Today in History:

691 Series I Volume IX- Serial 9 - Roanoke

Page 691 Chapter XXI. CORRESPONDENCE,ETC.-UNION.

Pacific coast interdicted the crossing by any person of the Colorado River unless such person had a passport signed by himself.

This excluded many of the citizens of the State of Sonora, in the friendly Republic of Mexico, from coming to work in the rich mines recently discovered on the Colorado River,in California, and also excluded others from coming to Fort Yuma to seel provisions and other of the products and commodities of your State.

The restrictions as to the crossings of the Colorado applied no less to citizens of the United States him to citizens of our sister Republic. Thus you will see that no invidious distinction was made favoring Americans in preference to the people of Your Excellency.

It is now my good fortune to be able to say to Your Excellency that the prohibitions about crossing the river are removed,and the people of Sonora are at liberty to come and work in our mines, or to sell their provisions,forage, fruits, &c., within our lines. The forces of the United States under my command now passing up the Gila River to the Pima Villages and thence on to occupy the Territory of Arizona, though abundantly furnished with every necessary article of subsistence and forage, with adequate means of transportation for all additional supplies from the depot at Fort Yuma which they may need, yet if the people of Sonora desire to bring flour, beef, mutton, sugar, coffee, wheat, barley, fruit, vegetables, &c., to the Pima Villages or Tucson, after I have occupied it, they will be paid a fair price in gold and silver coin for what they sell.

It is our sincere desire as well as our true policy to maintain the most friendly relations with the citizens of all nations, but more particularly with those who, like ourselves and like our neighbors of Mexico, are endeavoring to prove to the world that any brave and intelligent people are capable of being governed by laws made by themselves and by rulers chosen by and from among themselves.

Therefore Your Excellency may rest assured that nothing will be done on our part to disturb the kind feelings which happily subsist between your people and those of the United States.

The people in the South, who are in open rebellion against the Government of the United States having an unjust cause, can never succeed in establishing themselves as an independent nation. As the war which they have wantonly commenced is an unrighteous one,they have not the sympathies of a single Christian nation in the world. Such being the case, you can judge how incredulous I was when I heard that an officer of rank of the so-called Confederate States Army,who has recently been to visit you, had stated publicly in Arizona, on his return from Sonora, that he had made such arrangements with Your Excellency that what supplies he might need for his troops could be landed in the ports of Sonora and be transported without let or hindrance thence through that State to Tucson. I know that Your Excellency is well aware that the very people whose emissary, it is alleged, thus comes to ask of you these commercial privileges would, as filibusters, usurp the power you yourself hold,and subjugate your own State if they had but the ability to do so. Therefore you can judge of my astonishment at such intelligence. I will not even ask Your Excellency if what I have heard is true, as such an utter want of faith toward a friendly neighbor would be so unworthy of your position as a governor,and so much against your integrity as a man, that I should shrink from wounding your sensibility by such a question. I merely mention the rumor that has reached me to show Your Excellency how much you have been maligned.


Page 691 Chapter XXI. CORRESPONDENCE,ETC.-UNION.