File No. 839.00/1830
Minister Russell to the Secretary of State
Santo Domingo, May 18, 1916, 5 p.m.
Your May 17, 4 p.m., referring to my cable of May 15, 4 p.m. Congress has ignored my request to defer election President until normal conditions restored and yesterday the House on the third [Page 230] reading selected Dr. Henríquez, [Chief Justice of the] Supreme Court, and there will be three consecutive days voting in the Senate. Henríquez is a compromise candidate of Horatio Vasquez and if elected the country will be thrown into formidable revolution, as nine out of the twelve provinces have notified me that they will not recognize as binding any choice of the present Congress. There is fighting in the north. Admiral Caperton and I have addressed to Congress a demand to postpone election which will be enforced if ignored. Cabinet Ministers still outside of town and I am of the opinion that we can do nothing properly to rehabilitate Jiménez, as he practically quit job in resignation to the people instead of to Congress and Congress declared presidency vacant.