this occasion, as also the precise nature of the terms by which he meant to express his protest. The undersigned, in fact, does not perceive (perhaps from want of comprehension on his part) the value of the difference noticed by the American Government, between not authorizing General Gaines to go lo Nacogdoches, and ordering him not to advance beyond Nacogdoches. The undersigned, on the contrary, conceives that it would not have been judged necessary lo warn that general that he is not to pass beyond a certain determined point, unless he had been already supposed lo have the power of advancing to that point. Nor can the undersigned admit the doctrine, that the troops of a friendly Power are authorized to enter of their own accord upon the territory of a neighborning Power, however benevolent be the end proposed and even if the result be evidently advantageous for the latter. Such a principle would, in fact, destroy the very foundatioi1 of the independence of nations: for that which is done today entirely with the view of assisting the friend, may tomorrow be undertaken for purposes less pure; the pretext would be equally plausible in each case. And if, for this reason, in such cases, the previous assent has always been required, at least of every Government whose territory is to be protected by foreign troops, what doubt can there be in the present instance, when the representative of Mexico has at once declared, in the name of his Government, lhal he is thankful for the favor, but does not accept it? The undersigned, moreover, does nol think that he has given any motive for inferring, from his conduct, that he could have been so suspicious of the intentions of the American Government as to suppose that the object of General Gaines's movement was to establish any sor of right to the ground which that general was about to occupy. Indeed, how could the undersigned have entertained such a11 idea, after the American Government had declared the contrary lo him on several occasions, officially and explicitly? And this frank and noble declaration was of ilaelf sufficient to render him easy ~s to the fu lure. If the undersigned from the first fcit a repugnance to the measure which the American Government proposed lo adopt, and if afterwards, on the 9th instant, he considered it his duty lo protest on account of one of its necessary consequences, it was only because then, and since, he conceived lhal the Mexican
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