Foster to J. M. Lafragua, June 24, 1875

Mr. Foster to Mr. Lafragua.

Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your excellency’s note of the 19th instant, in which you make reply to my note of the 8th of May last, wherein, under instructions from the Secretary of State of the United States, I communicated to your excellency the difficulties and opposition which the commissioner charged with the return of the Kickapoo and other Indians to their reservations had encountered in Mexico.

I will without delay transmit a copy of your excellency’s note to the Department of State at Washington, for the information of my Government, and I embrace this opportunity to express my gratification that your government has issued new instructions to the governors of the States where these Indians are located, to remove any obstacle that may present itself whenever their removal is again attempted.

While I have no desire to enter in detail upon a discussion of your excellency’s note, I deem it proper to make a brief reference to one or two of the points presented by you.

The Government of the United States has for many years made itself responsible for the support, education, and care of these Indians, whose guardian it is, and they had been placed on special reservations, and were under the supervision of the official agents and Army of the Government. During our late civil war the Indians took advantage of the temporary suspension of the authority of the United States to abandon their reservations, and they came into this republic without the consent and contrary to the policy of the government of Mexico, at a time when its power was also partially suspended by the war of European intervention. In view of this state of facts, I am constrained to express the opinion that your excellency’s government has erred in deciding that it could not require these Indians to return to their reservations. Under the circumstances, they could only be considered as refugees from the authority of the Government of the United States, and, in the spirit of international comity, should have been again returned to the territory of the United States.

Your excellency seems to find the cause, if not a palliation, for the opposition manifested to the mission of the commissioner in the bitter language and harsh judgment of the newspapers of Texas against the inhabitants of the Mexican frontier. It is not strange that the public opinion of Texas is unfavorable to the justice and honesty of the Mexican authorities and people of the Rio Grande frontier, when it is remembered that the citizens of that State have been the prey for years of raiding bands of outlaws from Mexico; that they have witnessed the murder of their kindred, the burning of their homes, and the plunder of their property by organized bands of Mexicans, publicly reported to be instigated and equipped, many of them, by a general of the Mexican army; that these bands find a safe refuge and protection in Mexico, where their plunder is disposed of; and that no punishment is inflicted upon them by the authorities. It may not be unnatural that suggestions are prevalent in Texas of counter-invasions and reprisals; and in view of the inability or indifference of the federal government of Mexico, that there are found individuals, and even newspapers, which advocate the placing of that region under the authority of the United States.

Your excellency will please to receive the renewed assurances of my most distinguished consideration.