No. 363.
Mr. Evarts
to Mr. Foster.
Washington, September 20, 1878.
Sir: Information of a most reliable character has reached this Department of the continued depredations of the Mexican citizens of Ximenes and the neighborhood, under the head of one Areola, upon the Texan border. It is reported on the best authority that the officer in command of the Mexican troops at Piedras Negras is not merely cognizant of the repeated thefts of American cattle, but that he positively protects the raiders, furnishing them with arms on occasion, and is moreover a receiver to a large extent of the stolen property, feeding his troops, even, upon the beef.
* * * * * * *
Upon such a statement of facts (which for sufficient reasons is not made more definite) there can exist no reasonable doubt that the central authority of Mexico should find it feasible even in the absence of supplementary information to pursue and rigorously punish these particular offenders.
You are requested to bring this matter to the immediate attention of the Mexican Government, making evident the earnestness with which the Government of the United States presses these facts upon its serious attention, to the end that more deplorable events may not follow.
It will, of course, be natural that in due course of time certain of those citizens of the United States who have been despoiled of their property by the citizens of Mexico will seek reclamation, and if some satisfactory recognition of the obligation of the Mexican Government to amply provide for such contingencies should be obtained, it might perhaps afford a greater facility to the future adjustment of these cases. But you will take care to have it understood that a mere provision for pecuniary redress in this connection will by no means be regarded as in anywise a satisfaction for other than the actual losses which have been sustained. The continued harassing and apparently ceaseless turmoil which is kept up on our otherwise peaceful borders by these marauding parties of Mexicans, which, crossing secretly and in the darkness of the night from their own territory, emerge upon the farms and fields of American citizens, carrying perpetual alarm and dread, and rendering life in that region of our country well nigh insupportable, is not to be weighed in any common pecuniary scale. The reclamation sufficient to meet the results of a series of raids, worse in their effects than an absolute invasion in a time of war, can be no ordinary one.
You will present the views of the Government of the United States on the subject of these repeated outrages upon our citizens in this light, in [Page 613] order that the sense entertained of the magnitude of the offenses committed may not be underrated nor misunderstood.
I am, &c.,