to adhere to him, I officially proclaimed that
I disclaimed him and his government. Knox can not prove his
statement."
I was requested to give an interview in reply to that statement by
Gen. Carranza. I declined to do it. stating that there would be time
enough for me to take cognizance of such a statement when what I
had said had been denied upon the authority of the State Department
where the archives rested proving my statement.
I would have let the matter go at that, but a few days ago, in an
address to the Mexican Congress, Gen. Carranza revived this denial and
stated that I had, in an interview recently in regard to the situation in
Mexico, practically reiterated that statement, and he denounced it as
false.
I wish to say, Mr. President, that from the time I ceased to be
Secretary of State until this very moment I never gave out an inter-
view upon any matter pertaining to the foreign affairs of the United
States at any time or in any place, and so far as I know no interview
purporting to have come from me has ever been published in an
American newspaper.
I send to the desk and ask that there may be read in the order in
which they are arranged a letter I addressed to the Secretary of State,
his reply, and the inclosure of his reply, as follows :
April 18, 1917.
"Hon. Robert Lansing,
Secretary of State, Washington, D. C.
"Dear Mr. Lansing: In a report made by Gen. Carranza to the Mex-
ican Congress on the 15th instant, the General took occasion to de-
nounce as entirely false an interview which he alleged I gave out,
naming me as Senator Knox, in which he puts into my mouth words
I never said, and refers to an interview I never gave, never having
given any upon the subject. This all arises out of a statement that
I made in a public speech to the effect that within a few days after the
accession of Gen. Huerta, Gen. Carranza had notified the American
consul in the State of Coahuila that he was prepared to acknowledge
the Huerta regime in Mexico. These are not the exact words I used,
but they were words to that effect. Within a few days after making
this statement there appeared in the New York World an interview
with Gen. Carranza, in which he denounced that statement as false.
"I will be obliged to you if you will transmit to me, for the purpose
of having the same introduced into the Record, a copy of a telegram
received by the Department of State, in which the department is
informed as to the intentions of Gen. Carranza in relation to the
recognition of Huerta, and which likewise states that this information
had been transmitted as well to our embassy in Mexico City. I can
not recall the date of this telegram, but it appeared in the information
series on the troubles of Mexico, and will be found, I think, under
some date in February of 1913.
"Your compliance with this request will enable me to justify my
statement and settle an annoying incident. My purpose is to rise to a
question of personal privilege and deny that I ever gave an interview
such as Gen. Carranza quotes, or any interview at all on the subject,
and to produce the telegram as an authority for the only statement
that I have ever made in reference to the matter.
Very sincerely yours,
P. C. KNOX."
Secretary Lansing readily complied with 1' t of Senator
t him :i copy >f the following official telegram regarding
the question, and which shows that Carranza did exactly what Mr.
Knox says he had done:
I Telegram received from Saltillo. dated February 21, 1913, rec<
! ; ehruary JJ. l.JJ a. m.]
Washington, D. C.
February 21, 1 p. m. :
Gov. Carranza has just announced to me officially that he will con-
form with the new administration at Mexico City. All opposition here
abandoned. Railroads will be opened at once. Perfect quiet prevails.
Kmbassy advised. HOLLAND.
This closes the incident so far as it concerns Senator Knox,
and this correspondence is now incorporated into the archives
(or records) of Congress, and made part of history.
I now find myself under the necessity of again rectifying
(or correcting) the statements made by Mr. Knox, who affirms
that I recognized the usurper, Victoriano Huerta, after the
coup d'etat which he engineered in Mexico City, on the i8th
of February, 1913, because not only is this confirmation false,
as I have already stated in the message which I read to the
Congress of the Union, on the I5th of April of this year, but
also because the personal feeling of the Senator who has dealt
in this question gives more or less veracity to a declaration
l>y the Consul, Holland, which, he said, he had obtained from
me, but who has no proof that I did so, as this was only one
of the ruses employed during the course of events immediately
following those of the i8th of February, 1913, with the object
of giving the Government of the United States the impression
that all the governors of the various Federal Entities of the
Republic had accepted the new order of things, and, therefore,
it \vas due that the American Government should also recog-
nize the usurping government.
In no other way is explained the hardly honorable behavior
of the then Ambassador, Henry Lane Wilson, for while on one
hand he communicated with Consul Holland by telegraph,
directing him to exert pressure on me su that 1 would recognize
Huerta as President of the Republic, with assurances that he
had already been recognized as such by the governors of all
the States and by the representatives of all the foreign gov-
ernments, including those of the United States, accredited to
Mexico, and acknowledging the fact that I was the only one
who had refused to grant said recognition ; on the other hand,
Consul Holland, with the object of helping Ambassador Wilson
in his designs, was addressing the Department of State, assur-
ing it that I had made the official statement to the effect that
I would give my approval to the new administration in Mexico
City, and this was done, as it will be clearly seen, with the
object of making it appear to the Government of the United
States that the regime created by the coup d'etat of February
1 8th had been accepted by all the political entities of the coun-
try, with which allegations General Huerta and Ambassador
Henry Lane Wilson hoped to also obtain the recognition of
the new administration by the American Government.
