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In rc~ard_ to the other subjects of your somewhat novel commumcahon, I feel a little <lifficulty_i~ finding appropriate terms !o answer you, gentl~mcn. When_ the clVII government of a country 1s compelled to receive a prescription of its duties from an armed force~ that g~vernment is, if not virtually dissolved, in ~cal dancrcr of bemg lost m the blazonry of military misrule. t> t> And, gc~1tlemen, the time may come. when you shall have retired f~o_m !he field of your peculiar glory and returned to the walks of CIVI! hfe, th~t you will be b~tier enabled, than under your present exc1~ed feelings,. to appreciate the painful forbodings and the und1semblcd sent1ments, with which I subscribe myself. Your obedient servant, [ca.Sept. 20, 1836] David G. Burnet. [4231] [FORSYTH to GOROSTIZA) Department of Stale, Washington, 20th September, 1836. The undersigned Secretary of State of the United States, has the honor to acknowledge the receipt of the note of Mr. Gorostiza, envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of the Mexican republic, of the 12th instant, complaining of the conduct of the collector of New York, in permitting a vessel under the Texan flag to enter that port, and expressing the hope that the United States will declare their ports lo be closed against the vessels of the Texans, and will not admit them to the rights of helligeranls out of the territory which is the theatre of war. In reply, the undersigned has the honor to observe that the course pursued by the collector of New York, in declining lo exclude the vessel in question, which bore a flag alleged lo be that of Texas. and the commander of which exhibited a commission purporting to be from the President of that country, or to seize or otherwise molest her, after she had entered, was in accordance with the principles and practice which have been invariably observed by this Government, from the first breaking out of the revolution among the Spanish provinces on this continent to the present time. There is nothing contradictory of this position in the passage which Mr. Gorostiza has quoted from the message of Mr. ~lonroe, then President of the United Stales, lo Congress, of the 8th of
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