ON THE MEXICAN RESOLUTION 
 
 SPEECH 
 
 OF 
 
 HON. ELIHU ROOT 
 
 OIP N'E'W YORK 
 
 IN THE 
 
 SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 
 
 APRIL 21, 1914 
 
 41093—13227 
 
 WASHINGTON 
 1G14 
 
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 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS^ ""^ 
 
 RECEIVED I 
 
 MM 27 me 
 
 DOCUMENTS DIV.c;,q^, ( 
 
 THP96-007838 
 
SPEECH 
 
 OF 
 
 HON. ELIHU EOOT. 
 
 The Senate, as in Committee of the Whole, had under consideration 
 the Joint resolution (H. J. Res. 251) justifying the employment by the 
 President of the armed forces of the United States in enforcing certain 
 demands against Victoriano Huerta. 
 
 Mr. ROOT. Mr. President, I shall not prolong very mucli 
 tills discussion, for I think that whatever action we take ought 
 to be taken to-day without further delay. I do wish, however, 
 to state the reasons for supporting the substitute offered by the 
 Senator from Massachusetts [Mr. Lodge] in lieu of the resolu- 
 tion reported by the Committee on Foreign Relations. 
 
 The President has asked Congress for Its approval of a cours9 
 which he purposed to follow to compel amends for an insult to 
 the flag of the United States. A resolution has come from the 
 House declaring that the President is justified in the course he 
 proposes and naming Gen. Huerta as the person against whom 
 the present action is understood to be directed. The Committee 
 on Foreign Relations has reported a substitute resolution which 
 omits all reference by name to Gen. Huerta, but so refers to 
 the statements made by the President in his address that in 
 explaining the justification of the course which he proposes the 
 effect is substantially the same. We are not asked to authorize 
 action; we are asked to justify it. 
 
 Mr. President, I have the highest respect — more than respect. 
 I have regard and admiration — for the President of the United 
 States. I have entire confidence In the sincerity of his pur- 
 pose, in the lofty quality of the ideals which he pursues, and 
 in the genuineness, of his adherence to peace. 
 
 But we are asked not to express our opinion of the President 
 of the United States, not to express our confidence in him or 
 in his purposes. We are asked in the exercise of our duty as 
 a part of the Government of the United States to declare a 
 specified course of conduct under specified conditions to be 
 justified. It is our duty that- we ar^-to' perfo'rm, our duty as a 
 part of the Government of the United States, our duty to the 
 hundred millions of people of the United States, to the com- 
 munity of nations, to the credit and good name of our country, 
 to the honor and glory that this great democracy has Intrusted 
 to our hands as its representatives. This duty we are called 
 upon to perform. 
 
 The course which is proposed is the forcible armed compul- 
 sion of the people or some of the people of a friendly nation, 
 the armed compulsion of a government which I think we all 
 are agreed is an existing de facto government, having in its 
 conti'ol the greater part of the territory of Mexico — the armed 
 compulsion of that government to make amends to the United 
 States for an insult to its flag. 
 
 What is the justification? We can not justify, sir, upon con- 
 fidence which we all have in the President. We must justify 
 41093—13227 3 
 
upon grounds which commend themselves to our consciences, to 
 our intelligence, to the conscience of the American people, and 
 to the deliberate judgment of the civilized world. 
 
 What is the justification? Observe, sir, I do not say that 
 there is no justification. I ask what it is. In the address of 
 the President, in the plain implications and exclusive infer- 
 ences of the resolution which came from the House, and equally 
 in the resolution reported by the committee, the justification 
 is to be found in a single incident. That incid 3nt was this : A 
 boatload of sailors in the uniform of the United States, upon a 
 boat flying the flag of the United States, landed the other day 
 at a wharf in Tampico and were arrested by an officer in charge 
 of a guard, taken through the streets, presently returned to the 
 boat and set free — a very gross offense to the dignity of the 
 United States, an insult which can not be ignored. 
 
 But, sir, immediate amends were made. The action of the offi- 
 cer who made the arrest was disavowed by the government under 
 which he served, the de facto government of Mexico, under the de 
 facto presidency of Gen. Huerta. It is stated that the officer 
 was in turn arrested and was to be punished. The commandant 
 at Tampico apologized for the act and, promptly upon being 
 advised of the circumstance, the head of the de facto govern- 
 ment. Gen. Huerta, also apologized. Those amends, which 
 would be all that could be expected from private individuals, 
 were, nevertheless, not satisfactory and not sufficient for the 
 officer in command of the American fleet or squadron at Tam- 
 pico, and he demanded a formal salute to the American flag. 
 
