Page:Difficulties Between Mexico and Guatemala.djvu/9



G. No. 138.

Esquire, etc., etc., etc.


 * In my instructions of the 1st instant and today, I have so clearly amplified the spirit of good-will which animates this government toward that of Mexico, that I am sure no room for doubt can remain as to the sincerity of our friendship. Believing that this friendship and the frankness which has always distinguished the policy of this country toward its neighbors warrant the tender of amicable counsel when occasion therefor shall appear, and deeming such counsel due to our recognized impartiality, and to the position of the United States as the founder and, in some sense, the guarantor and guardian of republican principles on the American continent, it seems proper now to instruct you touching a point upon which we feel some natural concern. I refer to the question of boundaries and territorial jurisdiction pending between Mexico and Guatemala.

In the time of the Empire the forces of Iturbide overran a large part of the territory of what now constitutes Central America, which had then recently