Year: 1872

| Mcxlco-Our True Southern Boundary


and tho Trans-Continentel Short


Railwsy Limo Thus offered.


For years, as is notorious, predatory raids
upon our territory from across the Rio Grande
have been affairs of daily occurrence, with con-
stantly widening proportions with each expe-
dition, until the whole Texas border, as far
eastward even as the Nueces, has been swept
almost completely of its horses mules and
cattle. All this has been SO fully attestcd to
our government that no one is authorized to
doubt or deny that there exist and have long
existed in Northern Mexico organized bands of
Mexicans systematically engaged in pillaging
forays upon American soil to such extent that
On official commission, now in session on the
Texas frontier collecting evidence in this con-
nection, have already under consideration ap-
parently well-founded claims for spoliations of
this character rising above eight millions of
dollars.


Those who have committed these brazen
breaches of international and civil law, it is
quite plain, must have felt quite secure from
the least interference on the part of the local
Mexican authorities, as well as comprehended
that they were altogether too far removed
from what there is of central national author
ity in Mexico to be reached or restrained by
it. In the very nature of that authority it
has been absolutely unable to impose
the least curb upon the operations
of these marauders, much less to sup
press them And as it has been in the
past, so will it surely be in the future, whose
ever may be at the head of the Mexican Gen.
trail government in spite of the best resolu-
tions and dispositions. It is idle and unwar-
ranted, therefore, on the part of our govern
ment and people to expect any materially DIFF
ferent or better state of affairs which shall
enable the Mexican government to act effsc-
lively so remote from the capital On the
other hand, it were equally idle for our own
authorities -disregarding Mexican boundaries,
as under the circumstances they would have
the clear right to do-to pursue these pilhgers
into their lairs upon Mexican territory. from
the very nature of the country, and other
patent causes such pursuit would invariably
prove fruitless. For this sad state of affairs
we see no effective remedy, so long as foot of
the broad valley Of the Rio Grande may re-
|
fact points out the only course imperatively
imposed upon our government-that is to say,
we have no alternative but to acquire the
whole valley.


When our southern boundary was first ex-
tended to the Rio Grande some of our ablest
statesmen of that day foresaw and urged that
our true boundary in that region should be
the line of the Sierra Madre, and not
mere water course like the Rio Grande,
without defensive military points or
passes. This is the Just, statesmar-like
view unfortunately overborne at the time
which should now be taken up and carried out
without hesitation or delay. Were that region
transferred to the United States there would be
ON immediate end to the anarchy and discords
which have SO long reigned supreme there,
and which, overrunning Mexican boundaries,
have already despoiled our own adjoining ter
ritory of property to the value of as many
from England for the ravages Of the Anglo
Confederate cruisers This were alone sufi-
cient to make it vital for our government to set
on foot and strenuously urge negotiations for
the early acquisition of this territory upon
terms generous and satisfactory to Mexico,
whose prolonged possession of the territory
must in fact involve that country in debt,
growing out of these enormous spoliations,
that Mexico cannot pay, and that may exceed
the value Of the region itself.


But there are other equally weighty reasons
that mako this acquisition o necessity to the
United States. Of course, were our boundary
thus extended across the Rio Grande-about
three degrees of latitude-it should be car
ried as nearly as practicable upon the same
line to the Pacific coast This would be indis-
pensable. Placing the foot of draughts-
mans compass at New York, on any
map Of North America, and reaching out
with the other for the nearest point upon the
Pacific Coast and it will rest at the port of
Dlazatlan, barely four hundred miles from
Laredo, in Texas, on the Rio Grande. This is
significant fact to which our engineers as
well as our public men have hitherto been sin
gularly blind, and, consequently, have over
looked in all plans for o great highway across
the Continent looking to the Asiatic trade.
Railways filing almost the whole space be-
tween New York and Laredo have either been
built already or are under construction, and
the early completion of the whole line to Ma
zatlan is one of the great transportation neces-
sites Of the period, as o glance at map of
the Continent will clearly demonstrate. The
great problem Of the modern engineer is to
reduce or shorten the mileage of railways and
add to that of water transportation SO as to
cheaper substantially our transportation facili-
ties, while securing all necessary celebrity of
movement. This is on imperative need Of the
epoch, as the most cursory examination Of the