 Mr. President, I agree with the admiral that the amends 
 were not sufficient as coming from the de facto government and 
 that there should have been a salute to the American flag, but 
 it appears that there was an interposition by our Government; 
 there were communications between our State Department and 
 our charge in the City of Mexico, representations to the de 
 facto government in Mexico, negotiations and conversations, as 
 to the character of the further amends that should be made. 
 The matter came plainly to be a discussion between the Gov- 
 ernment of the United States and the de facto government of 
 Mexico. Not about the quality of the act that was done; there 
 is no dispute about that. Not about the obligation to make 
 amends ; that was done. Not about the obligation to apologize ; 
 the apologies were made. But about the form of further 
 amends, how a salute should be fired, what were the proper 
 and customary obligatory incidents in the way of returning 
 such a salute, and the number of guns which should be fired. 
 It is upon that dispute — upon a dispute between these two 
 Goternments about the number of guns that are to be fired 
 and about what the proper custom is as to returning the salute 
 when it is fired — it is upon that dispute that this justification 
 is made to rest in the resolution passed by the other House 
 and in the resolution reported by the Committee on Foreign 
 Relations of the Senate. 
 
 Mr. President. I feel bound to say that while I would never 
 for a moment fail so far as in me lay in preserving the dig- 
 nity and honor of the fiag of the United States, the dispute to 
 which this incident has come seems to be painfully inadequate 
 to the results which are to be drawn from it. If that is all — if 
 
 41093—13227 
 
-h 
 
 there is nothing else except a question of the number of guns 
 and the form and manner of salute — which stands between 
 the hundred million people of the United States and this poor, 
 harried, and distressed people, it seems to me that the occasion 
 is painfully inadequate to the results that are to follow. 
 
 Is that all? We learn to-nisht that Vera Cruz has fallen, 
 that 4 American marines lie dead in that city, and that 21 
 lie suffering from wounds. Is there nothing but this dispute 
 about the number of guns and the form and ceremony of a 
 salute to justify the sacrifice of those American lives? 
 
 O Mr. President, deeply and sincerely as the President of 
 the United States desires to limit the scope of his action, deeply 
 and sincerely as he desires the maintenance of peace, all his- 
 tory and human experience teach us that once lighted the fires 
 of war can not be quenched at will. 
 
 It is intervention, technically, but it is war in its essence 
 that we are to vote to justify to-night. How long it will con- 
 tinue, what its results and its incidents will be. no man can 
 state. Men will die. men dear to us will die, because of the 
 action that we are to approve to-night. American homes will 
 be desolate; American women will mourn; American children 
 will go through life fatherle.s.s. because of the action that we 
 are to approve to-night; and when those children, grown to 
 manhood, turn back the page to learn in what cause their 
 fathers died, are they to find that it was about a quarrel as to 
 the number of guns and the form and ceremony of a salute and 
 nothing else? 
 
 "We are to ju.stify. What is the justification? Is there none 
 IJQt that? We. the representatives of the great peace-loving 
 Nation: we. the representatives of the great democracy that 
 prides itself upon demonstrating to the world that democracy 
 can be peacefui and just: we are to justify these acts of war; 
 and is there no justification that we can lay before our country- 
 men, before the world, before the community of nations, before 
 the judgment seat of history, except our dispute about the num- 
 ber of guns and the form and method of a salute? O Mr. 
 President, how inadequate! How can we justify ourselves if 
 we have no justification but that? 
 
 But, sir, that is not .ill. If it had been all, the President 
 would not have come to the Congress yesterday; if it had been 
 all, we would not be discussing the subject here to-night. Back 
 of the incident, back of the special circumstance which forms 
 the whole of the resolution reported by the committee, there is 
 a great array of facts, a long, dreadful history. Mr. President, 
 if there were nothing else but the incident referred to in the 
 resolution, would the American Government have thought for a 
 moment of treating this poor, weak country in this peremptory 
 way? Such things have happened hundreds of times before. 
 Ignorant subalterns have many and many a time transgressed 
 the limits of propriety, mistaken their duty and their powers, 
 and have done acts which were insults to great governments. 
 It has often occurred in the history of the United States. What 
 have we done: what would we do to-day if a subordinate officer 
 in a port of England or France or Germany or Italy were to 
 mistake his duty, make an arrest of American sailors, as Ameri- 
 can sailors have been arrested before, and the act were dis- 
 avowed by the Government he served and an apology were 
 41093—13227 
 
6 
 
 made, and regret was expressed, and an intention to punish him 
 was expressed — what would we do about the form and method 
 of further amends? Sir, in the first place, we would settle the 
 facts. 
 
 We are now engaged in signing a series of treaties designed 
 to take in all the world, and already a very large number of 
 nations of the world have signed, under which we agree with 
 them that if there be any dispute about any question of fact a 
 commission shall investigate and report, and no action shall be 
 taken for one year, to allow the report to be made. We find 
 here that, while our admiral reported that the American flag 
 was flying on the boat, the Mexican ofiicer reported to Gen. 
 Huerta that no flag was flying. I believe our admiral, but can 
 we think it strange that Gen. Huerta believed his officer? If 
 there were nothing else — If -this were all — should not that ques- 
 tion of fact be determined by peaceful means? 
 
