Indian Papers of Texas and the Southwest, Vol. V

136 in every instance they have been rejected. To what extent these remarks apply to the accounts contained in the papers trans- mitted by your Excellency I am unable to say. I will merely remark that the Commander of that Department positively pro- nounces several of the statements contained in them entirely unfounded, and does not recommend that these volunteers be received into the service of the United States. Supposing however these accounts to be strictly correct, the outrages and disorders complained of (except when committed by Indians) are hardly such as this government ought to be called upon to repress. The perpetrators of these acts, whether Americans or Mexicans, are not public enemies to be encoun- tered by the army of the United States, but private malefactors to be arrested and punished py the civil authorities of Texas. If the means which these authorities have at their disposal are not sufficient to enable them to do this, and the government of Texas finds it necessary to call out her own militia to execute her own laws and to defend her own citizens against robbers and murder- ers, surely it ought not to expect the United States to pay the expenses of the proceeding. It must be borne in mind too, that the disorders complained of have been brought about in part by citizens of Texas them- selves. It is well known that many of the inhabitants of that State were directly or indirectly concerned in the criminal enter- prises of Caravajal in violation of the laws of their own country, and no doubt in opposition to the wishes of the peaceable and law-abiding portion of the inhabitants of Texas. It was to be expected that the inhabitants of Mexico, would seek in some way or other to retaliate upon them; and the In- dians in the neighbourhood have availed themselves of this op- portunity to renew their predatory incursions into the country. The number of these however, judging from official reports to this Department is much exaggerated in these papers. In addi- tion to these, mercenary vagabonds and outlaws within our lim- its who had flocked to the standard of Carvajal, finding them- selves disappointed in their hopes of plunder in the Mexican territory, naturally seek to indemnify themselves in our own. The President directs me to assure your Excellency that he sympathizes deeply with the sufferings of the good people of Texas, who are thus made to suffer for acts in which they did not participate, and that he will do all that he can with propriety do, to arrest them. The Officer in command of that Department reports that in view of the troubles on that frontier, he had al-

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