The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 93, July 1989 - April, 1990 Page: 154
598 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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154 Southwestern Historical Quarterly
ther compounded the difficulties, with U.S. officials charging that Mex-
ico's establishment of a free trade zone along the northern border of
Tamaulipas in 1858 had made this crime even more common.7
Hampered by the chaos of Emperor Maximilian's short-lived reign
(1864-1867), Mexico City seemed to Washington to be incapable of
policing its northern frontiers against bandits. In turn, Mexico charged
that damages from such raids had been exaggerated. Mexican bitter-
ness concerning the Texas revolution and the enforced cession of Ari-
zona, New Mexico, Utah, and California to the United States in 1848
further exacerbated regional tensions. Mutual grievances thus existed;
the various groups present in the borderlands-revolutionaries, armed
bandits, cattle rustlers, smugglers, Indians, soldiers, and settlers-each
had conflicting interests. Amidst the confusion, U.S. officers stationed
in the region anxiously studied their options as the situation deterio-
rated during the post-Civil War years.8
In December, 1870, Secretary of War William Belknap predicted
that the army's forthcoming offensive into the Guadalupe Mountains
of West Texas would drive large numbers of Indians into Mexico. In
anticipation, he asked Secretary of State Hamilton J. Fish to secure
Mexico's cooperation. An ardent advocate of expansion who particu-
larly coveted Canada, Fish requested that Mexico allow U.S. troops to
follow the Indians across the border. Mexican officials, fearing the ag-
gressiveness of the Norteamericanos, refused to sanction such a move-
ment. Neither Fish's subsequent warning that troops might enter with-
out permission nor an abortive attempt to persuade the Kickapoos to
return to the United States resolved the impasse.'
The controversy mounted despite a flurry of diplomatic notes and
mutual professions of good faith. Ignacio Mariscal, Mexico's foreign
relations minister, assured the U.S. minister that his government "would
not seriously complain" about an American incursion. Even this did not
placate many Americans. In the midst of the situation, at Fort Brown,
7 Robert D. Gregg, The Influence of Border Troubles on Relations between the United States and Mex-
ico, 1876-19Io, The Johns Hopkins University Studies m Historical and Political Science, no. 3
(Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1937), 13; Daniel Cosio Villegas, The United States versus
Porfirio Diaz, trans. Nettle Lee Benson (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1963), 10-18;
Clarence C. Clendenen, Blood on the Border" The United States Army and the Mexican Irregulars
(New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., 1969), 1-63; Utley, Frontier Regulars, 353-355.
sClendenen, Blood on the Border, 1-63; Utley, Frontier Regulars, 353-355; Cosio Villegas, The
United States versus Diaz, 84-86.
9William Belknap to Hamilton J. Fish, Dec. 7, 1870, H. Exec. Doc. 1, 42nd Cong., 2nd sess.
(Serial 1502), 6o8; Fish to Thomas H. Nelson, Dec. 12, 1870, ibid., 6o8; Ernest Wallace and
Adrian S. Anderson, "R. S. Mackenzie and the Kickapoos: The Raid into Mexico in 1873," Arn-
zona and the West, VII (Summer, 1965), lo8- log; Sebastian Lerdo de Tejada to Nelson, Jan. 7,
1871, H. Report 701, 45th Cong., 2nd sess. (Serial 1824), 204.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 93, July 1989 - April, 1990, periodical, 1990; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101213/m1/194/: accessed May 5, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.