The untruthfulness of these statements is shown by my
unchanging attitude from the time that I knew of what took
place in the Capital of the Republic, on the i8th of February,
because when General Huerta communicated to me that, in
accord with the Senate, he had assumed the Executive Power
of the Nation, and held as prisoners the President and Vice-
President, who had been duly elected, I brought these facts
to the knowledge of the Legislature of Coahuila, which body
issued, on the I9th of February, decree No. 1421, by means
of which, and in representation of the State, whose govern-
ment was under my charge, the character of Victoriano Huerta,
as Chief Executive of the Nation, was repudiated; his acts
were also repudiated, and extraordinary powers were granted
to me in all the branches of public administration for the
purpose of assisting in the maintenance of constitutional order
in the Republic, and by which it was ordered to arouse the
governments of all the States, the chiefs of the Federal forces,
Rurales and auxiliary forces of the Federation, so that they
might follow the course taken by the government of Coahuila.
Immediately I addressed by telegraph the governors of the
neighboring States, informing them that the government of
Coahuila had repudiated the unspeakable assault against the
fundamental pact ; had repudiated the government of Victori-
ano IliuTia. and invited all the governors and military chiefs
to place themselves on the side of law and order.
When my attitude was known in Mexico City, Ambassador
Wilson instructed Consul Holland to exert pressure on me
with the object of changing that attitude, and, in fact, the said
Consul, accompanied by Vice-Consul Silliman, who acted as
his interpreter, came to me and expressed what I have already
stated in the foregoing paragraphs.
My answer was an absolute refusal to recognize Victoriano
Huerta, and so final was this that, notwithstanding the confir-
mation that the Consul had expressed to me of the allegation
that the Government of the United States had recognized that
of the usurper, I addressed, on the 26th, from Ramos Arizpe,
via the International Railway, a telegram to President Taft,
as follows:
"The haste with which your government has recognized the fraud-
ulent government that Huerta is trying to build upon treason and
crime, has brought civil war to the State of Coahuila, which I repre-
sent, and very soon it will spread all over the country. The Mexican
Nation condemns the villainous coup d'etat that has deprived her of
her constitutional rulers, but she knows that her institutions are sound
and she is ready to uphold and defend them. I hope that your successor
will proceed with more caution regarding the social and political
interests of my country. Signed V. Carranza, Constitutional Gov-
ernor of Coahuila."
This message was altered to a certain extent by Sr. Teodulo
R. Beltran, who was at Eagle Pass, and to whom I sent the
message to be forwarded by him to Washington, and at whose
conduct I was greatly puzzled, for he had no authority to
make the said change in the text of my message. The message,
as altered by Sr. Beltran and forwarded by him to Washington,
read as follows:
"The Mexican Nation condemns the coup d'etat that has deprived
her of her constitutional rulers, who were cowardly assassinated; but
she knows that her institutions are sound and she is ready to uphold
and defend them. I hope that your Excellency's government, as well
as that of your successor, will not recognize the fraudulent government
that Huerta is trying to build upon treason and crime, but that you
will proceed with caution regarding the political and social interests
of my country. Signed V. Carranza, Constitutional Governor of
Coahuila."
I referred to these facts in my report to the Congress of the
Union, and also to the second interview which I had with
Vice-Consul Silliman at Villa de Arteaga, where I had estab-
lished my headquarters, a few days after the first interview
which I had with Consul Holland, all of which prove that I
continued to follow the same course that I had taken since
the i Qth of February concerning Huerta.
In the meantime I continued making preparations for the
struggle, and already I had fought the federal forces, on the
7th day of May, at the Hacienda de Anhelo, and I attacked,
during the 22d and 23d, the city of Saltillo, which had been
occupied by the forces of Huerta.
In order that the Revolution might be provided with a
banner, and that it might spread all over the national territory,
as the decree of the Legislature of Coahuila only referred to
the repudiation by the government of the State of the admin-
istration that resulted from the coup d'etat of February, there
was signed, on the 26th of March, at the Hacienda de Guada-
lupe, by all the chiefs of the forces that were under my com-
mand, the plan that served as the guidon for the continuance
of the campaign.
Such acts show that not only did I refuse to recognize the
fraudulent government of Huerta, but also that I assumed the
command of the Revolution down to its successful termination,
and this is vouched by the inhabitants of Saltillo, who wit-
nessed the preparations I undertook, dating from the iQth of
February, to fight the usurpation.
With this I shall consider as closed the discussion which
Senator Knox has endeavored to maintain regarding this
matter, pretending to justify himself and the government which
he served, for the undignified procedure of Ambassador Lane
Wilson, and I consider as opportune in frankly acknowledging
that the intrigue with which said Ambassador tried to obtain
the recognition of the administration of Victoriano Huerta
from the government of President Wilson failed before the
upr: ! judgment of tin- government of
ulrow \\'ilso;i, who took eh his high post on the
4t!i of March, 1913; also, it should he acknowledged that
ident Taft. with utmost serenity, in the lust d:iys of his
constitutional term, refrained from granting the same rccog-
n, leaving to his successor the responsibility of pa
upon the events that took place at the Capital of the Republic
in tlie month of February of that year.
Mexico. 1 5th June,
