Memucan Hunt to John Forsyth, August 3, 1837

Summary: Hunt thanked Forsyth for the prompt assistance in stopping the slave trade from Cuba and Indian attacks. Also invited the United States to send troops into Texas and build forts to prevent more Indian incursions.

TEXIAN LEGATION,

WASHINGTON

August 3d. 1837.

SIR,

I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your notes of the 29th. and 31st. ultimo, and a copy of a letter from the Department of War to the Department of State, dated the 26th.

The government of Texas will be greatly gratified at the disposition, so promptly expressed by the government of the United States, to aid in preventing the indirect slave trade from Cuba to Texas.

The ready adoption of measures by this government for the purpose of enforcing the stipulations of the treaties relating to the Indians upon the Texian frontier, will also be especially gratifying to my government, and in anticipation of the just disposition of this government to enforce the treaty stipulations referred to, I have been instructed to invite it to order its troops within the limits of the territory of Texas, should it be thought necessary, so far as the river Trinity, and to make such temporary fortifications as may be advisable for their protection and convenience. The government of Texas will doubtless be satisfied, that every necessary effort will be made by the United States to prevent Indian depredations on its frontier.

I have the honor to renew to you the assurances of my most distinguished consideration.

(signed) MEMUCAN HUNT.

Honorable, JOHN FORSYTH,

Secretary of State of the United States.

Source Copy Consulted: Memucan Hunt to John Forsyth, August 3, 1837, in George Garrison, ed., Diplomatic Correspondence of the Republic of Texas, Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1908, (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1911), 3 vols., 2:252 2:252