The daily gazette., 1877-05-31
THE MEXICAN BORDER RAIDS.

fEdfLEAlTf OF THk ADMINlSTRANION-
POINTS SUBMITTED TO GENERAL Pill
Low.
WASHINGTON, May 3o.-The admir- MIS-
| tration is more perplexed over a solution
| of the Texas border question than any
other issue now pending before it. 1t is
| the same question that President Polk
| ambitiously tried TO settle with a war
yet failed on account of the failure of his
special commissioners to obey his orders.
How this failure came to be and q solu-
| ton of the problem of the present diff
| culties from a subject for special letter
| that General Pillow has addressed to the
President.
The suggestions in it were first submit
mitted to General Sherman aud General
Ord. They were so much pleased with
| it that they desired it to be submitted to
the President at once, as he is very anx-
ious to assist General Ord in putting
| down these marauders. When the letter
| was received at the White House, aud
i Mr.. Hayes had learned it's contents, he
gave orders TO have it briefed at once, so
that he could give it his earliest consid-
Grafton. General Pillow has marched all
over the country from whence these ma
rauders come, and is probably more IA
mlllar with the Typographical difficulties
than any surviving officer of the Mexican
war. In an interview General Pillow
! gives the following points that he sub
| mtted TO the President and General
Sherman.
During the Mexican war | marched
my division from Matamoros through
| San Fernando, San Martin, and Santa
Barbara to Tampico, passing through IA
tract of country mbracing also Leon and
| Tamaulapas. The first 800 miles bore off
to the interior to the capital of Tamauli-
pas and along the base of the Sierra
Madre Mountains. there an unbroken
chain, 6,G00 feet high, of basaltic stone,
with but two passes in them for 900 IN les,
these but mule passes, about 5000 feet
above the sea level.
"A single company with battery could
defend the passes against an attacking
force of 10000 men. The Pernambuco
river, on the south, is the boundary OF
Tamaulipas 1t is 400 yards wide, and
=, deep enough to float large man-of-war;
at the distance of 960 miles from ths
mouth it cuts the Sierra Madre Noun.
tains; from thence it runs in a straight
line between high perpendicular rocks
without trace of verdure upon their
submits to Saltillo.
alt was in front of this position that
General Taylor fought the battle of Beu-
ma Vista. In the rear is Monterey, thor.
iOTJAcu, w Deu 1tD6rdl
, passed over this country, he discovered
great material advantages of there locat.
ing the national boundary. He commu.
: nicated the result of his discoveries 10
President Polk. President Polk sent
Nicholas p. Trist as special commits.
sioner to Mexico to make treaty.
"He gave him special instructions to
accept no treaty that did not have the
Sierra Madre as the line of bound Al
l 10 nial
sent to Pillow for double security, em.
, powering him to annual any. treaty that
Trlst might make which did not EN- brace
north and east of the Sierra Madre
q Mountains as the part to be ceded to the
q United States.
president Polk, in personal letter to
General Pillow, begged him to protect
the honor of his administration aud bis
8 Government. 1t was the daring ambi
\ ton OF Folk 10 secure these Northern
provinces of Mexico, so rich in mine.
ana natural advantages, equal to that o.
:. CUBA When our army enter ed the City
4 OF Mexico Trist met with the Mexican
i Commission and was so manipulated b.,
II them that he agreed to treaty MARKING
n out the present boundary Pillow wa.
y at the time lying In hospital disabled by
q grapeshot wound at Chepultepec. Pil
low reported at once TO Polk Trist'
) action, and Polk ordered him home
General Scott, for some reason or other
refused to see that the order was obeyed
inst dld not come home. and ultimatel
his treaty came to the President Poll
y refused to receive it as "a treaty, and sen
it to the Senate as proposition from tn
y Mexican Government, where it wa
y adopted. Pillow, after recitng this his
r tor OF former Mexican troubles, goes O
TO show how the mere ordering of Genel
al Ord to cross the border in pursuit q
N thieves Will not break upthe present sys
e. TEN OF borner outrages.
40 "For 600 miles, pursuing the windin
of the Rio Grande, cattle thieves ca
+ cross. They ride mustang ponies whic
ic can make 100 miles within twenty-fou
10 hours without injury. Their riders ar
dressed in heavy suits of buckskin, ths
=, enable them to escape pursuit from a
~ not dressed in similar armor, by dash
p ing away from them into the chappare
~ II our troops cross to pursue them the
70 scatter like rabbits, and there is no wa
Aof identifying them. Ten regimen