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said in the first letter, directs General Gaines, in case that the accounts that the Indians are in hostile array, and that their designs have been favored or contenanced by the Mexican general, should prove to be true, lo march with his whole force to Nacogdoches, or to such other point as he may consider best calculated to enable him to guard the frontier, and to operate successfully against the Indians thus combined and engaged to make war on the United States. General Gaines has been already informed of the President's views with regard to the right of self-defence possessed by the United States, when Mexico fails to fulfil the engagements made in the treaty by keeping the Indians al peace with her citizens. The United States have to maintain their neutrality, and General Gaine's authority to occupy a position beyond their limits will rest upon the necessity of doing so, as the means of protecting the Mexican general's agency in exciting the Indians to war against the United States to be untrue, and the Indians disposed to remain at peace, he will of course, immediately withdraw his forces from Nacogdoches to his place of encampment on the Sabine; but should those statments be true, he is immediately to call into service the thousand volunteers organized in Arkansas, and the same number organized in Missouri, under the late act of Congress, and lo advance with his whole force lo Nacogdoches, or to any other point favorable for the protection of the frontier and the suppression of Indian hostilities in that quarter. If Mexico, (concludes the President,) regardless of her engagements made by treaty with the United States, excites the Indians to war against them, she cannot complain of their employing the most prompt and energetic measures for their own defence, or of their occupying a portion of the Mexican territory, if it be necessary to prevent the evils which she has occasioned. General Gaines must act according to his own discretion upon the information he may obtain, always bearing in mind the neutral position of the United States with regard to the contending parties in Texas, and the obligations of the treaty in reference to the Mexican authorities.
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