. I have my company made up agreeable lo your order and will be ready al any lime to execu le any business by order of Genl. Houston.
Yours wilh Respecl ~I. Cosley
[4128]
[GOROSTIZA Lo FORSYTH I
[Washington co. September 2, 1836] The undersigned was so immediately convinced of the importance of the document to which Lhe Secretary of State refers in his note of the 31st of August, that he had already, on the 19th of that month, transmitted a copy of it to his Government. By this means, its contents will soon be known in Mexico, and the Government of the undersigned may then be enabled to estimate fully the purity of the international doctrine there laid down by the President of the United Slates, and the justice with which he applies this doctrine in the present emergency. Even without this, [exposition of internalional doctrine, I the mere f acl of the President's having disapproved the requisition of General Gaines would of itself suffice, in the opinion of the undersigned, to cause its announcement to be received with peculiar satisfaction in Mexico, as the assembling of so many American troops on the very frontiers of Texas, although it would be perfectly legal as long as confined Lo the known limits of the United States, could not but, in lime, occasion disquiet and alarm with regard to the possible consequences. Of the latter, none would have been more probable than their organization of a system of progressive desertion in favor of the Texans, and by means of their agents. Who can deny the possibility of such a case, if he for a moment consider the excitement of the period, and the opportunity afforded by localities? But, although the spirit and the words of the President's teller to the Governor of Tennessee be praiseworthy, and may be attended with beneficial effecls with regard lo the future maintenance of a position of strict neutrality on the part of the United Stales during the disturbances in Texas, yet the under- signed regrets exceedingly that he must dissent from the opinion expressed by Mr. Forsyth al the end of his said note of the 31st ultimo. For, in order that the Department of Stale should not
371
Powered by FlippingBook