The Wheeling intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1903-1961, 1916-08-01
SPEECH Of CHARLES {. HUGHES
ACCEPTING THE REPUBLICAN
NOMINATION FOR PRESIDENT

! presidents personal spokesman and
! preventative" to the Unrccccni@ad
Huerta in order 20 demand that The lat
! ter eliminate himself. 1t was an un-
! tustifao!e mission. most offensive 70 a
| sensitive people. John Lind fingered IT.,
, ritatingly. The administration Continued
u: n" nr!y government Mexico had.
In the spring Of 1914, occurred The
! capture. ~ N.ra Icuz Men from ono
pco and had been discharged with an
! apolnGy. But our admiral demanded Il
! s;l"'" which was refused Thcrcupon
! III" president went 10 congress. ASKING
the United States. Without waiting for
tho passage or the resolution. Vera
| ''ruz was seized. Il arrrar"t thar a
ship!oad Of ammunition Tor llucrta was
about 20 enter that port. There was a
natural opposition TO this INVASION ana
n battle occurred in which - AMERICANS
| and over 100 MeNicans w""r killed. THIS.
OF course. was war. hnr dead soldiers
! were praised for dying like heroes in Il
war of service. Later "" retired from
! Nera CRUZ. giving UP this noble warfare.
W" had NOT obtained the sa:ut" which
WAS demanded. We had no. ohtalncd
ammunition which could not land IT
Nrra CrUz had soon landed at another
port and its cargo was delivered 70
ILu"rta without interference; Recently
not uttiC~r. We are now informed that
we did not go 20 Vera C2Gz 10 force
Hucrta 20 salute the flag. We are told
that went there TO show Mexico
tia, We were in earnest in our demand
hat Huerta must 60" That is. We seized
Vera CRUZ II depnSe Huerta. The CUES
ton of the salute was n.re prcteNt.
Meanwhile. the administration utterly
failed to perform its obvious duty IN Sc
cure projection for the lives and prop
crty II our citizens. 1t is most un-
worthy 70 Slur tho$" who have invest
ments in Mexico in order 10 escape a
Of this duty There can be no such
escape. for we have no debate. and there
can d. no debate as 70 the existence Of
this duty on III part OF our government.
Let me quote tho words Of the Demo
cratic platform of 1912: The constitu-
tional rights Of American citizens should
protect them on our borders. and go
with them throughout the world. and
every American citizen residing or NAY
ing property in any foreign country is
entitled 10 and must b. given the full
protection OF the United States govern
ment. both for himself and his proper
~" TIL" bitter hatred aroused h. tho
course of the Administered multiplied
cutrages while our failure TO afford
protection TO our citizens evoked ihr
scorn and contempt OF MeNicans. Con-
slider the iSnomtninus Incident AT Tam-
ricn in connection with the capture of
est danger 10 the hundreds Of Americans
"nngrrEated at Tampico. our ships which
were in III" harhor were withdrawn and
our citizens were saved only by the in
tervention Of German. officers and were
taken away by British and German ships.
The official eNcus" Of the secretary OF
IN. navy is an extraordinary comment
/ AIRY. Our ships. it seems. had boon or
drrrd 10 Vera Cruz: hut. as il appeared
! that they were not needed. The order
was rascindrd Tim. We ar" told. our
admiral was faced with this remark
| able dilemma. II he attempted 10 gn
up the river at Tampicn and take our
! citizens on board. tho word Of 'argres-
! >,r" action" as tn" secretary called It.
/ would hay" spread TO the surrounding
! country" and il was almost certain
! that reprlsals on American citizens
would have followed and lives would
! have hecn lost" We had so incensed
/ the MeHicans that we could not rescue
our own citizens at Tampico. save at