Mexico–United States border

“ As the American Minister reported, American contractors would not forswear their nationality for the sake of building a railroad in foreign lands, nor renounce the right to appeal for protection to their own government, a right recognized by international law. [5]
Whenever railroads were under discussion in the Mexican Congress, the more timid showed themselves convinced that the border was in great danger of advancing southward with the rail heads. There was a firmly rooted suspicion that the United States had an ulterior interest in every move taken by its people involving Mexico. ”

“ The scope of bilateral relations between the United States and Mexico is broad and deep, encompassing extensive historical, cultural, and commercial ties. With 2,000 miles of border, the relationship with Mexico impacts the lives of millions of Americans every day. Each day, nearly $1.9 billion in trade crosses our shared border. ”

“ The employment of American troops for this purpose, by the way, is almost without precedent in recent years, and the law officers of the War Department, as well as the Attorney-General himself, have been obliged to give close study to the question of the extent to which they may exercise the power of preventing persons from entering the United States across the Mexican border. ”

“ Within a decade some twenty thousand Americans had crossed the border.
Mexico Closes the Door.—The government of Mexico, unaccustomed to such enterprise and thoroughly frightened by its extent, drew back in dismay. Its fears were increased as quarrels broke out between the Americans and the natives in Texas. Fear grew into consternation when efforts were made by President Jackson to buy the territory for the United States. Mexico then sought to close the flood gates. ”

“ Americans of the border states of Mexico also seldom identify themselves with the local life. They keep their American citizenship; they may be engaged in the exploitation of mines, lumber, or other natural resources, but they are representative of a "foreign interest." Even though they become landowners, they continue to look upon themselves as foreigners and to be looked upon as foreigners by the native population.
It is common to hear Americans speak of the United States as the melting pot. They are proud of the adaptability of the American. ”

“ The great roads leading into the country are infested with them, whereby traveling is rendered extremely dangerous and immigration is almost entirely arrested. The Mexican frontier, which by the eleventh article of the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo we are bound to protect against the Indians within our border, is exposed to these incursions equally with our own. The military force stationed in that country, although forming a large proportion of the Army, is represented as entirely inadequate to our own protection and the fulfillment of our treaty stipulations with Mexico. ”

“ United States troops sent for the protection of Texas had already taken a position on soil claimed by Mexico. While thus menacing the border the administration in Washington despatched an envoy to Mexico empowered to make an offer of twenty-five millions of dollars for California. Tempting as was this offer, the Mexican government refused to hear of anything but a settlement of the Texan question. This rebuff was followed by an order from the United States government to General Taylor to march directly to the Rio Grande and try war. ”

“ Pending my urgent representation to the Mexican Government, I can not therefore order the troops at Douglas to cross the border, but I must ask you and the local authorities, in case the same danger recurs, to direct the people of Douglas to place themselves where bullets can not reach them and thus avoid casualty. I am loath to endanger Americans in Mexico, where they are necessarily exposed, by taking a radical step to prevent injury to Americans on our side of the border who can avoid it by a temporary inconvenience. ”

“ Without doubt most of the aliens who had obtained entry into the United States by illegal means were Mexicans, because it has always been far easier to avoid border restrictions when entering from Mexico than when entering from countries that do not have a common land border with the United States. ”

“ Such a community, as it grew, developed a rough and ready character not inconsistent with respect for its own, but having little conscience about the rights of those across the border. The records of the foreign relations of the United States and Mexico for the '70s, '80s and '90s of the past century are interesting, if not always pleasant reading. They are by no means records of a civilization of which either Mexicans or Americans can be uniformly proud. ”

“ When the last outbreak occurred he planned a campaign that should penetrate to the Indian stronghold, hoping thereby to strike terror into the hearts of the enemy and entirely crush them out. The difficulties attending Indian fighting in this department are not alone those resulting from the unfavorable character of the territory, but are augmented by the treaty stipulations between Mexico and the United States, by which alien troops are not permitted to cross the Border. ”

“ The President regards New Mexico as a territory of the United States, with the same boundaries which it had before the war with Mexico, and while in possession of that country. By the treaty of peace the boundary line between the two countries is defined, and perfect security and protection in the free enjoyment of their liberty and property, and in the free exercise of their religion, is guaranteed to those Mexicans who may choose to reside on the American side of that line. ”

“ The present situation in Mexico is incompatible with the fulfillment of international obligations on the part of Mexico, with the civilized development of Mexico herself, and with the maintenance of tolerable political and economic conditions in Central America. It is upon no common occasion, therefore, that the United States offers her counsel and assistance. All America cries out for a settlement. ”