 The question of the proper, appropriate, and customary form 
 and method of a salute is a matter of precedent and the usage 
 of nations. It is the universal custom of civilized nations to 
 present in diplomatic communications the precedents, the au- 
 thorities showing that the custom contended for by one country 
 is the true custom and that the other country is mistaken. In 
 the case that I suppose, of such an incident occurring in a port 
 of France or Germany or England or Italy, sir, we would have 
 presented our facts, investigated the facts, made certain and 
 clear the facts, presented the authorities upon precedent and 
 custom, and by peaceable and friendly communication would 
 have reached a result. 
 
 If that were all, that is what we would do. If this be all, 
 is this Nation of a hundred millions, the richest upon earth, 
 with its mighty power, to treat poor, weak, bankrupt, down- 
 trodden, distressed, despairing Mexico in any less kindly and 
 just a way? If this be all, how can we, in the arrogance of 
 I)ower, justify treating this weak neighbor with a peremptory 
 harshness that we would not think of using toward a powerful 
 nation? 
 
 Mr. President, what I have said is what the good people of 
 our country and of the world will think if we flnish our work 
 l;-night by the adoption of the resolution reported by the 
 committee. There is no justiflcation for us there. No ; by 
 the expression of one thing, the dispute about the salute, we 
 commit ourselves to the exclusion of all other justifications. 
 We commit ourselves to a condemnation that will weigh 
 heavily upon the heart of many a good American who loves 
 his country and her honor, and which as time goes on, and the 
 judgment of the world and of the future is made up, will grow 
 darker and darker. 
 
 But, Mr. President, it is not all — it is hot all. There is mat- 
 ter of justification; and the Senator from Massachusetts [Mr. 
 Lodge] has sought to lay it before the people of America and of 
 Mexico and of the community of nations by the recital in the 
 substitute resolution which he offers. What is it? It is that 
 lying behind the insult to our fiag by this poor, ignorant sub- 
 ordinate are years of violence and anarchy in Mexico. Lying 
 behind it are hundreds of American lives sacrificed, millions of 
 American property destroyed, and thousands of Americans re- 
 41093—13227 
 
7 
 
 fluced to iwvertv to-day through the destruction of their prop- 
 erty. Lying behind it is a condition of anarchy in Mexico 
 which malves it impossible to secure, by diplomatic means, pro- 
 tection for American life and property in that country. Lying 
 behind it is a condition of affairs in Mexico which makes that 
 country incapable of performing its international obligations. 
 
 The insult to the flag is but a part— the culmination, if you 
 please — of a long series of violations of American rights, a long 
 series of violations of those rights which it is the duty of our 
 country to protect— violations not, for the most part, of govern- 
 ment, but made possible by the weakness of government, because 
 through that country range bands of freebooters and chieftains 
 like the captains of free companies, without control or responsi- 
 bility. Lying back of this incident is a condition of things In 
 Mexico which absolutely prevents the protection of American 
 life and property except through respect for the American flag, 
 the American uniform, the American Government. 
 
 It is that which gives significance to the demand that public 
 respect shall be paid to the flag of the United States. There is 
 our justification. It is a justification lying not in Victoriano 
 Huerta or in his Qouduct alone, but in the universal condition of 
 affairs in Mexico. The real object to be attained by the course 
 which we are asked to approve is not the gratification of personal 
 pride ; it is not the satisfaction of an admiral or a Government. 
 It is the preservation of the power of the United States to pro- 
 tect its citizens under those conditions. 
 
 If we omit from the resolution that shall be passed to-night 
 all reference to the matters that are enumerated in the substi- 
 tute, we omit the real object which forms the only justifica- 
 tion for action. Without that, sir, upon the showing of the 
 resolution reported by the committee we would be everlastingly 
 wrong. With the facts that are enumerated in the substitute 
 the action of the United States will rest with becoming sense 
 of proportion and national dignity upon adequate foundation 
 and cause. 
 
 The Senator from Indiana [Mr. Shively] has observed, in 
 effect, that the substitute resolution thunders in the index. 
 Ah, Mr. President, the capture of Vera Cruz, the death of 
 American citizens, the wounds and sufferings of men who lie 
 there to-night demand something more than formal inducement. 
 The recitals of the substitute resolution are weak in the face of 
 death and wounds and sufferings of Americans in Vera Cruz. 
 No less than the substitute resolution avers can justify us. 
 
 The conclusion of the substitute resolution, sir, is the same 
 as that of the other. It justifies the President in the same 
 course of conduct which the committee resolution justifies, but 
 it gives grounds. It gives substantial grounds. It gives grounds 
 creditable to the United States and adequate for the proposed 
 action, instead of leaving this momentous movement of a great 
 naval and military power to rest upon no justification but a 
 dispute with a weak and helpless adversary about number of 
 guns and the proper ceremonies of a salute. 
 41093—13227 
 
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