WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1860
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to admonish and implore his fellow citizens not to engage in any unauthorized expedition against Mexic<;>. At the same time he felt assured that if the United States does not interfere, and by some means restore order to that distracted and wretched coun- try, the spirit of the age, as well as the genius of our people, will not be content to let it remain in its present condition, but some one, possessing capacity to plan its regeneration and will to accomplish it, will deem it his manifest destiny to build up there a nationality. The documents submitted by your department to the chairman of committee on Military Affairs, of House of Representatives, being of a nature calculated to give rise to the impression that no further troops are necessary on the Rio Grande, and that from Genl Winfield Scott being calculated to prejudice Texas in her efforts to obtain protection, I deem it my duty to lay before you such additional information in my possession as may serve to disabuse the mind of Congress upon the subject. If General Scott, in his dispatch of March 19th has relied upon the statements made by Col. Brown, he has been misled, as can be proven by the reports of every officer engaged in the government service upon the Rio Grande. So far as the condition of things on that border is concerned, he is correct. But as to whether the mere fact of the retiring of an outlaw who has been committing gross outrages upon our soil is to be considered as ample repara- tion for the wrong, and a reason why Major Heintzelman "needs no reinforcements," is a question. What guards, then exist against the contingency of his returning? That the opinion entertained by Major Heintzelman at the time of Col. Brown's departure after- wards proved to be premature is evidenced by the fact that on the 14th of March the United States cavalry, under command of Capt. George Stoneman, and the Texas Rangers, under command of Capt: John S. Ford both acting under orders of Major Heint- zelman crossed the Rio Grande to attack the outlaw, Cortinas, at the Mier, of whose whereabouts information has been given by the commanding officer of Matamoras. The particulars of the conflict at that place, and the subsequent action of the troops will be found in the documents annexed, marked "A & B." Notwithstanding that the executive of Texas has been exceedingly candid in all of his communications with the War Department, and has furnished it _with positive information as to the invasion of our territory from Mexico, there yet seems
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