Page:Mexico under Carranza.djvu/103

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MEXICO UNDER CARRANZA
87

We see from the foregoing that President Wilson, in his dealings with the present government in Mexico, has met with the same experience that several other chief executives of our country have had. President Wilson has spoken of his efforts to show "patience" in his dealings with the present government of Mexico, and surely it has been amply exhibited in condoning the most outrageous violations of rights ever committed by the people and government of one country against the people and government of another.

Our experience with Mexico, begun nearly a hundred years ago and continuing until it culminated in war, proved that there was a limit to our forbearance. For some time after the close of the Mexican War, the rights of American citizens were respected by the Mexicans. But it did not take long for a people so prone to ignoring and violating the rights of others to forget the lessons of the war and again begin the violation of the rights of American citizens both along the border and in Mexico. The persistent aggressions upon our citizens along the border resulted in the organization by the state of Texas of a force which afterward became famous under the name of "Texas Rangers," which was used to afford to the citizens of that state the protection which they did not get from the soldiers of the nation. Finally conditions became so bad as to provoke from Secretary of