In perusing the message of His Excellency Governor Marcy to the legislature of the State of New York your excellency will probably feel some degree of surprise that after three weeks’ continued hostility carried on by the citizens of New York against the people of Upper Canada his excellency seems to have considered himself not called upon to make this aggression the subject of remark for any other purpose than to complain of a solitary act of self-defense on the part of Her Majesty’s Province of Upper Canada, to which such unprovoked hostilities have unavoidably led.

I have the honor to be, sir, your excellency’s most obedient, humble servant.

F.B.  HEAD.

[Footnote 27:  Omitted.]

Mr. Forsyth to Mr. Fox.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE,

Washington, February 13, 1838.

HENRY S. FOX, Esq., etc.

SIR:  I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of the 6th instant, communicating a copy of a letter from Sir Francis Head, lieutenant-governor of the Province of Upper Canada, respecting the capture and destruction of the steamboat Caroline by a Canadian force on the American side of the Niagara River within the jurisdiction of the State of New York, together with the reports and depositions thereto annexed.

The statement of the facts which these papers present is at variance with the information communicated to this Government respecting that transaction; but it is not intended to enter at present upon an examination of the details of the case, as steps have been taken to obtain the fullest evidence that can be had of the particulars of the outrage, upon the receipt of which it will be made the subject of a formal complaint to the British Government for redress.  Even admitting that the documents transmitted with your note contain a correct statement of the occurrence, they furnish no justification of the aggression committed upon the territory of the United States—­an aggression which was the more unexpected as Sir Francis Head, in his speech at the opening of the parliament of Upper Canada, had expressed his confidence in the disposition of this Government to restrain its citizens from taking part in the conflict which was waging in that Province, and added that, having communicated with the governor of the State of New York and yourself, he was then waiting for replies.

It is not necessary to remind you that his expectations have been met by the adoption of measures on the part of the United States as prompt and vigorous as they have been successful in repressing every attempt of the inhabitants of the frontier States to interfere unlawfully in that contest.  The most serious obstacle thrown in the way of those measures was the burning of the Caroline, which, while it was of no service to Her Britannic Majesty’s cause in Canada, had the natural effect of increasing the excitement on the border, which this Government was endeavoring to allay.