File No. 4598/4.
Minister Merry to the Secretary of State.
To Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Salvador,
San Jose, March 10, 1907.
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge receipt of your telegram dated March 4,a instructing me to express in the President’s name his congratulations upon the peaceful inauguration of Gen. Fernando Figeroa as Constitutional President of El Salvador. I accordingly telegraphed his Government on 5th instant and on the 6th received the following reply:
[Translation.]
I am sincerely pleased at the courteous salutation through the medium of your excellency which President Roosevelt has been pleased to send me, and his wishes for the prosperity of this Republic, and, on my part, I beg to transmit my fervent hopes for his personal welfare and for the prosperity of the United States.
Fernando Figeroa.
I have the observation to make, creditable to President Escalon, that the recent election in Salvador is the first within my observation where liberty of press and speech have been permitted, except in Costa Rica. True this liberty was largely abused and some public disturbance resulted. But it is an advance in the republican principle of government doubtless due to the nine years’ attendance of Massachusetts schools by President Escalon. He alluded to the principles of liberty and truth there impressed upon him when I last met him, assuring me of his admiration and consequent comprehension of what constitutes a free government. From the time of Regalado’s death he has done the best he could for his country, under conditions of much difficulty, and so far as known to me, deserves well of his people.
With assurances, etc.,
- Not printed.↩