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CHAP. LXI.]

REMOVAL OF THE FRENCH.

527

of these political principles in its action in 1867 respecting its American possessions, which it disposed of to the United States.

Correspondence of

subject.

Admitting, however, the correctness of the policy of removing the French from Mexico, the firm Mr. Seward on the but dignified course taken by Mr. Seward in his correspondence entitles him to the highest praise. In him there was no intrigue, no deception, nothing which his countrymen can condemn, nothing at which they need blush. Even by the French themselves it was said, "The United States tracked French policy step by step; never had the French government been subject to such a tyrannical dictation. The American correspondence is full of a logic never inconsistent with its purposes." With a courteous audacity, the Secretary of State did not withhold his doubts as to the sincerity and fidelity of the emperor; with inexorable persistence he demanded categorically that the French occupation should come to an end. A date once set, he held the French government to its word. "Tell M. Mous tier," he says, in a dispatch to the American minister in Paris, "that our government is astonished and distressed at the announcement, now made for the first time, that the promised withdrawal of French troops from Mexico, which ought to have taken place in November (this month), has been put off by the emperor." "You will inform the emperor's government that the ernment insists on President desires and sincerely hopes that French army, the evacuation of Mexico will be accomplished in conformity with the existing arrangement, so far as the inopportune complication necessitating this dis patch will permit. On this point Mr. Campbell will receive instructions. Instructions will also be sent to the military forces of the United States, which are placed in a post of observation, and are waiting the special orders

The American gov

the departure of the

528

FAILURE OF THE MEXICAN EMPIRE.

[SECT. XIII. of the President; and this will be done with the confidence that the telegraph or the courier will bring us intelligence of a satisfactory resolution on the part of the emperor in reply to this note. You will assure the French government that the United States, in wishing to free Mexico, have nothing so much at heart as preserving peace and friendship with France."

and on the removal

The French themselves recognized that the position of the two nations had become inverted. of Maximilian. "The United States now gives orders. Formerly France had spoken boldly, saying, through M. Drouyn de Lhuys to Mr. Dayton, the American representative at Paris, 'Do you bring us peace or war?' Now Maximilian is falling in obedience to orders from Washington. He is falling a victim to the weakness of our government in allowing its conduct to be dictated by American arrogance. Indeed, before rushing into such perilous contingencies, might not the attitude of the United States have been easily foreseen? Our statesmen needed no rare perspicuity to have discovered the dark shadow of the Northern Republic looming up on the horizon over the Rio Bravo frontier, and only biding its time to make its appearance on the scene.' "Only one thing was now thought of in Paris, and that was to leave as soon as possible this dition ends in a to- land of destroyed illusions and bitter sacrifices. In this great shipwreck every thing was swallowed up-the regeneration of the Latin race as well as the hopes of the monarchy, the interests of our countrymen (which had been the pretext for the war) as well as the two French loans which had but served to bring it to this disastrous conclusion. The only thing which swam safe upon the surface was the claim of Jecker, the Swiss, who had obtained his twelve millions."

The Mexican expe

tal failure.

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CHAP. LXI.]

ed from it by the Southern secessionists;

FAILURE OF THE MEXICAN EMPIRE.

529

Was there ever such a catalogue of disappointed exThe results obtain-pectations as is presented by this Mexican tragedy? The Southern secession leaders engaged in it dreaming of a tropical empire which they never realized; they hoped it would bring a recognition of their independence, and they were betrayed. The English were beguiled into it as a means of by the English checking the growth of a commercial rival, government; and of protecting their West Indian possessions. They were duped into the belief that there was no purpose of interfering with the government of Mexi co. They consented to the perilous measure of admitting the belligerent rights of the South. They lent what aid they could to the partition of a nation with which they were at peace. They found that the secret intention was the establishment of an empire in the interest of France, the conciliation of Austria for military reverses in Italy, and the curbing of the Anglo-Saxon by the Latin race. England expected to destroy a democracy, and has gathered her reward by becoming more democratical herself. The Pope gave his countenance to the plot, having reby the Papal gov- ceived a promise of the elevation of the Mexican Church to her pristine splendor, and the restoration of her mortmain estates; but the Archbishop La Bastida, who was one of the three regents rep resenting her great influence, was insulted and removed from his political office by the French. In impotent retaliation, he discharged at his assailants the rusty ecclesiastical blunderbuss of past days-he excommunicated the French army. The Spaniards did not regain their former colony; the brow of the Count de Reuss was never adorned with a vice-regal coronet. The noble and devoted wife of Maximilian was made a wanderer in the sight of all Europe, by the Austrians; her diadem removed, her reason dethroned.

ernment;

by the Spaniards;

II.-L L

530

by France;

FAILURE OF THE MEXICAN EMPIRE.

[SECT. XIII.

For Maximilian himself there was not reserved the pageantry of an imperial court in the Indian palaces of Montezuma, but the death-volley of a grim file of Mexican soldiers, under the frowning shadow of the heights of Queretaro. For the Emperor of Austria there was not the homage of a transatlantic crown; Mexico sent him across the ocean a coffin and a corpse. For France, ever great and just, in whose name so many crimes were perpetrated, but who is responsible for none of them, there was a loss of that which in her eyes is of infinitely more value than the six hundred millions of francs which were cast into this Mexican abyss. For the and by the Emperor Emperor-can any thing be more terrible than the dispatch which was sent to America at the closing of the great Exposition?"There remain now no sovereigns in Paris except the Emperor Napoleon III. and the spectre of Maximilian at his elbow."

Napoleon.

CHAPTER LXII.

STATE OF EUROPEAN OPINION ON AMERICAN AFFAIRS (Continued).

THE TRENT QUESTION.

The Mexican expedition led to the propagation in Europe of views unfavorable to the American republic.

Some Confederate officials were forcibly taken by an American Captain from the Trent, an English mail steam-ship. The British government demanded their restoration and a suitable apology. The American government acceded to that demand.

Attack of Euro

the Union.

THE engagements which had been mutually contracted by the French Emperor and the ministry of pean journals on Lord Palmerston in relation to American af fairs were essentially based on the disruption of the United States. The journalism of both England and France, suitably inspired, spared no labor to accomplish that result. Thus we read:

Ferocity and folly of the American war.

"The ferocity with which this war has been entered on shows that the government of Washing ton will soon lose all control over events. It is a mere quarrel for territory, a struggle for aggrandizement. With the deepest sorrow we see this people precipitating itself into civil war like the halfbreeds of Mexico. Lord John Russell and his advisers have come to the conclusion that the Southern Confederacy must be treated as a belligerent; it has acquired a certain degree of force and consistency. The South has not understood the war. It calculated on a war with men holding its own opinions about slavery. Even Mr. Lincoln declared that he would not meddle with that mat ter. On the part of the North it is a war to keep South

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