James G. Blaine

“ It is especially anxious, in the pursuance of this great policy, to see the Central American Republics more securely united than they have been in the past, in protection of their common interests, which interests are, in their outward relations, identical in principle with those of Mexico and of the United States. It feels that everything which may lessen the good will and harmony so much to be desired between the Spanish Republics of the Isthmus must in the end disastrously affect their mutual well-being. ”

“ It is simply the impartial friend of both, ready to tender frank and earnest counsel touching anything which may menace the peace and prosperity of its neighbors. It is, above all, anxious to do any and everything which will tend to make stronger the natural union of the republics of the continent in the face of the tendencies of other and distant forms of government to influence the internal affairs of Spanish America. ”

“ Mexico, become a republic, did not forego claims based on the imperial policy of conquest and absorption, while Guatemala, resisting further progress of Mexican arms, and disputing step by step the conquest already made, has never been able to come to a decision with her more powerful neighbor concerning the relative extension of their jurisdiction in the disputed strip of territory lying between the Gulf of Tehuantepec and the peninsula of Yucatan. ”