Page:History of the War between the United States and Mexico.djvu/491

Rh of the acts complained of, in order to bring them to trial and punishment, but without success. In regard to the threat of retaliation, he treated it, as it deserved, and stated that he was ready for any course of policy which the Mexican authorities decided to adopt.

During the ensuing summer, General Taylor found himself unable to control the lawlessness of the rangers; and so many unprovoked outrages were committed, the authors of which could very rarely be ascertained, that, as an act of justice to himself and to his country, he ordered a number of the more turbulent and refractory among them to be summarily dismissed from the service, regarding them as being wholly unworthy to belong to the American army. Collisions, growing out of these outrages, frequently took place; but the departments of Tamaulipas and New Leon, with this exception, were generally quiet. The active operations of the war were carried on upon a different