friendship by ratifying the several treaties of arbitration awaiting
renewal by the Senate. In addition to these, it has been the privilege
of the Department of State to gain the assent, in principle, of no less
than thirty-one nations, representing four-fifths of the population of
the world, to the negotiation of treaties by which it shall be agreed
that whenever differences of interest or of policy arise which cannot be
resolved by the ordinary processes of diplomacy they shall be publicly
analyzed, discussed, and reported upon by a tribunal chosen by the
parties before either nation determines its course of action.

There is only one possible standard by which to determine controversies
between the United States and other nations, and that is compounded of
these two elements: Our own honor and our obligations to the peace of
the world. A test so compounded ought easily to be made to govern both
the establishment of new treaty obligations and the interpretation of
those already assumed.

There is but one cloud upon our horizon. That has shown itself to the
south of us, and hangs over Mexico. There can be no certain prospect of
peace in America until Gen. Huerta has surrendered his usurped authority
in Mexico; until it is understood on all hands, indeed, that such
pretended governments will not be countenanced or dealt with by the
Government of the United States. We are the friends of constitutional
government in America; we are more than its friends, we are its
champions; because in no other way can our neighbors, to whom we would
wish in every way to make proof of our friendship, work out their own
development in peace and liberty. Mexico has no Government. The attempt
to maintain one at the City of Mexico has broken down, and a mere
military despotism has been set up which has hardly more than the
semblance of national authority. It originated in the usurpation of
Victoriano Huerta, who, after a brief attempt to play the part of
constitutional President, has at last cast aside even the pretense of
legal right and declared himself dictator. As a consequence, a condition
of affairs now exists in Mexico which has made it doubtful whether even
the most elementary and fundamental rights either of her own people or
of the citizens of other countries resident within her territory can
long be successfully safeguarded, and which threatens, if long
continued, to imperil the interests of peace, order, and tolerable life
in t