Lincoln and Juárez—A Brief Reassessment of Their Relationship

Abstract

WT THEN 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 unlhistorical legend about the relationship between Lincoln and Mexico 's Benito Juarez-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 Diaz 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 1960.3 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 * The author is Associate Professor of History at Purdue University. 1 The two and one-half ton Lincoln statue was a reproduction of the one made by Augustus Saint-Gaudens now standing in Lincoln Park, Chicago. It was cast in bronze by the American sculptor, Felix de Weldon of Washington, D.C. The Luis G. Urbina Park in Mexico City, where the reproduction was placed, has since been renamed after Lincoln. 2New York Times, April 15, 1966, 18:1; April 16, 1966, 6:3, 6:7. 'It was also the 100th anniversary of the final triumph of Juarez' Liberal forces in the field. 'The original supporters of the proposal included Senator Wayne Morse (D.-Oregon), Dennis Chavez (D.-N.Mex.), Clair Engle (D.-Oalif.), Ernest Gruening (D.-Alaska), Barry Goldwater (R.-Ariz.), Mike Mansfield (D.-Mont.), and Everett M. Dirksen (R.-Ill.). United States, Congressional Record, 86th Cong., 2nd Sess., January 14, 1960, 486, Bill S. 2826; similar bills were introduced in the House of Representatives, ibid., January 6, 1960, 43 (H.R. 9340), February 1, 1960, 1,689 (H.R. 10054).