Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 235, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 October 1915 — Chief Justice John Marshall, President Wilson and Secretary Daniels [ARTICLE]

Chief Justice John Marshall, President Wilson and Secretary Daniels

Over a century ago Chief Justice John Marshall wrote into an opinion of the Supreme Court the following explicit declaration: “The American citizen who goes into a foreign country, although he owes local and temporary allegiance to that country, is yet, if ‘he performs no other act changing his condition, entitled to the protection of our Government; and if, without the violation of any municipal law, he should be oppressed unjustly, he would have a right to proclaim that protection, and the interposition of the American Government in his favor would be considered a justifiable interposition.” Three foreign wars have been waged to sustain this fundamental principal and it has been reiterated many times in respect to Mexico. Secretary Evarts wrote to our minister in 1877: “The first jiuty of a government is to protect life and property. This is a paramount obligation. For this governments are instituted, and governments neglecting or failing to perform it become worse than useless. Protection in fact to American lives and property is the sdle point upon which the United States are tenacious.” 'Secretary Bayrd took and maintained the same position. The democratic party in its platform at Baltimore declared: “The constitutional rights of American citizens should protect them on our borders and go with them throughout the world; and every American citizen residing or having property in any foreign country is entitled to and must be given the full protection of the United States Government, both for himself and for his property.” And President Wilson, in his address to Congress on August 27,1913, said firmly: “We should let every one who assumes to exercise authority in any part of Mexico know, in the most unequivocal way, that we shall vigilantly watch the fortunes of those Americans who cannot get away, and shall hold those responsible for their suffering and losses to a definite reckoning. That can be and will be made plain beyond the possibility of a misunderstanding.” It has always been the policy of every government to protect its citizens in their persons and property wherever they lived and this has been the strong arm of those people who have pushed into new countries to offer their •services and their capital to the development of a country. England waged war on the Transvaal because the diamond hunters from England who settled among the stock raising and agricultural Boers were not granted full rights -of citizenship. During President Taft’s administration free rights of travel through Russia of American Jews was denied and this Government promptly took the matter up and threatened to break off all treaties with that country. It is for the protection ol people in foreign lands that consuls are stationed throughout the world and if there is any fixed policy of international scope it is the one of protection to the lives and properties of persons in foreign governments. There has never been prior to the Bryan-WiiSon-Daniels regime denial of protection and in view of President Wilson’s statement in Congress that. Mexico would be held to a “definite reckoning” it is certain that the polu y of “watchful waiting” is pursued not only in violation of precedent and of firm conviction of duty but as a weak and wavering adoption of a weak and wavering administration. We hope that every person who sees this article will read again the opinion of Chief Justice John Marshall, whose life’s history is now being written by Albert J. Beveridge, and then read rhe pusillanimous interview, given out by Secretary Daniels after Americans who had flown from Mexico appealed for protection. The Daniels interview follows:

“When they came in I thought they had come to thank us for what the Navy did for them at Tampico, to express their appreciation of our action in saving their lives. I said to them: ‘Why, you are lucky to get out with your lives. You look healthy and strong to me and you ought to be glad you are safe.’ “They told me they thought they might lose their property, and they said that if it had not been for the British and German naval commanders they would have been left without protection and at the mercy of the enraged Mexicans. “I said to them: ‘lf Admiral Mayo had gone in there you all would have been massacred. I think you ought to thank this Government for saving your lives instead of complaining because Read Admiral Mayo did not attack the town.’ \ "They asked me what was to be the policy of the United States with respect to Americans owning property in Mexico. I suppose if I owned property in Mexico I would feel th’e same way they do about their nght to protection. But I said to them: ‘Why did you leave the United States and go to Mexico? You went there because you preferred to invest your money there rather than in the United .States. You thougth that by investing your money in Mexico you could make more than if you stayed in the United States. Isn’t this true?’ ‘‘They did not deny it. Then I said: ‘lf that is true, if you expect greater returns than you can get in the United -States, then you must take the risk of losing your property. If you prefer to go there and purchase property, you must not expect the people of the United "States to pay taxes for the support of an army *to protect your property in Mexico. Thus we witness a -Secretary of the Navy, presumably with the approval of a President of the United States, adopting a “new” freedom, forsaking the accejrted duty of more than a hundred years, denying the opinion of Chief Jutsice John Marshall, the platform which elected the President and resulted in the appointment of his cabinet and even the assertion of the President himself. And within the past few days an official report of General Funston told of the kidnaping of an American soldier, of his barbarous murder and how his ears and head were cut off and carried away as souvenirs. The dispatches for two years have told of the murders of American citizens, <rf the destruction of their properties, of the desecration of the American flag and President Wilson has failed to invoke the “definite reckoning” of which he told Congress. For the first time since those brave men defied England and wrote their defiance into the Constitution of the United -States has the protection of the Government been denied to American citizens; never before has the United States failed to assert in a positive and effective manner its rights on the high seas and never before have any people of the United States in a foreign land been compelled to depend for their safety to a Brazilian minister after being denied that protection of their own government. Old Glory was never before so disgraced and humiliated at home and abroad as it has been by our scholarly, ‘ well-meaning, good-intentioned President. “ ’Tis true; *tis pity; Pity ’tis, ’tis true.”