Source:  Commager, Henry Steele, ed. Documents of American History. 7th ed. Vol. II. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1962.

393. WILSON'S SPECIAL MESSAGE ON MEXICAN RELATIONS August 27, 1913

(Congressional Record, 63d Congress, 1st. Sess., Vol. 50, p. 3803-04)

The  Mexican  situation reached a crisis in the summer  of  1913.  For  the diplomatic  and political background of our relations with Mexico  at  this time, see J. F. Rippy, The United States and Mexico, ch. xx; E. E. Robinson and V. J. West, The Foreign Policy of Woodrow Wilson, passim;
R.  S.  Baker,  Woodrow Wilson, Life and Letters, Vol. IV, ch.  vi;  J.  M. Callahan, American Foreign Policy in Mexican Relations, ch. xiv

Gentlemen of the Congress: It is clearly my duty to lay before you, very fully and with-out reservation, the facts concerning our present relations with the Republic  of Mexico. The deplorable posture of affairs in Mexico I need not describe, but I deem it my duty to speak very frankly of what this Government has  done  and  should seek  to  do  in  fulfillment  of  its obligation  to Mexico herself, as a friend and neighbor, and to  American citizens  whose  lives  and vital interests are  daily  affected  by  the distressing conditions which now obtain beyond our southern border. . . . The  peace, prosperity and contentment of Mexico mean more, much  more, to us than merely an enlarged field for our commerce and enterprise. They mean  an enlargement of the field of self-government and the )realization of  the hopes and rights of a nation with whose best aspirations, so long suppressed and disappointed, we deeply sympathize. We shall yet prove  to the  Mexican people that we know how to serve them without first thinking how we shall serve ourselves. .   . .
Mexico  has a great and enviable future before her, if only she  choose and attain the paths of honest constitutional government.   The  present circumstances of the Republic, I deeply regret to say,  do not  seem to promise even the foundations of such a peace. We have waited many months, months full of peril and anxiety for the conditions there to improve, and they have not improved. They have grown worse, rather. . . . War  and disorder, devastation and confusion, seem to threaten to  become the  settled fortune of the distracted country. As friends we could  wait no longer for a solution which every week seemed further away. It was our duty  at  least to volunteer our good offices-to offer to assist,  if  we might,  in effecting some arrangement which would bring relief and  peace and set up a universally acknowledged political authority there. Accordingly, I took the liberty of sending the Hon. John Lind, formerly governor  of  Minnesota, as my personal spokesman and representative,  to the City of Mexico, with the following instructions:

[Instructions follow]. . . .
Mr.  Lind  executed  his delicate and difficult mission  with  singular tact, firmness, and good judgement, and made clear to the authorities  at the  City of Mexico not only the purpose of his visit but also the spirit in which it had been undertaken. But the proposals he submitted were rejected. . . 

I am led to believe that they were rejected partly because the authorities at Mexico City had, been grossly misinformed and misled upon two points. They did not realize the spirit of the American people in this matter, their earnest friendliness and yet sober determination that some just solution be found for the Mexican difficulties; and they did not believe that the present administration spoke through Mr. Lind for the people of the United States. The effect of this unfortunate misunderstanding on their part is to leave them singularly isolated and without friends who can effectually aid them. So long as the misunderstanding continues we can only await the time of their awakening to a realization of the actual facts. We can not thrust our good offices upon them. The situation must be given a little more time to work itself out in the new circumstances; and I believe that only a little more will be necessary. For the circumstances are new. The rejection of our friendship makes them new and will inevitably bring its own alterations in the whole aspect of affairs. The actual situation of the authorities at Mexico City will presently be revealed.

Meanwhile what is it our duty to do? Clearly everything that we do must be rooted in patience and done with calm and disinterested deliberation. Impatience on our part would be childish, and would be fraught with every risk of wrong and folly. We can afford to exercise the self-restraint of a really great nation which realizes its own strength and scorns to misuse it. It was our duty to offer our active assistance. It is now our duty to show what true neutrality will do to enable the people of Mexico to set their affairs in order again, and wait for a further opportunity to offer our friendly counsels. The door is not closed against the resumption, either upon the initiative of Mexico or upon our own, of the effort to bring order out of the confusion by friendly "cooperative action, should fortunate occasion offer.

While  we  wait, the contest of the rival forces will undoubtedly  for  a little while be sharper than ever, just because it will be plain that  an end must be made of the existing situation, and that very promptly; and with the increased activity of the contending fractions will come, it is to be feared, in creased danger to the non-combatants in Mexico as well as to those actually in the Rd of battle. The position of outsiders is ways particularly trying and full of hazard here there is civil strife and a whole country is upset. We should earnestly urge Americans to leave Mexico at once, and should assist them to get away in every way possible-not because we would mean to slacken in the feast our efforts to safeguard their lives and their interests, but because it is imperative that they should take no un necessary risks when it is physically possible for them to leave the country. We should let every one who assumes to exercise authority in any part of Mexico know in the most un equivocal way that we shall vigilantly watch the fortunes of those Americans who can not get away, and shall hold those responsible for their sufferings and losses to a definite reckoning. That can be and will be made beyond the possibility of a misunderstanding.