Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, Transmitted to Congress with the Annual Message of the President, December 2, 1872, Part I
No. 307.
Mr. Fish to Mr. Nelson,
Washington, April 13, 1872.
Sir: The Attorney General has addressed a letter to this Department under date of the 5th instant, covering a “report” of the grand jury of the United States district court of Texas, relative to the depredations perpetrated upon citizens of that State by persons coming from the Mexican side of the Rio Grande. Copies of these papers are inclosed herewith. You are requested to lay them before the minister for foreign affairs, to remonstrate earnestly against the outrages therein alleged, and to demand redress for them.
I am, &c.,
Mr. Williams to Mr. Fish.
Sir: I have the honor to transmit, for your consideration, the report of the grand jury of the United States district court for the eastern district of Texas, relative to the invasions of that State, and depredations committed upon the people by persons from the Mexican side of the Rio Grande.
Very respectfully,
Report of the grand jury, impaneled at the March term, A. D. 1872, of the United States district court held in Brownsville, within the eastern district of Texas, and submitted to the court on their discharge.
federal grand jury report.
The United States of America, eastern district of Texas.
To the Hon. Amos Morrill, judge of the district court of the United States for the eastern district of Texas.
The grand jurors of the United States, in their final presentment to your honorable court, at the close of their session, respectfully present:
That since they were impaneled on the 7th instant, they have found fifty-seven true bills of indictment, being mostly for violations of the revenue laws.
That they have collected a considerable mass of testimony, to which they will again respectfully call the attention of the honorable court. That the exigencies of the public service demand the erection in the city of Brownsville of a building large enough to serve for a custom-house, a federal court-room, and a post-office. It is respectfully suggested that the construction of such a building would be a measure of economy on the part of the United States, and would save the paying out of large sums for the rent of houses not in every respect calculated to meet the wants and afford the proper conveniences to the officers and employés occupying them, while in the service of the Government. An appropriation for the purpose is respectfully suggested.
In approaching the matter of the depredatory war which has been waged against the defenseless citizens of the United States, and residents of the valleys of the Rio Grande, the Nueces, the Rio Frio, and their tributaries, there is hesitancy, because the short limits of a presentment will not give an adequate idea of the extent of the hostile operations, the number of valuable lives lost, and the aggravated character and [Page 415] the enormity of the excesses which organized hands of men, fitted out in Mexico, have perpetrated upon the people of Western Texas.
The honorable court is respectfully referred to the accompanying evidence, but at the same time we would request that the same be not filed and made a part of the records of the court, and be not published, but deposited with the district attorney. The motives inducing this request will appear by a perusal of the evidence.
A reign of terror is proven to exist between the Rio Grande and the Nueces. Mercenary bands of marauders, Mexican officers and soldiers, and Mexican outlaws and bandits, have been, for about seven years, holding a saturnalia of crime, violence, and rapine upon the soil of Texas. They have denounced the penalty of death against any who may become informers. They have already sacrificed life upon mere suspicion, as in the case of young Cleveland, of San Antonio, and others. Should our request be unheeded the lives of the witnesses would be taken with certainty and without remorse.
The evidence submitted justifies the declaration that a depredatory war has existed on this frontier since 1865; that it has been waged by men organized in Mexico, by Mexican soldiers acting under the orders of a Mexican general, and commanded directly by officers of the Mexican army; that the authorities of Mexico, civil and military, have countenanced, aided, and supported these hostile operations; that the robbery of our citizens has been legalized so far as the acts of Mexican officials could legalize murder, robbery, and other criminal outrages; that the markets of Mexico have been used openly, publicly, and shamelessly, to effect the sale of property robbed from the people of Texas; that Mexican officials, merchants of that and other nationalities, and all classes of Mexicans, have bought and sold cattle, hides, horses, and other property, stolen from the people of Texas, and they have done so knowing they had been dishonestly obtained; the custom-house and municipal authorities of Mexico have profited by the piratical acts of Mexican soldiers and highwaymen, and a tax has been levied upon cattle which they knew had been taken by armed bands from the rightful owners; that the people on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande consider and treat the Americans as enemies; they claim the country between the Nueces and the Rio Grande, and express a determination to drive the Americans from it.
Among the grievances of which this people justly complain, there is none more galling than the sending of General Juan Nepomuceno Cortina to this frontier. It may be truly said that he has written the history of his career on this side of the Rio Grande in letters of blood and fire. The criminal who stands charged upon the oaths of twelve men, good and true, of murder, theft, and treason, who levied war upon the United States, murdered its citizens and soldiers, and robbed its mails, who laid waste one hundred and twenty miles of frontier, and who now occupies the double position of ranking officer of the Mexican army upon the line of the Bravo, and ranking cow and horse thief on both frontiers, has been retained on duty against the protest of General McCook, Which was communicated to President Juarez. His retention is a deliberate, willful, and studied insult to the Government of the United States, its officers and people.
General Cortina has given his officers and soldiers orders to kill and rob the people of Texas. He has received a large share of the plunder. He has stocked four ranches mostly with cows and horses stolen from Texas.
