Lincoln and Juárez—A Brief Reassessment of Their Relationship | Hispanic American Historical Review (2024)

Hispanic American Historical Review (1968) 48 (1): 75–80.

When President Lyndon B. Johnson unveiled a statue of Abraham Lincoln in a residential area of Mexico City on April 14, 1966, he unwittingly contributed to perpetuating a very unhistorical legend about the relationship between Lincoln and Mexico’s Benito Juárez—two great liberators.¹ Because the two men were contemporaries, and had similar careers and personalities, their alleged “friendship” has become symbolic of amiable relations between the United States and Mexico. Remarks by both President and Mrs. Johnson, as well as President Gustavo Díaz Ordaz of Mexico at the dedication ceremonies, emphasized this picture of the two men.²

The Lincoln statue was a gift from the United States to the people of Mexico in belated commemoration of that nation’s 150th anniversary of its independence in I960.³ Senator Thomas H. Kuchel first proposed to present a gift of a monument to Mexico in January 1960. Kuchel, along with a bipartisan group of seven other senators,⁴ introduced an appropriate bill in the Senate.⁵ To perpetuate good relations between the United States and her southern neighbor, the senators proposed that a statue of Miguel Hidalgo, the Mexican patriot who inspired the independence movement, be presented, but Mexico suggested a statue of Lincoln instead.⁶ No final action was taken in the Congress to pass such a bill that year. In 1961 and 1963 similar bills were proposed, but largely because of House inaction they met the same fate as the first bill.⁷ Finally, on August 4, 1964, President Johnson signed a bill (S.944) authorizing the Lincoln statue.⁸

Although a question soon arose about the type of statue to be presented,⁹ a more significant controversy developed from an exaggeration of the true relationship between Lincoln and Juárez. This resulted from a deliberate effort to symbolize their closeness and the ceremonial oratory that inevitably accompanies such situations. The idea of a Lincoln-Juárez solidarity, however, did not originally result from the gift of a monument but from earlier historical writings about them. Writers have noted that the two men had similar experiences and political backgrounds, and that the crucial period of their careers, in which they sought to preserve the republican system of government in their respective countries, occurred at about the same time. They have also been compared in personality and social status: both were of humble birth and homely in appearance and were considered to have “championed the common man.”¹⁰

The question of their relationship centers in alleged correspondence between them. Although it was known that Lincoln and Juárez never met, shortly after the end of the Civil War a writer asserted that the two men had corresponded directly. In a book on Maximilian’s empire in Mexico,¹¹ Count Émile de Kératry declared that the United States gave “decisive support” to Juárez. Kératry made the following comment on Lincoln’s promise of assistance in a letter to Juárez:

The authenticity of the quoted offer of aid, attributed to Lincoln, is open to serious question. A promise of substantial military assistance to Juárez was not consistent with known American reluctance to become involved in the Mexican conflict while the United States was preoccupied with the Civil War. A check with the Comonfort papers in the University of Texas Library, moreover, did not reveal any Lincoln-Juárez correspondence. The papers at Texas, of course, may not include all the correspondence discovered by Kératry in 1868 among Comonfort’s baggage.

A newspaper article in the Washington Post revived the question in 1962.¹³ The Post reported that Ernesto Maurer, president of Mexico City’s Rotary Club, in a speech on July 10, 1962, had referred to “the famous exchange of letters” between Lincoln and Juárez. A subsequent investigation by the American Embassy in Mexico City¹⁴ revealed that neither Maurer nor Ernesto Flores Zavala, a speaker at the club’s July meeting who made a similar reference, had actual knowledge of any such correspondence. Their over-zealous remarks were attributed to comments by Mrs. Doris Crans, a step-daughter of Robert Lincoln Beckwith (a descendant of Lincoln), whom she accompanied to Mexico City. Beckwith was a guest of honor at the Rotary Club meeting along with a Mexican lady who was a descendant of Juárez. Mrs. Crans claimed to have seen some correspondence between the two men but did not personally possess the letters, nor did she know precisely where they might be located in the United States.¹⁵

The possibility that correspondence might actually exist between Lincoln and Juárez stimulated the Department of State to an extensive search of published and manuscript sources in the United States and Mexico. Principal archival material checked in the United States (in addition to the Comonfort Papers) included the Lincoln Papers in the Library of Congress and the Department of State Records at the National Archives.¹⁶ No exchange of letters was found. The American Embassy in Mexico, with the assistance of the Benjamin Franklin Library, checked for Lincoln-Juárez correspondence with major national archives and libraries in Mexico City. These included: Biblioteca de México, Recinto de Juárez (Palacio Nacional), Colegio de México, Biblioteca Nacional, Biblioteca de la Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores, Archivo General de la Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores, and Archivo General de la Nación.¹⁷ The investigation brought negative results.

Despite the growing certainty that Lincoln and Juárez never corresponded, the legendary relationship was again publicized in March 1964 by Secretary of State Dean Rusk. At the opening session of the Mexican-United States Parliamentarians Conference in Washington Rusk said:

The speeches in Congress supporting proposals for a Lincoln statue reflected a conscious effort to perpetuate good relations with Mexico. Colorful oratory re-emphasized the relationship between Lincoln and Juárez. When Senator Kuchel reintroduced his bill proposing the statue in the senate in January 1961, he referred to the Mexican people’s high regard for Lincoln because of his “crucial support of Benito Juárez.” He further declared that “disregarding European hostility, Lincoln and his Secretary of State, William Seward, provided encouragement and, later, active support for the brave new government of Mexico.”¹⁹ These allegations about correspondence, friendship, and enthusiastic support of Juárez produce a misconception of American interest in Mexico during the United States Civil War, and particularly, of Lincoln’s actual relations with the Liberal leader in Mexico.

As scholars know, Lincoln gave his attention to Mexico on two occasions: during the United States-Mexican War (1846-1848) and during the American Civil War. In the former instance, Lincoln’s concern with Mexico was due to the controversy between President James K. Polk and the opposition Whig Party concerning responsibility for the outbreak of the Mexican War. In his “war message” of May 11, 1846, President Polk claimed that the clash between American and Mexican forces on April 25, had taken place on American soil between the Nueces and Rio Grande Rivers. The Whig Party, supported by antislavery men, strongly disapproved of Polk’s position. It was Lincoln’s insistence at this time that the exact spot where the conflict had begun be determined that brought him the appellation “spotty Lincoln.”²⁰

France’s military intervention to create a puppet monarchy headed by Maximilian of Hapsburg caused Lincoln to turn his attention to Mexico a second time. In accordance with the Monroe Doctrine and despite an official assertion of neutrality, the United States continued to support the embattled republican government of Benito Juárez, according it recognition and moral and legal support.²¹ The exigencies of the Civil War and concern about a possible French alliance with the Confederacy, however, limited the efforts of the United States government to dislodge Maximilian. Despite Juárez’ effort to obtain American assistance through his brilliant young diplomat, Matías Romero, Secretary of State William H. Seward steadfastly resisted material involvement in Mexico’s troubles.²²

American relations with Mexico in this period are exceedingly complex and require fuller treatment than can be given here. Suffice it to say, unless later proven otherwise, Lincoln and Juárez were not personal friends, they never met, nor did they ever correspond. Whatever similarity they may have had was a circ*mstantial likeness in personality and career, attributed to them not by contemporaries but by later writers.

Author notes

Copyright 1968 by Duke University Press

1968

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