Wilson Woodrow 1856 - 1924 President Wilson rare White House ANS, instructions he gave a journalist who was going to Mexico as his confidential agent on a secret spying mission

Autograph Note Signed "Woodrow Wilson" as President on 4.25" x 2.75" White House card, 1 page, Washington, [April/May 1913]. Darkly penned. Light toning, lightly damp stained at edges and on verso ostensibly because the bearer carried it with him in Mexico. Fine condition.

In full, "The bearer of this card, Mr. William Bayard Hale, is my personal friend, is traveling at my request, and any courtesies shown him or assistance rendered him I would deeply appreciate. Woodrow Wilson."

Before the office of the Coordinator of Information was created by President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1941), before the Office of Strategic Services (1942), and before the Central Intelligence Agency (1947), in 1913, President Woodrow Wilson sends a secret spy to Mexico.

In February 19, 1913, President of Mexico Francisco Madero was assassinated and was succeeded as interim president by General Victoriano Huarte. On April 19, 1913, Wilson wrote journalist William Bayard Hale of the "New York World" if he "would be willing to undertake a tour of the Central and South American states, ostensibly on your own hook, in order that officially and through the eyes of an independent observer we might find out just what is going on down there - Will you not be kind enough to regard this inquiry as strictly confidential?" President Wilson sent Hale to spy on Mexico under the guise of doing research for an article.

William Bayard Hale carried the White House card here offered with him on his mission.

FROM THE WEBSITE OF THE LIBRARY OF THE CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY:

All the Brains I Can Borrow: Woodrow Wilson

and Intelligence Gathering in Mexico, 1913-15

By Mark E. Benbow

In part, "A mere two weeks before Woodrow Wilson became president of the United States, Mexico's Gen. Victoriano Huerta overthrew his country's elected president, Francisco Madero, who would later be assassinated. Wilson was concerned because he feared that foreign policy issues might prove a distraction from the domestic reform measures he wanted to pass through Congress -

"The US ambassador in Mexico City, Henry Lane Wilson, was a conservative Republican and an appointee of Wilson's predecessor, William Howard Taft. Ambassador Wilson strongly advocated US recognition of the Huerta government. He also actively assisted the plotters who overthrew President Madero in February 1913.

"Just three days after President Wilson was inaugurated on 4 March 1913, the New York World published a front page story revealing Ambassador Wilson's role in Huerta's coup. The World was the president's strongest supporter in the press and it was the newspaper he most trusted. The World's report reinforced the president's decision to delay recognition of Huerta's government, despite the ambassador's strenuous lobbying. Also as a result of the World's reports, President Wilson considered any information coming from the US embassy in Mexico to be tainted.

"Presented with conflicting information and distrustful of State reporting, Wilson looked for more reliable sources. First he turned to a reporter, William Bayard Hale, who had been an Episcopalian priest. Hale wrote for the progressive journal World's Work and had written Wilson's campaign biography in 1912. Hale would become the first of several reporters, or 'confidential men,' picked to go to Mexico to get the 'exact facts.' The president asked Hale to 'tour' the Latin American states--even though he spoke no Spanish--'ostensibly on your own hook' and report 'just what is going on down there.'

"Hale reached Mexico City on 24 May, accompanied by rumors that he was there to investigate the New York World's reports. Hale denied the rumors and claimed that he was only there to research a series of magazine articles. President Wilson also issued a statement denying that Hale was investigating Ambassador Wilson's role in the coup. The type of information Hale reported to the president indicated that he probably did seek information about Ambassador Wilson's role in the February 1913 coup, but the president also sought information on Huerta's legitimacy.

"Hale sent his first report to the President Wilson on 18 June 1913. His conclusions confirmed Wilson's worst fears. President Madero was overthrown in a coup begun by those opposed to his reforms. The coup would have failed if Gen. Huerta, Madero's own commander, had not betrayed him. To make matters worse, Huerta acted only because he had the active support of Ambassador Wilson. Hale's report indicated that the official US representative, in fact, had engaged in a plot against an elected government and was directly responsible for the coup's success.

"Hale concluded that 'thousands of Mexicans believe that the Ambassador acted on instructions from Washington and looked upon his retention under the new American President as a mark of approval, blaming the United States for the chaos into which [Mexico] has fallen.'

"Hale also revealed how the ambassador sought to undermine the Wilson administration's policy by trying to create the specter of armed intervention by suggesting that Wilson's policies would inevitably lead to a war in Mexico. Moreover, Hale reported, Ambassador Wilson was noisily attacking President Wilson's administration calling it 'a pack of vicious fools.' As for Huerta, Hale described him as 'an ape-like old man - said to subsist on alcohol and interested in holding power only for the abuses the position allowed him to inflict.

"On the basis of Hale's reports, President Wilson recalled Ambassador Wilson in mid-July 1913 to confer with him and Secretary of State Bryan. The ambassador arrived in Washington ready to personally lobby the administration to extend formal recognition to Huerta's regime. Wilson and Bryan listened for an hour to the man the president once called 'that unspeakable person.'

"As he spoke, Ambassador Wilson realized that his audience was only giving him cursory attention, and he resigned soon after the meeting. His resignation left Nelson O'Shaughnessy as the US representative in charge at the embassy. However, O'Shaughnessy was also on friendly terms with Huerta, and his reporting remained tainted in the president's estimation, although Wilson considered him 'honest,' if somewhat biased. Hale remained in Mexico, reporting first from Mexico City and then from Constitutionalist territory in northern Mexico, until January 1914."