After the imprisonment of President Madero and Vice-President Suarez in February, 1913, a year and a half ago, there were twenty-seven governors in Mexico, who had the same opportunity to protest against the usurper Huerta, and refuse to recognize his “coup d’état,” his dictatorship and his cowardly murders. None of the governors dared protest. Had all the governors in Mexico arisen together with their legislatures and refused to recognize the authority of the czar in Mexico, Huerta with all his money, all his soldiers, all his greed and ruthlessness, could not have lasted more than three months. Don Venustiano Carranza was the only governor in Mexico who had the audacity and patriotism to challenge the great pirate in Mexico City, who had raised the black flag with the skull and the cross bones over the national palace. The chiefs of the States were too terrorized, cowed and frozen by the brutality, the cynicism, the power of the man in the provisional presidency, and were aghast at the suddenness of the events which led to Madero’s downfall. They had not found out what had happened behind the scenes, the horror of the events and their natural consequence had not dawned upon their paralyzed minds. Carranza as a real leader and chief never faltered an instant. Those are the rare and precious moments which create the national hero. As soon as Felix Diaz and Victoriano Huerta heard of the stand taken by Don Venustiano Carranza as Governor of the State of Coahuila, they realized that a formidable enemy had arisen to spoil their crooked game. They put their heads together and penned the following epistle to Carranza, signed it together, and sent a trusted friend as emissary to find him and convince him: MEXICO, D. F. 27 de Febrero 1913. DON VENUSTIANO CARRANZA, Gov. of the Free and Sovereign State of Coahuila, _Dear Sir_-- By letters of recent date we have informed you of the plausible reasons which have inspired the army against the dissolving régime of Don F. Madero, and we have likewise justified the acts which placed General Huerta in the office of President of the Republic. We have been informed that it was your intention to rebel against the legal authority of the Government. We beg to insist, in the name of the country and for its exclusive benefit, that you change your announced attitude not to collaborate with us in the work of peace which we intend to pursue to the end, at any price. If for some personal reason you wish to leave the office which you occupy, and if that can be done without offending or hurting our patriotic end, the Government will give you all sorts of guarantees and will pay your salary up to the end of your term.