Niagara Falls peace conference

Henry Percival Dodge, and Joseph Rucker Lamar, and Frederick William Lehmann, and Robert F. Rose at the Niagara Falls peace conference in 1914

File:Mediators at the Niagara Falls peace conference, 1914.jpg

Rómulo Sebastián Naón and his son Rómulo Sebastián Naón, Jr., Frederick William Lehmann, Joseph Rucker Lamar, Domício da Gama, Eduardo Suárez Mujica and his son in Niagara Falls in 1914

File:Eduardo Suárez Mujica and Domício da Gama and Romulo S. Naon Niagara Falls peace conference 1914.jpg

Eduardo Suárez Mujica and Domício da Gama and Romulo S. Naon at the Niagara Falls peace conference in 1914

The Niagara Falls peace conference, sometimes referred to as the ABC Conference, started on May 20, 1914, when Argentina, Brazil and Chile—the ABC Powers—met in Niagara Falls, Canada, for diplomatic negotiations in order to avoid war between the United States and Mexico, during the era of the Mexican Revolution.

History

There were increasing tensions between the two over the Tampico Affair of April 9, 1914 and the subsequent United States occupation of Veracruz of April 21, 1914 during the Mexican Revolution. The Mexican and American governments had severed all diplomatic channels between one another. At the conference, the United States was represented by Frederick William Lehmann, a former United States Solicitor General; and Joseph Rucker Lamar, an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. On May 27, 1914 to celebrate their success, the ABC envoys and the U.S. and Mexican delegates to the conference attended a royal garden party given by the Duke of Connaught, the Governor General of Canada at the King Edward Hotel.

On March 4, 1915 three diplomats received the Thanks of Congress and were awarded Congressional Gold Medals (P.L. 63-75, 38 Stat. 1228). The statute reads as follows.

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the thanks of Congress to their excellencies be, and they are hereby, presented to their excellencies Señor Domício da Gama, Señor Rómulo S. Naón, and Señor Eduardo Suárez for their generous services as mediators in the controversy between the Government of the United States of America and the leaders of the warring parties in the Republic of Mexico. That the President of the United States is hereby authorized and requested to cause to be made and presented to their excellencies Señor Domicio da Gama, Señor Rómulo S. Naón, and Señor Eduardo Suárez suitable gold medals, appropriately inscribed, which shall express the high estimation in which Congress holds the services of these distinguished statesmen, and the Republics which they represent, in the promotion of peace and order in the American continent.

Attendees

• Henry Percival Dodge, American.
• Frederick William Lehmann, American.
• Robert F. Rose, American from the United States Department of State.
• Joseph Rucker Lamar, American.
• Rómulo Sebastián Naón, Argentina.
• Domício da Gama, Brazil.
• Eduardo Suárez Mujica, Chile.

Images

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  Romulo S. Naon of Argentina and Robert F. Rose at the ABC Conference

• Clifton 5333431278 7fc9cfb6c9 o.jpg

  Clifton Hotel, at the ABC Conference

External links

• Niagara Falls peace conference from the Library of Congress at Flickr Commons
• The Forgotten Peace: Mediation at Niagara Falls, by Michael Small