Shanklin was a St. Louis attorney – brother of the President of Wesleyan University – who had spent some years in Mexico on business and was fluent in Spanish.  For dedicated services to the Republican Party, in 1905 he was appointed US Consul General in Panama, and later in Mexico City, during the waning days of the Porfirio Diaz dictatorship. He remained in that post when the Mexican Revolution began in 1910 and two years later, was retained by the new Democratic Wilson Administration.  When fighting broke out in the capital between rebels and Federal Government troops in 1913, Shanklin and his staff were forced “at great risk” to escape from the Consulate building to take refuge at the US Embassy. This was problematic because he was at odds with the Republican holdover Ambassador, who was accused of supporting the coup d’etat (and assassination plot) of General Huerta against the democratic Madero Government.  President Wilson recalled the Ambassador, replacing him with a Democratic politician who backed a conservative civilian replacement for Huerta. Meanwhile, Shanklin remained in office, the last Republican diplomatic appointee in the country.  But when Mexico City was so torn by civil war that all American officials had to be evacuated, Shanklin temporarily moved to Vera Cruz, a base for US troops and Naval vessels, where he wrote this letter to an old friend, an Army Captain in the Ohio National Guard who had previously lived in Mexico as agent of a military supply company – and was himself interested in becoming Deputy Consul General if the post became vacant.

            While still in Vera Cruz “awaiting orders” from Washington, Shanklin confided to his old friend that he had heard of a telegram from President Wilson’s Secretary of State, William Jennings Bryan, to the conservative Mexican President Carranza insisting that unless he reached some accommodation with the revolutionary Pancho Villa, the US would send an additional 20,000 troops to Vera Cruz, implicitly threatening military action to restore order. But Shanklin had not yet talked with the US commanding General in the city to see if this rumor was valid.  Some months later, in 1915, Shanklin finally resigned his post to become General Counsel of an American oil company that also owned a large stake in the Mexican National Railways.

       “My dear Enrique,

            … I have no idea what the State Department will do in regard to Price, nor do I know what will be done in the re-organization of the Consulate-General of Mexico City, when I am instructed to return there. Of course, when they appoint a new Vice Consul General, if they do not appoint Van Horn, it will mean he will remain as Deputy Consul General and, if at that time, they reduce his salary from $ 1800.00 to $ 1200.00, I am not at all sure that he will stay. Should the vacancy occur and you want the place, I will certainly be delighted to have you with me, as you well know.

           Everything here is about the same, but I was told by a man, who had the right to say so, that unless instructions to vacate are received by midnight of the 31^st of October, the transports will be unloaded. Last night, a Commander of one of the ships told a friend of mine that he had seen a telegram, at least knew it to have been sent, from Mr. Bryan to Carranza, in which he said that unless Carranza and Villa got together satisfactorily within four days, they would not only vacate Veracruz, but would augment the forces here with a sufficient number to put 20,000 men in the Port. I have not seen General Funston, so cannot tell you further as to this matter….”