Arizona weekly citizen., 1882-04-30
Indemnity for Mexico.

EDITOR CIrIzES-The frequent out
 breaks of the Apaches from the reserva- tions and their raids into Mexico sug- gests the question which must evidently
 arise, are the U nited States liable for the
 damage they infiict in that Republic?
 There is no doubt, according to the es- tablished principles of international law,
 that any invasion by citizens or subjects
 of one coun " (whO are supposed to be
 subject to the power of authority) makes
 that country llable for the damages that
 may be occasioned by such invasion,
 without any specific treaty to that effect.
 When the treaty of Guadalupe Hidal-
 go was signed in lS4S, by winch large
 territory was ceded to the United States
 where wandering tribes of independent
 savages dwelt, whom Mexico had held in
 check by military force, it was evident to
 the Mexican statesmen that his govern
 ment, not being able to operate in the ceded country, the savsges could invade her territory with impunity and then re-
 tire for saft ty beyond the boundary out side of Mexican chastIsement, and hence the introduction in that treaty of Article XI which obliged the United States to restrain the Indians and be liable for all dangers. The experience of six years proved to the United States that they had undertaken more than they could do. hence the revocation of that article ID 1854.
 In the course of time the United States have at length brought the savages un der subiection. located them in reserva- tiohs, made them subject to laws and tri- bupels, mustered them into the army, and the anomalous condition of the na- ton possessing the territory but having not the control of any parts of it's inhsbi- tants has recently ted.
 That these Indii 10th under the l contICl of the gove .ent of the United | States cannot be oenied any longer, for they pretend that they are under their | protection. We know quite well. that if the United States did not protect them the people of Arizona would soon punish them for their crimes; but no, the prin- pal object of the army Is to keep them in war, to supply them with ammunition, to let them raid and murder, and ter ward returning to the reservation, to be there protected as in a sanctuary against the just punishment by an enraged peo- pie.
 As a natural consequence of their re- lation between the United States and the Indians, the United States are lIable to the acts of the Indians. In the country, of course, the people are the makers of that government, and It is their fault if it Is not as 1t should be; hut Mexico can only look upon the Indian now as the subject of the United States, and If by it permits any inhabi- tant to conspire and invade her territory and then murder it's citizens and destroy their property, she must look to the United States Tor mdemnlhcation, as III any other cases of invasion.
 Nor can 1t be denied that many of the indians now rsiding in Mexico are the deserters of the Indian scout companies of the United States army, and they cer- tainly were even more under the control Of the authority of tn United States than the ordinary citizen; with the ag- gravated circumstance that the United states knows the al tipathy, the hatred, the pl OpensIty of the Indians, and vet that government arms them, trains them and prepares them as 1t were, for the very act of invasion, murder and des- tructiOn. The United States have now no excuse to hile behind the cancelling Article XI of Guadalupe HidalgO. Uu- der the laws of nations they are now lia- ble tO Mexico for all the lives sacrificed and all the property destroyed by the Apaches. SANTIAGO AISsA.