PLAN PARA LA DEFENSA DE LOS ESTADOS INVADIDOS POR LOS BÁRBAROS, PROPUESTO POR LA JUNTA DE REPRESENTANTES, CREADA POR LA LEY DE 24 DE ABRIL DEL PRESENTE AÑO

[Comanche-Mexico Wars]

Published by Imprenta de Ignacio Cumplido, México, 1849

27,[5]pp. Original printed rose wrappers. Wrappers stained at edges. Light tanning. Very good plus. A scarce pamphlet reporting the preliminary findings of a special Junta for the defense of Mexico's northern frontier against increasingly violent and destructive Comanche raids. More than an occasional skirmish, the Comanche raids into northern Mexico continued over several decades and are sometimes called the "Comanche-Mexico Wars." Reaching their zenith in the 1840s and 50s, the raids resulted in the deaths of thousands of Mexican citizens, and many more were captured or lost their homes and livelihoods to the destruction. Setting the scene before outlining their plan for the defense of the border, the Junta makes clear the threat facing these states (our translation): "You know, gentlemen, from sad and painful experience, that the states which we represent have been devoured by a cancer which corrodes and destroys them, for this terrible plague of barbarians expands and fortifies itself at the same time that our methods of defense are debilitated more and more each day. The cruel and daily murders, the total destruction of wealth, the absolute ruin of countless families, the frightening desolation spreading across all parts, the universal terror which is spread by the mere name of the ruthless butchers, the hopelessness that hangs over the inhabitants of these lands seeing that nothing can resist the fury of the savage.Such is the shape of the horrible situation which faces those states invaded by the barbarians." After describing the nature of the problems facing the Mexican government in more detail, the authors summarize their strategy: first, consolidate the military organization of the seven frontier states into three united divisions; next, station five thousand troops from the standing army along the border, and supplement them with cavalry; third, create a "war-faring public on the border, capable of confronting the barbarians the moment they strike." This last would be effected by importing a "machine of the kind recently invented in Paris for the construction of firearms." Anticipating a long struggle, they also propose distributing guns to the public and providing basic training, and instituting military strategy and firearms courses for children in schools. Crucially, the authors also assert that "Article 11 of the peace treaty between Mexico and the United States, fulfilled scrupulously and in good faith, is by itself enough to regularize the defense of the border States and radically shorten the war." Under Article 11 of the Treaty of Guadalupe- Hidalgo, the United States made a rare concession to Mexico by agreeing to do all in its power to restrain cross-border raids in their new territory, and to return Mexican captives and goods which were brought into the United States. Complaints about the United States' failure to uphold this article, completely unprepared for the challenge and woefully restrained by antebellum politics, began almost immediately and continued for decades, with suits by Mexican citizens against the United States government extending well past the eventual defeat of the Comanche in 1875. The Junta's plan was finalized and published a year and a half after this pamphlet, and included the following as one of its articles: "The governments of the coalition [of northern states] will earnestly urge the supreme national authorities to obtain from the government at Washington permission for the Mexican forces to cross the Rio Grande, and attack the nomadic tribes which reside in that territory, without omitting to demand constantly and vigorously the fulfillment of Article XI of the treaty of Guadalupe, and an indemnification for the losses which the frontier has heretofore suffered from the non- fulfillment of that article." Unfortunately for the people of northern Mexico, even after much of this territory entered the United States with the Gadsden purchase, the government would not turn its att. Seller Inventory # WRCAM63033

Bibliographic Details

Title: PLAN PARA LA DEFENSA DE LOS ESTADOS ...
Publisher: Imprenta de Ignacio Cumplido, México
Publication Date: 1849