The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 24, July 1920 - April, 1921 Page: 305
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Some Precedents of the Pershing Expedition into Mexico 305
Second, on January 22, 1874, Fish wrote the Secretary of War
that an incursion into Mexico when necessary for the dispersal of
a band of Indian marauders, was not a violation of the law of
nations."3 Third, Colonel MacKenzie does not appear to have
been censured for his act; or if censured, he was certainly not re-
moved from his post." Fourth, when this raid was later referred
to as a precedent, the American government seems to have ac-
quiesced.87
The McNally-Randlett Invasion, 1875. The next expedition
of which definite details have been acquired, but the fifth in the
enumeration of Carranza, was that which crossed the international
boundary in pursuit of cattle thieves in November, 1875. Cap-
tain Randlett of the United States army had been encamped with
about eighty men at Edinburg for some time, when he received
news that thieves with a herd of cattle were on their way to the
Rio Grande. He immediately dispatched a courier to Ringgold
Barracks for help. and a telegram to Fort Brown for more specific
orders, while he sent out scouts to ascertain the ford where the
robbers would be most likely to attempt to cross with their booty.
From Fort Brown on November 16, he received the command:
"If you catch the thieves, hit them hard. If you come up to them
while they cross the river, follow them into Mexico." From the
scouts which he had sent out he learned, on November 17, that a
herd of cattle were being driven toward the river with the prob-
able intention of effecting a crossing near Las Cuevas during the
"8Moore, op. cit., p. 421.
" The reports of the Adjutant General show that he continued to re-
main at Fort Clark.
3"A large number of murders and robberies committed in Texas in the
spring and summer of 1874 and the absence of what appeared to be
sufficient protection on the part of the federal army, led the Texas gov-
ernment to raise companies of minute men to protect the frontier. The
governor gave at least one -of the captains of these companies orders to
pursue the marauders into Mexican territory. When questioned in re-
gard to this step by the Washington government, he argued that if
troops of the government of the United States had a right to "cross
the national boundary and continue pursuit of marauders on Mexican
soil, . . . Texas forces which .are doing the duty which ought to
be performed by the United States troops . . . have the same right."
House Report No. 343, 44 Cong., 1 Sess. (Ser. 1709), pp. XVI, 161-167.
In these conclusions the attorney general seems to have acquiesced.
House Exec. Doc. No. 13, 45 Cong., 1 iSess. (Ser. 1773), p. 62. The fact
that Carranza mentions this affair in his message may indicate that a
raid took place in pursuance of the order.
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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/m1/311/: accessed May 5, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.