South Branch Intelligencer

The United States and Mexico.
Highly important State Paper.
From the Nashville Republican, Aug. 6.
Gen. Gaines's Requisition.—We delay the publication of our paper to a later hour than usual, for the purpose of laying before the Public the following documents, with which we have been furnished by the Governor.

War Department, May 4, 1836.
Sir: Major General Gaines, to whom the command of the western border of Louisiana has been assigned, has notified this Department, that he has called upon your Excellency—for a brigade of militia, the whole, or as many of them as practicable to be mounted.
I am instructed by the President to request your Excellency to call into the service of the United States the number of militia which have been or may be required by Gen. Gaines, to serve not less than three months after their arrival at the places of rendezvous, unless sooner discharged. Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
LEWIS CASS.
His Excellency N. CANNON,
Governor of Tennessee, &c.

War Department, July 23, 1836.
Sir: Major General Gaines has apprised this Department that he has made a requisition upon your Excellency for a regiment of mounted gun-men for the service of the United States.
Copies of the despatches received from General Gaines have been transmitted to the President of the United States, who will issue such orders upon them as he may think the circumstances require.
Meantime I have the honor to inform you that, in order to prevent any inconvenience or delay, in the event of the confirmation of Gen. Gaines's requisition by the President, a disbursing officer will be ordered to proceed to the State of Tennessee with the necessary funds. Very respectfully, your most ob't servant,

The above letters from the War Department was received in answer to the enclosed to the
HERMITAGE, Aug. 6, 1836.
Sir: I have received your letters of the 29th ult., and the 4th instant, accompanied by the copies of communications which were addressed to you on the 4th of May, and the 25th July, by the Secretary of War, and also accompanied by your Proclamation of the 20th, founded on the requisition made by Gen. Gaines, bearing date the 20th of June last. The documents referred to in the communication to you of the 25th ult. from the War Department, have not yet been received.
The obligations of our treaty with Mexico, as well as the general principles which govern our intercourse with foreign Powers, require us to maintain a strict neutrality in the contest which now agitates a portion of that Republic. So long as Mexico fulfills her duties to us as they are defined by the treaty, and violates none of the rights which are secured by it to our citizens, any act on the part of the Government of the United States, which would tend to foster a spirit of resistance to the Government and laws, whatever may be their character or form, when administered within her own limits and jurisdiction, would be unauthorized and highly improper. A scrupulous sense of these obligations has prevented me thus far from doing anything which can authorize the suspicion that our Government is unmindful of them, and I hope to be equally cautious and circumspect in all my future conduct.
It is in reference to these obligations that the requisition of Gen. Gaines in the present instance must be considered; and unless there is a strong necessity for it, it should not be sanctioned. Should this necessity not be manifest, when it is well known that the disposition to befriend the Texans is a common feeling with the citizens of the United States, it is obvious that that requisition may furnish a reason to Mexico for supposing that the Government of the United States may be induced, by inadequate causes, to overstep the lines of the neutrality which it professes to maintain.
Before I left Washington, General Gaines intimated to the Department of War that some indications of hostilities from the Indians on our Western frontier had been made, and that, if it became necessary, he would make a call for the militia. He had also informed the Department of his ill health, and asked for a furlough to enable him to visit the White Sulphur Springs. I directed the Secretary of War to grant him the furlough, and to inform him of the apportionment which had been made of the 10,000 militia under the recent volunteer act; and if the emergency should arise which would make it necessary to increase the force under his command that a thousand volunteers in Arkansas, and another in Missouri, raised agreeably to this act would be enrolled, and held ready for the service. This force, aided by the portions of the Dragoon regiments that would be stationed in that quarter and those of the regular army, already there, were deemed amply sufficient, for the protection of the frontier near to the Indians referred to. There are no reasons set forth in the requisition which the General has since made upon you, to justify the belief that the force above enumerated will be insufficient, and I cannot therefore, sanction it at the present time. To sanction that requisition for the reasons which accompany it, would warrant the belief that it was done to aid Texas, and not from a desire to prevent an infringement of our territorial or national rights.
I deeply regret that the Tennessee Volunteers, whose prowess and patriotism are displayed so promptly on all occasions that threaten the peace or safety of their beloved country, have been called out on this occasion without proper consideration. They can for the present only be mustered into the service and discharged. If there are funds appropriated out of which they can be paid, an order to this effect, will be given.
The ten thousand volunteers authorized, under the late act of Congress are intended for one year's service, and must be employed to meet all necessary calls for the defence of our frontier borders. Should the occasion arise for a greater number on the Western frontier, the call would be made on Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois. There is, however, no information to justify the apprehension of hostilities, to any serious extent, from the Western Indians. The Tennessee will be ordered to the Western frontier as soon as their service can be dispensed with where they now are employed.
I would barely add further; that the authority given you by the order of the 4th of May having been satisfied by yielding to the requisition of General Gaines, a new authority from the Department of War was necessary to authorize you to comply with that of the 28th of June. The Government of the United States having adopted, in regard to Mexico and Texas, the same rule of neutrality which had been observed in all similar cases before, it was not to have been expected that General Gaines should have based this requisition for additional military force on reasons plainly inconsistent with the obligation of that rule.
Should Mexico insult our national flag, or invade our territory, or interrupt our citizens in the lawful pursuits guaranteed to them by the treaty, then the Government will promptly repel the insult, and take speedy reparation for the injury. But it does not seem that offences, of this character have been committed by Mexico, or were believed to have been, by General Gaines, I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
ANDREW JACKSON.
His Excellency N. Cannon,
Governor of Tennessee.

P. S.—Before closing this letter, the documents referred to by the acting Secretary of War as having been transmitted to me, have been received. A. J.