VALLARTA, Ignacio Luis (1830-1893)

Correspondencia Diplomática Relativa a las Invasiones del Territorio Mexicano por Fuerzas de los Estados-Unidos de 1873 a 1877

Mexico: Impenta de Ignacio Cumplido, Calle de los Rebeldes, Numero 2, 1878. 8vo. (9 x 6 1/4 inches). First edition. 94 pp. Woodcut printer's device of Mexico's national symbol of an eagle holding a snake in its beak on the title page.

Original printed blue paper front wrapper with cream paper back wrapper supplied, spine blank

First edition of a rare Mexican government document concerning early skirmishes on the US-Mexico border.

Compiled by Vallarta, the namesake of Puerto Vallarta, who was the interim Mexican commissioner in Washington, D. C. and had just served as Governor of Jalisco, this is a substantial record of diplomatic exchanges between Mexico and the US that concerns cross-border excursions by both countries into each other's territory. The report focuses on incursions by US military forces into Mexico under various pretexts and documents the diplomatic interaction sparked by each incident. These US incursions, not well known except to specialist historians, include those led by MacKenzie (1873), Benavides (1874), McNelly (1875), and Shafter (1877). A Mexican raid by Valdés (1877) into the US is also mentioned. The most historically significant of these border incidents was the Remolino Raid, in which President Grant ordered the Fourth Calvary into the Southern Rio Grande area in 1873, across Mexico's sovereign borders, to punish Native Americans for theft of livestock. This diplomatic book gives insight into the repercussions of Grant's act, and shows how the US managed to not escalate the border confrontations into another full-blown war with Mexico.

Hamilton, "Remolino Raid," Texas State Historical Association. Palau 62769.

Item #41062

Price: $1,200.00