File No. 812.00/655.
[Untitled]
Washington, January 24, 1911.
Excellency: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note No. 677, of the 19th instant, in which you state that Francisco I. Madero is soon to go to San Antonio, Tex., and that you have no doubt that the American authorities will direct appropriate measures for his arrest.
In reply I have the honor to inform your excellency that your note has been immediately copied to the Attorney General, for use in connection with his investigation of the acts of those who are charged [Page 398] with being engaged in hostile operations against the Government of Mexico. I need not assure your excellency that the provisions of the American law as defined by the courts, including the cases to which you refer, will be most carefully considered by the Attorney General in his study of this matter.
I have, however, again to remind your excellency that, in the first place, the mere carrying on of a revolutionary propaganda by writing or speaking does not constitute an offense against either the law of nations or the Federal statutes, and that in order that this Government may successfully prosecute any person for a violation of its law it is necessary that competent legal evidence shall be produced establishing the illegality of the acts which are charged. This Government has spared and will spare no effort in its endeavors to see that its international obligations are fully met, but, as you are aware, notwithstanding the numerous charges which have been heretofore made against various persons regarding their unneutral conduct on American territory, it has so far been impossible for this Government to secure evidence of such unneutral conduct sufficient to justify putting the accused parties upon trial, to say nothing of securing a conviction.
Accept [etc.],