The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 24, July 1920 - April, 1921 Page: 141
332 p. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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The IHayes Administration and Mexico
To this same session of Congress, William Everts, Secretary of
War, made the statement that in consequence of this state of things,
the people in that portion of Texas bordering on the Rio Grande
had suffered greatly and had with great reason, complained to his
department for protection.4 The picture is made more graphic in
his letter to Foster, written about the same time in his official
correspondence: "The continual harassing and apparently cease-
less turmoil-on our otherwise peaceful borders by these maraud-
ing bands of Mexicans which crossing secretly and in the darkness
of the night from their own territory, emerge upon the farms
and fields of American citizens, carrying perpetual alarm and
dread."'
Before going further with the list of our own aggravations, it
is only fair to cite references also to certain grievances held by
Mexicans, which afforded some ground for retaliation, even aside
from the crossing of the border by our troops under General Ord.
President Diaz, very soon after coming into power, and about the
time he borrowed three hundred thousand dollars with which to
make good an installment of the claims award to the United States,
referred the state department at Washington to the fact that there
had been also, "Indian raids from the American Reservation in
New Mexico into Chihuahua," also to alleged cattle stealing by
bands organized in Texas.' These charges Foster replied to by
asserting that the Indians in question had not returned to the
United States, having rather abandoned their citizenship, or else
never having owned allegiance.
There was, however, one episode on the Texas side of the line
in 1877, which would seem to show that Mexican rights were
trampled upon and Mexican blood shed at the hands of Americans.
This was the Salt War, which took place in El Paso County, the
trouble lasting from September until December. This war was in
the nature of a personal feud, growing out of certain Texans in-
terfering with Mexican rights to the free use of salt from the
Guadalupe Salt Lakes, ninety miles east of San Elizaro. Louis
Cardis, a popular Mexican leader, was killed by Charles H. Howard,
who, with the county judge and justice of peace, was seeking to
'See. of War, Rept., in Mess. & Does., 1877-1878, pp. 373-374.
'Evarts to Foster, September 20, 1878, H. Ex. Does., For. Rel., 45 Cong.,
3 Sess., I, 612.
*Foster to Evarts, September 7, 1878, Ibid., I, 593.141
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 24, July 1920 - April, 1921, periodical, 1921; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101078/m1/147/: accessed April 24, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.