“ Friendship with Mexico is more important to the United States politically than economically. An enemy or an unfriendly power on the southern boundary would be a constant threat to the national safety. So also a country that cannot keep order within its own boundaries and give protection to the lives and property of foreigners is a menace to the United States only slightly less dangerous, because conditions may arise in such a country which, through the steps taken by other powers to defend the interests of their nationals, may draw the United States into international conflicts. ”

“ We have never hitherto interfered, directly or indirectly, with its internal affairs, and it is a duty which we owe to ourselves to protect the integrity of its territory against the hostile interference of any other power. Our geographical position, our direct interest in all that concerns Mexico, and our well-settled policy in regard to the North American continent render this an indispensable duty.
Mexico has been in a state of constant revolution almost ever since it achieved its independence. ”

“ But, moreover, as the entire soil of Texas, from the Sabine to the Nueces or Rio Grande was still claimed by Mexico as her unsurrendered country, the landing of a single American soldier anywhere south of our ancient boundary with Spain, was quite as hostile an invasion of Mexican territory as the passage of our army from Corpus Christi to Point Isabel.
[Pg 120] Occasions upon which the eminent right of self protection has been adopted as a principle of action in the United States, are not wanting in our political history. ”

“ Mexican trade, both import and export, is already almost inevitably American and investments will be increasingly so.
The United States does want order in Mexico, and for a number of reasons. Order would increase its profitable trade exchange, it would make secure the lives and properties of the many Americans whose interests are bound up with those of the republic and finally it would simplify maintenance of the fundamental principle of American foreign policy—that American states be not interfered with in their development by non-American political influences. ”

“ For an agricultural and commercial people, peace and stability, under almost any liberal government, are all that is requisite to insure progress. England, a free, maritime and manufacturing country, deeply interested in Mexico as a purchaser, and in the United States as a rival, was precisely the nation to secure these advantages for Texas, especially as that republic offered a point d'appui which she could not find elsewhere on this continent. ”

“ The constitution and laws of the nation were fixed upon a firm basis, while the government was conducted with ability. A lucrative commerce from foreign countries began to pour into the territory. New towns sprang up every where, and Texas exhibited to the world every evidence of an orderly, well regulated government, with infinitely greater strength and stability than the military republic from which she was divorced. Mexico, nevertheless, refused to recognize her independence notwithstanding her inability to make any effort for reconquest. ”

“ Fair treatment for American and other foreign interests in Mexico and friendly adjustment of the questions that must affect the two governments because of their relative position, this is all that the United States wishes from its southern neighbor.
Mexican relations are not the most important factor in American foreign policy. At times they may rise to that prominence, but they can not be so permanently. They are important in themselves always and they are important because they do touch the larger international policy above referred to. ”

“ The aid which she requires, and which the interests of all commercial countries require that she should have, it belongs to this Government to render, not only by virtue of our neighborhood to Mexico, along whose territory we have a continuous frontier of nearly a thousand miles, but by virtue also of our established policy, which is inconsistent with the intervention of any European power in the domestic concerns of that Republic.
The wrongs which we have suffered from Mexico are before the world and must deeply impress every American citizen. ”

“ The history of no civilized nation in modern times has presented within so brief a period so many wanton attacks upon the honor of its flag and upon the property and persons of its citizens as had at that time been borne by the United States from the Mexican authorities and people. But Mexico was a sister republic on the North American continent, occupying a territory contiguous to our own, and was in a feeble and distracted condition, and these considerations, it is presumed, induced Congress to forbear still longer. ”

“ It knows the messengers and agents who travel between Cuba, South and Central America, and Mexico; and most of the time the United States or one of the Allies knows what is being sent. The system of watching the German agents in this Latin Republic is so water-tight that most of the danger is past.
One can meet many Americans who believe that our system in Mexico is weak because it is so easy for people to travel back and forth without passports. ”

“ California would be of infinitely greater value to Mexico than the small tract she would transfer to the United States could ever be under any circumstances. For Mexico to continue to hold it, creates a constant danger of friction or conflict which would be entirely removed if it were taken over by the United States. ”

“ The American Government and people were not unprepared for a challenge from Mexico, and rather welcomed it, as, apart from the Texas issue, Mexico had, from the time of her independence treated the United States in a manner far from neighborly, and inflicted many injuries on American citizens. ”

“ The latest intelligence from Mexico leaves no doubt that the new Government of that country is resolved to reject all peaceful overtures from the United States and solicit the intervention of European powers to obtain from the Union indemnification for the loss of Texas and a boundary line under the protecting guaranty of France and Great Britain. ”