Extract from the President’s message.
It has been my anxious desire to maintain friendly relations with the Mexican republic, and to cause its rights and territories to be respected, not only by our citizens, but by foreigners who have resorted to the United States for the purpose of organizing hostile expeditions against some of the States of that republic. The defenseless condition in which its frontiers have been left has stimulated lawless adventurers to embark in these enterprises, and greatly increased the difficulty of enforcing our obligations of neutrality. Regarding *it as my solemn duty to fulfill efficiently these obligations, not only toward Mexico but other foreign nations, I have exerted all the powers with which I am invested to defeat such criminal proceedings and bring to punishment those who, by taking a part therein, violated our laws. The energy and activity of our civil and military authorities have frustrated the designs of those who meditated expeditions of this character, except in two instances. One of these, composed of foreigners, was at first countenanced and aided by the Mexican government itself, it having been deceived as to their real object. The other, small in number, eluded the vigilance of the magistrates at San Francisco, and succeeded in reaching the Mexican territories, *but the effective measures taken by this Government compelled the abandonment of the undertaking. [178]