The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1875-04-22
THE BORDER OUTRAGES.
Renort or a Committee OF the Citizens OF
Brownsville, Texas.
The Mexican Minister'S Charges as to the
Personnel OF the Raiders Refuted.

BROWNSVILLE, April 18.-The following Il
the report of a committee appointed by I
special mass meeting of the citizens OF Browns
Vile. The members of the committee wer'
all Union men, and three Of them are genera
officers-Col Haynes, Collector of the Port
Col. G. G. Davis, Deputy Collector OF tn
Port. and Edward Downey, Postmaster. Tit
re port vas unanimously adopted:
The Hon. J. L. Hayne, Chairman, and William
| Kelly, Secretary OF the mass meeting:
Your committee, to whom was referred the
subject matter of the alleged statements Of
Senior Mariscal, Mexican Minister to Wash
inrtop. in regard to the border troubles or
| the Rio Grande-viz, that they are as much
| the work of Americans as OF Mexlcans, and
that American citizens disguised as Indians
and Mexicans frequently raid upon settlers,
and that the more daring of the parties en-.
eaaed in these frequent raids are Exon.
tederate soldiers who, ruined by the war, and
deprived of the support OF slave labor, prefer
the life they are leading to earning an honest
livelihood satisfied that Senior Mariscal
has been misinformed, and grossly
deceived as to the true condition
of affairs on this frontier, and that
he has thus Internationally, probably,
done the American citizens OF this frontier
great wrong and injustice, as can be easily
proved by the most uudoubted testimony.
The time given your committee is too short
to prepare full refutation of its uni ust as
PERSONS contained in the correspondence of
Senior Marisca], and your committee would
recommend the appointment OF a committee
to collect facts and submit them to the con-
sideration OF the honorable Secretary of State
to refute the charges of the Mexican Minister.
In the meantime, your committee submit the
following resume of facts, which are suscep-
tible of the clearest proof:
Fwst-That, for at least ten years since the
close of the civil war, there has not been q
single act Of hostility, invasion, plundering,
or tilibustering against the Republic of Mex
leo from the Republic Of Texas, nor any act
of single person even passing from this to
the other side of the Rio Grande with any
snch intent, and we challenge any scintilla of
proof to the contrary.
Second-That, for the last ten years since
the close of our civil war. raids of volunteer
ing parties from Mexico to this side of the
Rio Grande have been continuous and per-
drawn from our stock ranches hundreds of
thousands of stock. They have committed
murder, robbery and arson and, against re-
peated complaints made to the Mexican au-
thorities Tor their rendition to the hands of
Justice, deaf ear has been turned. We cite
the following recent and notorious cases: The
robbery of the store at Penescal and the MUIR
der of the Morton brothers, and r. E. As.
bury, of the store at Los Alamos; the murder
of Mr.. Fulton, postmaster at Ell Sanse,
and his clerk, in Hidalgo county
the murder OF Vidal La Hille by Ri
cardo Flores, near Ell Pastill the attempted
of Capt. King and party of
friends. near San Fernando, and the murder
of of f.so Acc. tba 81 1ovon
der Morrell, in Staple county, and many
others which will be detailed hereafter; and
lastly. the recent raid Of party of one hum
dred and forty or one hundred and fifty men
in body, near Corpus Christi, which band
captured and held as prisoners many persons,
three ladies, and which finally sur
rouaded the town Of Roma, on their return
to Mexico, for the purpose Of robbery, from
which they were only deferred by the pres
ence of force of United States soldiers. The
proofs of the extent Of the robberies commit
ted by these plundering raids exist in the re-
port of the Frontier Commission, to which
additional evidence can be added.
1hirl-That the charge that these crimes
have been committed by Confederate soldiers
disguised as Mexicans and Indians, and rem
dered desperate by the loss of their slave
is an absurdity on its face, into
which the Mexican Minister could only have
been led by ignorance of this part of Texas.
In the first place, there were never any slaves
west Of the Nueces worth mentioning. The
census Of 1860 showed the total number in
this vast region, equal to the State of Penn
sylvania in extent, to have only numbered
259, while west OF San Antonio River the
number did not exceed 5000. There are only
eight Americans who we're ex-Confederate
soldiers in the county Of Cameron, and west
IF the Nuecss there are probably not fifty ex-
Confederate soldiers, and those would hardly
disguise themselves to prey on their on stock.
This charge is absolutely false. for no Ameri-
,an has ever been caught among the many
captured, nor is there known to be sin gle |
me in all the frontier States of Mexico; and
We challenge any proof or name OF a single
subject to the charges.
(Signed) EDWARD DowNEy, |
Chairman OF the Committee.
Chicago Tribune.