quences of it will doubtless be recognized in the foreign policy of the republic for many generations. The neutrality proclamation was issued by the British government on the 13th of May. It was shortly followed by a circular from the Foreign Office interdicting the armed ships and privateers of both parties. This was suc ceeded, on the 11th of June, by a proclama mations of France tion of neutrality issued by the Emperor Napoleon, and still again (June 17th) by a neutrality proclamation of the Queen of Spain. The three governments, Great Britain, France, and Spain, were at this time in perfect accord on American affairs. Neutrality procla and Spain. CHAPTER LXI. THE FRENCH EXPEDITION TO MEXICO. ITS INFLUENCE ON THE OPINION OF EUROPE RESPECTING AMERICAN AFFAIRS. The Southern conspirators had intrigued with the Mexicans for a new Union. The Emperor Napoleon resolved to turn that scheme to his own advantage in his relations with the Austrian Empire. He encouraged the disruption of the American Union with a view of neutralizing the power of the republic. He drew England and Spain into a joint expedition to Mexico. After the expedition had reached that country, those powers discovered his real intentions and withdrew. His army entered the City of Mexico. He established an empire, and presented its crown to the Austrian Archduke Maximilian, who accepted it. Meantime, to his disappointment, the United States overthrew secession. The American government insisted that he should abandon his Mexican undertaking. Finding that it would be hopeless to contend with the Republic, he ordered the withdrawal of the French army, abandoning to its fate the empire he had created. The Mexican expe the disruption of For the clear comprehension of the agreement which had been entered into between England, dition was based on France, and Spain, it is necessary to underthe United States. stand the adventurous projects in which they were about to engage, affecting the whole North American continent. The Mexican expedition—a drama the scenes of which were acted in Rome, London, Washington, Charleston, Paris, Mexico-was the immediate result of this unhappy coalition, and the basis on which that ill-starred tragedy rested was the breaking of the United States into separate confederacies. Secret intention of After the peace of Villafranca, the Emperor Napoleon III. was sincerely desirous to heal the polit Napoleon, ical wounds which had been made by his military operations in Italy-to find some compensation for the injuries he had inflicted on the Emperor of Austria. Mexican refugees There were certain Mexicans of eminence-among them who is informed by Almonte, Gutierrez de Estrada, the ex-President Miramon, and La Bastida, the Archbishop of Mexico-who were residing in Paris, and carrying on various political intrigues with the Papal gov ernment and with the Tuileries. From these the emperor learned that attempts had been made by leaders of influence in the Southern States to come to an understanding with persons of similar position in Mexico with a view to a political union. These neern States and Mex-gotiations had taken a serious aspect shortly after Fremont was made the Republican candidate for the presidency in 1856, when it had become plain that the South must before long inevitably lose its control of the government of the Union. of a proposed union between ico. Contemplated advantages of that scheme. Among the advantages expected by the South from such a scheme were deliverance from the threatened domination of the Free States, and another period of political supremacy in a new Union, of which the members would be bound together by a community of interest, and be the dispensers of some of the most valuable products of the New World. Slavery had without difficulty been re-established in Texas; it was supposed that the same might be done in other provinces of Mexico. There was, moreover, the alluring prospect of a future brilliant empire, encircling the West India Seas, and eventually absorbing the West India Islands. To the Mexicans there would be the unspeakable advantage of a stable, a strong, a progressive government. Napoleon turns that scheme to his own The Mexican refugees in Paris saw in the success of this scheme an end of their influence in their native country. It was better for them to introduce a French protectorate. The emperor perceived with satisfaction that an opportunity had use. CHAP. LXI.] DIVISION OF THE UNION NECESSARY. 517 now arrived for carrying out his friendly intentions toward the house of Austria. Thereupon he determined to encourage the secession of the Southern States with the view of neutralizing the power of the Union, to overthrow, by a military expedition, the existing government of Juarez in Mexico, to establish, by French arms, an em pire, and offer its crown to the Austrian Archduke Maximilian. Gutierrez de Estrada says the Mexican affair is "exclusively confined to the Emperor Napoleon and the archduke (Maximilian), with the approbation of the emperor, his brother. This state of things is favorable to Austria, inasmuch as it puts Venetia or any other compensation out of the question." Count Keratry, in his history of these transactions, says "France granted belligerent rights to the Southern rebels, anxious as she was to inaugurate a military dictatorship, the future head of which, the celebrated Confederate general, had commenced negotiations with Mexico itself." Its first step is Southern secession Of this complicated intrigue, the first step was the secession of the Southern States from the Union. A large portion of the population of the South was loyal, but it was rightly judged that political unanimity could be secured by causing the action to turn on the slave question. The elec tion of a Republican president was all that was necessary, and that could be accomplished without difficulty. Without war or with war, the secession might be made good-better the latter than the former, for it would give and the creation of a great, a well-drilled, a veteran, an indisa Southern army. pensable army-indispensable for the completion of the plan. It would accustom the Southern people to habits of discipline and subordination, and, from the bitterness inevitably produced, it would effectu ally alienate them from their recollections of the old Union. Expected approval ers. The powers who had interests in the West India Seas were not disposed to look with disfavor on of European pow- the first portion of this plan. It was for them, as far as they could with propriety, to promote secession. To divide the republic was to rule it. They never regarded the action of the South in seceding as having a shadow of justification. In their eyes it was a purely political movement, which, if it failed, would probably entail ruin on the communities who had attempted it. They will accord to the South, Encouragement was accordingly given to the leaders of secession. It strengthened them greatly belligerent rights in their action. But the momentous hazard of separation once taken, and at Montgomery or Richmond a government apparently able to maintain itself established, it was not the interest of the powers of Western Europe to permit the carrying out its union with Mex- of the second portion of the plan. It suited them to have the Cotton States-" an Anglo-Saxon Brazil easily curbed," hemmed in by the fleets of Europe on the south and east, by a strong military government on the west, and on the north by the pow erful and embittered relict of the old republic. but will not permit ico. To separate the Union for the purpose of crippling it, but not to give such a preponderance to the South as to enable it to consummate its Mexican designs-such was the principle guiding the French government. That principle was satisfied by the recognition of belligerent rights, and by avoiding a recognition of independence. Herein we may see clearly the explanation of those seeming half measures for which that gov ernment was so severely criticised. Thus Keratry says: "Here, too, one can not help being pain Explanation of the half measures of the French, |