(3015] [FORSYTH to GOROSTIZA l
Department of State, Washington, May 10, 1836. The undersigned, Secretary of State of the Unite<l Stales, having submitted the note of Mr. Gorostiza, envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of the l\'lexican republic, of the 9th instant, to the President, has now the honor, by his instructions, to reply. The President did not expect that any orders given by his authority would have produced either surprise or regret in the mind of a representative of a friendly Power. He observes, however, that Mr. Gorostiza has not perceived the peculiar force of the terms used by the authority of the Executive. General Gaines is not authorized to advance to Nacogdoches, but he is ordered not to go beyond that point. To Mr. Gorostiza the distinction may not seem to be so, but in the view of the President it is important; the terms used limit the authority given, and were chosen with the express intention to avoid misconstruction of the motive of the advance. To effect one of the great objects for which General Gaines is sent to the frontier, i.e. to fulfil our treaty with Mexico by protecting its territory against the Indians within the United States, the troops of the United States might justly be sent into the heart of l\lexico, and their presence, instead of being complained of, would be the strongest evidence of fidelity lo engagements and friendship to Mexico. Nor could the good faith and friendship of the act be doubted, if troops of the United States were sent into the Mexican territory to prevent imbodied Mexican Indians, justly suspected of such design, from assailing the frontier settlements of the United States. With the full explanation of the design of the movement as far as Nacogdoches, if it should be made, which it is hoped will not be necessary, the President did not apprehend that any room was left for dissatisfaction or complaint; and he thinks that the course Mr. Gorm;tiza has thought it his duly to pursue is the result of an apprehension of consequences that cannot ensue, if all the parties are just to the designs and pretensions of each other. Mr. Gorostiza's protest ohviously springs from the idea that the
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