TEXAS. 



713 



WASHINGTON. August 14, 1877. 

 His Excellency E. B. HUBBARD, Governor of Texas 



Austin : 



The President directs me to acknowledge the re- 

 ceipt of your dispatch of the 13th instant. 



Your proposed demand for extradition is in ac- 

 cordance with treaty stipulations. 



Measures for the protection and maintenance of 

 American rights involved will be immediately taken 

 here. 



(Signed) F. W. SEWARD, 



Acting Secretary of State. 



Acting under orders from Governor Hub- 

 bard, John C. Kussell, of Corpus Christi, judge 

 of the twenty-fifth judicial district, and ex- 

 officio extradition agent, made formal demand 

 of General Oanales, the Governor of Tamau- 

 lipas, on August 23d, for the extradition of the 

 persons engaged in the jail-delivery as well as 

 for the felons released by them. This demand 

 was delivered by the Sheriff of Starr County 

 to the Governor of Tamaulipas, at Matamoras. 

 After much delay and discussion as to the 

 proper construction of the extradition treaty, 

 President Diaz, of the Central Government, 

 through his accredited agent and member of 

 his Cabinet, General Benavides, ordered Gov- 

 ernor Canales to have delivered to the Texas 

 agent the released prisoners Esproneda and 

 Garza, and also the raiders who delivered them 

 and attempted to murder citizens of Texas. 



Governor Hubbard had instructed the ex- 

 tradition agent representing Texas under the 

 special provisions of the treaty of December 

 11, 1861, to demand First, the prisoners re- 

 leased, irrespective of nationality, because, 

 having committed the crimes of theft and 

 murder on Texas territory, within organized 

 counties, and having been legally indicted by 

 the grand juries of said counties, arrested by 

 the high sheriffs under proper capias of the 

 courts, lodged in jail in default of bail, the 

 jurisdiction of the criminal courts of Texas 

 had already attached, and the clause of the 

 treaty excepting citizens of either country 

 from the operation of its general provisions 

 could not be invoked. These prisoners were 

 released by an unlawful mob, without the con- 

 sent of this government, and the Republic of 

 Mexico should place them back, if within her 

 power, in their original position inside the jail 

 of Rio Grande City. 



The extradition agent also demanded, in an 

 able and exhaustive paper, the delivery to the 

 Texas authorities of the outlaws engage*! in 

 this affair as an act of comity toward a neigh- 

 boring and friendly Republic. In this demand 

 the Governor of Tamaulipas, General Canales, 

 did not concur, nor did any one of the local, 

 civil, or military authorities of Tamaulipas; 

 and they refused to become the instruments 

 of extraditing any person charged with crime 

 in Texas, fleeing to Mexico, and who chimed 

 to be simply of Mexican origin. General Be- 

 navides, however, representing the Central 

 Government, concurred in the views of Judge 

 Russell that all the persons engaged in the Rio 

 Grande City outrage should be delivered to the 



Texas authorities, and it was so ordered. On 

 September llth three of the persons were so 

 delivered. Under the directions of Governor 

 Ilubbard the commissioner reiterated his de- 

 mand for the remaining murderer, Garza, and 

 the confederates of the two raiders already de- 

 livered. Governor Canales, and Passamento, 

 Judge of the First Instance, replied that rath- 

 er than comply with the orders of President 

 Diaz every civil officer of the border Mexican 

 States either had resigned or would resign, 

 "freely and frankly confessing," says Gov- 

 ernor Hubbard, "as the correspondence will 

 show, that the excited public sentiment of the 

 Mexican people would not allow any more ex- 

 traditions of fugitives from Texas, of Mexican 

 origin or blood, in any event It has proved 

 true in letter and spirit. Troops of the regu- 

 lar army of the Central Government of Mexico 

 were ordered from Vera Cruz, and proceeded 

 to Matamoras in the Mexican war steamer In- 

 dependencia ostensibly to enforce obedience 

 to the orders of the Central Government, and 

 especially in the matter of the extradition of 

 fugitives from justice under the extradition 

 treaty. These troops have not caused the ar- 

 rest of any of the Rio Grande City outlaws, 

 nor endeavored to arrest them ; and instead of 

 upholding their government have deserted its 

 standard and affiliated with the revolutionary 

 elements of Tamaulipas and the other border 

 States in their determination to hold the treaty 

 at defiance for the future." 



" I cannot fail," continues Governor Hubbard, In 

 his communication of October 4th, to Secretary 

 Evarts, "to call the attention of the United States 

 Government to the fact undisguised that Garza 

 and the bandits who released him have been and 

 are now in and around Camargo, in sight of the very 

 spot on which they shot down innocent nun and 

 women, and relea><e*d tnurdcrcra from the jail. It it a 

 fact, likewise well known, that Enproneda and the 

 two others who were delivered at nmlniphl, opposite 

 Mutnmoras, were friendless and homcle** vagabonds, 

 who, it appears, had depredated as much upon Mexi- 

 can as upon American citizens : but Garza and the 

 other outlaws are noted desperiiaoeB and representa- 

 tive men of their class perhaps owning ranches mar 

 Camargoand beyond, nnd have never been molested 

 or in danger of arre*t by the Mexican military of 

 civil authorities. In the presence cf these facts, and 

 when advised that now and henceforth a demand 

 for fugitives from justice would be to retnart a 

 solemn farce at the expanse of the pride and dignity 

 and honor of Texas, 1 directed that, until further or- 

 ders, no more efforts should be made for exlraditi. n 

 under a treaty ignored on the one part, but which 

 has always been observed in earnest good fsith tow- 

 ard the sister republic by the State of Texas and bjr 

 the General Government. We have no aaurenc of 

 peace and security along the Mexican bordtr.no 

 have we had such security oincc the Mexican War 

 and the annexation of the Republic of Texaa M a 

 State to the American Union." 



On December 13th a mob of Mexican* and 

 Texas citizens, of Mexican birth, nturked the 

 State troops at San Elizario, in Texa*. 

 persons were reported killed. bolodlBf five o 

 the State troops. On receipt of the new* of 

 this affair, Governor Ilubbard telegraphed for 

 the aid of federal troops, saying: 



