Arizona citizen., 1875-08-21
BORDER TROUBLES.
Operation of the EXtraditiOn Trea. ty---ActiOn of Officials and Citi- ZenS.


 made last April, as is alleged on Mexi
 can soil, in violation of the eXtraditior G00 treaty. It seems to make no difference % to Mexico that the arrest was of a per e. son convicted of a high crime in Ari y' zona who had escaped to Sonora
 However, we understand, the Mexican Gd government does not claim that the ar
 rest complained of, was made with any : intention of violating the provisions of IS the treaty. but that if similar action be O repeated, disagreeable consequences 6, may follow, The subject has been made n one of diplomatic correspondence be- tween Mexico and the United States, and we are now prompted to refer to it
 because the miners of the Santa Rita placers, have publicly resolved to 'pur-
 sue criminals independent of govern |. ment lines;" their reason being also
 given that they are so far distant from = the authorities empowered to execute
 civil process, that men can commit
 crimes and escape into Sonora before
 any action could be taken in the regu-
 lar manner. They also aver that So
 nora has furnished four-fifths Of the
 criminals who infest this Territory, and
 that that State has not only refused to
 deliver over to our authorities fugitives from justice, but has both harbored
 and protected them. Their statements are undoubtedly true in the main and probably in detail.
 It comes with rather bad grace from Sonora or Mexico to complain of vio- lations of the eXradition treaty, when all attempts by Arizona officials toI make the provisions of it available to insure the punishment of criminals of almost if not quite every grade, has, been defeated by the Mexican authori-I ties.
 The extradition treaty is not manda- tory in its provisions, but gives each government discretion as to the surren-I der of fugitiyes from justice, and the Mexican government has so far refused to give up criminals even when applied for in legal form This fact is well known in Arizona and also in Sonora, and Of course affords almost perfect safety to men who commit thefts ard murders in Arizona near the line.
 Under this state of affairs, it is not to be wondered that our people take measures for selfprotection, albeit in doing so they do not conform to the provisions of treaty which is of no avail in even the plainest cases of heniOus crimes. In December, 1871, Gov. Stafford addressed Hon. Hamilton Fish, our Secretary of State, setting forth a number of cases of murder of. our people, by Mexicans who at once escaped to Sonora, and also showing that legal demand for their surrender under the treaty was denied by the Su- preme government of Mexico; and further showing how such refusal had stimulated the murder of our people by those of Sonora. Gov. Mccormick al- so addressed Mr. Fish on the same sub ject. Mr. Fish replied that our Minis ter in Mexico had been properly in structed in the premises, with direc- tiOn to remOnStrate, etc., against the border atrocities. Mr. Fish also de clared in his letter to Gov Mccormick that "it is apprehended, however, that " the Mexican government in the pres tent condition of the country, will scarcely be able to make its authority respected on that remote frontier"
 Whether or not it could then or now, make its authority respected along our border, makes no difference, because according to its view of the treaty, that authority is so exercised as to en- courage the border troubles the treaty was in part, at least, designed to re- press and prevent. And it is very like ( ly the terms of the treaty are as binding as the United States would agree to, al though we are sure that the authorities 1 of Arizona would, under it, surrender ( escaped criminals from Sonora, if ap- piled for in legal form.
 Along the whole frontier from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific ocean, these border difficulties are of constant occurrence, and will continue until Mexico surrenders, without regard to| nationality, the criminals who commit ouTages on American soil, and escape to their country. If that nation would make this a rule of practice and freely publish it, the border atrocities would soon be reduced to few or none, and no further arrests would be made in 1 violation of the extradition treaty. As the case stands now, Mexico refuses toi surrender criminals in accordance with the only law authorizing their surren- der, and she does not punish such criminals according to her own inter- pretatiOn of the treaty.
 Americans exercise the1r rights to live upon, grow stock, cultivate land, develOpe mines and so on, on our soil along and near to the national boun- diary, and in this exercise they are sometimes murdered and often robbed without any hope of legal redress or .