Page:Mexico under Carranza.djvu/104

88 State Evarts in 1878 a communication to the Mexican Government in which he said:

 "The first duty of a government is to protect life and property. This is a paramount of ligation. For this governments are instituted, and governments neglecting or failing to perform it become worse than useless. This duty the Government of the United States has determined to perform to the extent of its power toward its citizens on the border. It is not solicitous, it never has been, about the methods or ways in which that protection shall be accomplished, whether by formal treaty stipulation, or by informal convention; whether by the action of judicial tribunals, or whether by that of military forces. Protection, in fact, to American lives and property is the sole point upon which the United States are tenacious."

This unmistakable intimation that our Government proposed thereafter to live up to its duty, as thus defined, in its dealing with Mexico moved Diaz to take steps to prevent the occurrence of further outrages along the border and to provide proper protection for Americans in the interior also. This condition continued throughout the Diaz regime and, apparently, might have been continued had our Government in its dealings with the Mexican revolutionists maintained the position assumed by Secretary Evarts. This, however, was not done. Every effort was made to avoid