preparing for a new campaign, immediately, as if by enchantment, the hostile Indians again appeared, according to the statements of the Texan commissioners who went to Matamoras to effect an exchange of prisoners, according lo the information given by the Texan General Rusk lo General Gaines, according to the communications received by the latter general from various Texans, and according to the account given by the Texan Major Sterling C. Robertson to General Gaines of the murder of two white men on the Navisota. Al that time, also, did General Gaines consider those same mounted riflemen, whose advance he had countermanded after the battle of the San Jacinto, again necessary, in order to oppose the principal bellegerant: and at that time, also, did the defence of the frontier of the United States require that Nacogdoches should be occupied, although Nacogdoches is situated fifty miles beyond that frontier. Can anything be more clear? If not, the undersigned would be glad lo learn what evidence General Gaines has received, to induce him to take the step which he has taken, other than from the enemies of Mexico, from those to whose interest it was that the United States should risk their neutral position with regard lo the territory of Texas. Now, if there never has been really any danger; if these rumors, from the very circumstance of the source from which they were derived, ought never to have occasioned any alarm; if a part of these rumors, repeatedly raised during the last seven months, have been, some frequently and others constantly, belied by facts, what confidence should be placed in them? How could such a danger ever have appeared imminent? How could it have been termed inevitable? In fine, where was the absolute necessity for applying the principle of self-defence, and for tram piing under foot, in the name of that principle, as has been done, the most sacred rights of a friendly nation? But the President, says Mr. Dickins, was obliged to confide in the information which he received from the general in command on the frontier, and he is ready to punish that general, if he should have varied ever so slightly from his instructions. To this the undersigned answers, in the first place, that the partiality of General Gaines in favor of the Texans is matter of notoriety, and that has been so great, that his statements should have had no weight with one so enlightened as the President •of the United
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