It is believed from the evidence and from other reliable authority that since the close of the civil war in this country there has been an average of five thousand cattle stolen from Texas monthly, and driven into Mexico, and this estimate is confined to the lower Rip Grande. The total number is estimated at four hundred and twenty thousand, and the actual value at six million three hundred thousand dollars. This does not include losses accruing from the depredations of the Kickapoo Indians, naturalized citizens of Mexico. The loss of life, the sense of insecurity, the decreased value of property, the paralyzation of business, and the moral effects resulting from this war cannot be estimated. Some of these defy the sordid valuation of dollars and cents.
The grand jurors would respectfully call attention to the assaults which have been made upon officers of the United States Government while in the discharge of their duties, to the threats against them, to their forcible detention, and to the obstructions preventing them from performing their duty; and all these acts are shown to have been done by raiders with the approval and protection of Mexican authorities. It is known to the world that United States officers have been killed on the Rio Grande by armed Mexicans, and that employment in a public capacity, requiring the officer to visit out-of-the-way places, is a position of peril. Inspector Dupout killed in Brownsville, and the murder of Inspectors Hammond and Phelps, and the wounding of others at Clarksville, are facts officially recorded; and the fate of Inspector McLaughlin may be attributed to the same hands.
The evidence of all witnesses, irrespective of nationality, is conclusive as to the insecurity of life and property on this frontier. There is no protection to the citizen in the enjoyment of his rights and privileges. His life, his liberty, and whatever a freeman holds dear are at the mercy of armed invaders. They invade his home, insult [Page 416] his family, and violate the properties, the decencies, and even the sanctities of private life with impunity. Our fellow-citizens of Mexican origin and of other nationalities have suffered alike with the native American, because the same flag covers them, and they have incurred the hostility of a people who hate everything American, and deem it legitimate to assault and plunder all over which the American banner floats.
This deplorable state of affairs, this loss of life and property, and the misfortunes which have, in a manner, crushed this frontier, have resulted from the want of an adequate force of cavalry to cover and protect the inhabitants of the Rio Grande Valley.
A mounted force, properly handled, which could follow marauders into the fastnesses of the chaparrals, pursue with Parthian vigor and perseverance over the broad prairies could give protection and roll back upon Mexico the wave of invasion. That nation is laboring under the incurable disease of chronic revolution. Its masses have become demoralized by half a century of war and internal convulsions and dissensions. The absence of United States troops on the line of the lower Rio Grande in 1859 resulted in the Cortina war. The absence of a cavalry force capable to protect this frontier has invited the attacks of our hostile and aggressive neighbors, and the pillage of a territory covering not less than sixty thousand square miles are the fruits of the omission.
The inhabitants of this territory have suffered all the horrors of warfare, and have known none of the securities of its usages, and have appealed in vain for protection. They have published authentic statements of the wrongs and the outrages committed upon them by merciless invaders, and no sympathetic response has been returned. They are reduced to the last extremity. The alternative is presented, in the event governmental protection shall not be extended, to abandon their homes to their enemies, or to defend them. They feel that the great law of humanity allows them to resort to measures of self-defense, to repel force by force, and to meet their invaders and de-spoilers as freemen should, with ball and blade. And your grand jurors, though generally not residents of the section in question, acting under the solemn obligations of their oaths, do present that, in their opinion, should these plundered, harassed, and wronged people be impelled to strike for vengeance upon the breasts of those who have filled the land with violence and bloodshed, assassination, and a long catalogue of inhuman excesses, they can appear before the bar of public opinion and plead such a justification as no people in modern times have been able to produce during a period of miscalled peace.
Your grand jurors have seen with pleasure the joint resolution introduced into Congress by the Hon. John Hancock. They would respectfully suggest that a commission for the purposes contemplated would be very proper, but it would bring no relief to the suffering frontier. An effective and efficient force of cavalry to chastise and expel the armed bands, and to drive from our soil the Mexican troops now using it for making descents upon Mexican territory, as from the Lopeña ranch in Zapata County, and for plundering our people, is imperiously demanded, and at once.
Our Representatives and Senators in Congress are requested to use their influence in procuring the sending of this force to the Rio Grande.
In conclusion, your grand jury would call attention to the good understanding which has existed between themselves and the able gentlemen presiding over the honorable-court, the district attorney, and all the officers of the court.
- JOHN S. FORD,
Foreman, Cameron County, Texas.. - C. DART,
Galveston, Texas: - J. J. HAWKINS,
Columbus, Colorado County, Texas. - J. M. CONRAD,
Galveston, Texas. - R. B. HAWKINS,
Colorado County, Texas. - M. M. JORDAN,
Galveston, Texas. - JAS.W. FIELDS,
Colorado County, Texas. - L. F. HARRIS,
Galveston, Texas. - JAMES NORTON,
Galveston, Texas. - SAMUEL PARR,
Galveston, Texas. - T. W. PIERSON,
Victoria, Texas. - OLYMPUS FERGUSON,
Colorado County, Texas. - GEORGE WILSON,
Nueces County, Texas. - W. F. BROWN,
Brazoria County, Texas. - W. H. POWELL,
Matagorda County, Texas. - THOMAS McGOVERN,
Galveston, Texas. - H. H. WILLIAMS,
Victoria County, Texas. - D. C. ROBERTS,
Brazoria County, Texas. - DANIEL BUCKLEY,
Galveston, Texas. - R. K. SMITH,
Galveston, Texas. - JAMES F. MAGUIRE,
Galveston, Texas.