William L. Dayton, Esq., &c., &c.,
&c.
[Untitled]
Department of State, Washington,
November 23, 1863.
General: I have received, and have
submitted to the President, your three despatches of the 6th, 7th,
and 9th, respectively.
I have great pleasure in congratulating you upon your successful
landing and occupation upon the Rio Grande, which is all the more
gratifying because it was effected at a moment of apparently
critical interest in the national cause.
You have already found that the confusion, resulting from civil
strife and foreign war in Mexico, offers seductions for military
enterprise. I have, therefore, to inform you of the exact condition
of our relations towards that republic at the present time. We are
on terms of amity and friendship, and maintaining diplomatic
relations, with the republic of Mexico. We regard that country as
the theatre of a foreign war, mingled with civil strife. In this
conflict we take no part, and, on the contrary, we practice absolute
non-intervention and non-interference. In command of the frontier,
it will devolve on you, as far as practicable consistently with your
other functions, to prevent aid or supplies being given from the
United States to either belligerent.
You will defend the United States in Texas against any enemies you
may encounter there, whether domestic or foreign. Nevertheless, you
will not enter any part of Mexico, unless it be temporarily, and
then clearly necessary for the protection of your own lives against
aggression from the Mexican border. You can assume no authority in
Mexico to protect citizens of the United States there, much less to
redress there wrongs or injuries committed against the United States
or their citizens, whether those wrongs or injuries were committed
on one side of the border or the other. If consuls find their
positions unsafe oh the Mexican side of the border, let them leave
the country, rather than [Page 1329]
invoke the protection of your forces. These directions result from
the fixed determination of the President to avoid any departure from
lawful neutrality, and any unnecessary and unlawful enlargement of
the present field of war. But, at the same time, you. will be
expected to observe military and political events as they occur in
Mexico, and to communicate all that shall be important for this
government to understand concerning them. It is hardly necessary to
say that any suggestions you may think proper to give for the
guidance of the government in its relations towards Mexico will be
considered with that profound respect which is always paid to the
opinions which you express.
In making this communication, I have endeavored to avoid entering
into the sphere of your military operations, and to confine myself
simply to that in which you are in contact, with the political
movements now going on in Mexico.
I am, general, your obedient servant,
Major General N. P. Banks, Commanding the Department of the Gulf,
Brownsville, Texas.
