No. 425.
Mr. Frelinghuysen to Mr. Romero.
Washington, April 9, 1883.
My Dear Mr. Romero: I have received your memorandum of the 10th ultimo, in which you repeat in writing the request you had made personally the same day in The name of your Government for a reply to the note of your legation of the 20th of January last respecting the depredations of Indians on the frontier.
As the note referred to of the 20th of January was an informal and personal communication from you to me, transmitting a certain paper addressed to your Government by the representatives and senators of Chihuahua, I adopt the same informal and personal method of replying.
No one can realize more than I the delicacy of relationship between two countries like ours, each of which is compelled to maintain control over savage tribes on its border; and the record of our correspondence for years past has shown how often the patience and forbearance of each Government has been tried by the hostile and predatory acts committed by those savages on both sides of the frontier.
I observe that your note of the 20th, following the intimation of the memorandum of the Chihuahua representatives, suggest that a special treaty be concluded by which the United States would guarantee to disarm its Indians, and to endeavor to prevent them from disposing within the United States of booty taken in Mexico. My impressions are that stringent provisions in each Republic rendering it as far as possible impracticable for the Indians to dispose of their booty in the territory of the other would be a salutary measure. The treaty relations between the two Governments need to be considered in the broadest and most liberal spirit, and the consular and commercial conventions which heretofore existed between the two Governments protecting the rights of American citizens in Mexico restored.
You will of course see, that while we are without a convention defining consular privileges and without any agreement fixing the rights of American citizens and capital in Mexico, the relations of the two countries are more or less exposed to unforeseen contingencies.
Believing, as I do, that a proper exercise of vigilance and control over the hostile Indians on both sides of the frontier is very necessary to the [Page 687] interests of the two countries, I will be ready at any time to cooperate with you in agreeing upon measures to effect that end.
I am, &c.,