16 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY, 



lie scattered over the plains at West Point, bearing the inscriptions 

 " Vera Cruz," " Contreras," " Chapultepec," " Molino del Rey," and 

 "City of Mexico," and some of which have older insignia, showing 

 that they were originally captured by Mexican patriots from Spain in 

 their struggles for liberty; together with every captured banner or other 

 trophy preserved in our national museums and collections, be gathered 

 up and respectfully returned to the Mexican people. For, to longer 

 retain them and pride ourselves on their possession, is as unworthy 

 and contemptible as it would be for a strong man to go into the 

 street and whip the first small but plucky and pugnacious boy he en- 

 counters, and then, hanging up the valued treasures he has deprived 

 him of in the hall of his residence, say complaisantly, as he views 

 them, "See what a great and valiant man I am, and how I desire 

 that my children should imitate my example ! " If it is peace and 

 amity and political influence, and extended trade and markets, and a 

 maintenance of the Monroe doctrine on the American Continent that 

 we are after, such an act would do more to win the hearts and dispel 

 the fears and suspicions of the people of Mexico, and of all the states 

 of Central and South America, than reams of diplomatic correspond- 

 ence, and endless traveling trade commissioners and formal interna- 

 tional resolutions. Society is said to be bound by laws that always 

 bring vengeance upon it for wrong-doing "the vengeance of the 

 gods, whose mills grind slow, but grind exceeding small." What 

 penalty is to be exacted of the great North American Republic for its 

 harsh treatment and spoliation of poor, down-trodden, ignorant, super- 

 stitious, debt-ridden Mexico, time alone can reveal. Perhaps, as this 

 great wrong was committed at the promptings or demand of the then 

 dominant slave-power, the penalty has been already exacted and in- 

 cluded in the general and bloody atonement which the country has 

 made on account of slavery. Perhaps, under the impelling force of 

 the so-called "manifest destiny," a. further penalty is to come, in the 

 form of an equal and integral incorporation of Mexico and her for- 

 eign people into the Federal Union. But, if this is to be so, the intel- 

 ligent and patriotic citizens of both countries may and should ear- 

 nestly pray that God, in his great mercy, may yet spare them. 



In 1861, Louis Napoleon, taking advantage of the war of the re- 

 bellion in the United States, and regarding (in common with most of 

 the statesmen of Europe) the disruption of the Great Republic as pro- 

 spectively certain, made the suspension by Mexico of payment upon 

 all her public obligations, a great part of which were held in Europe, 

 a pretext for the formation of a tripartite alliance of France, England, 

 and Spain, for interfering in the government of the country ; and in 

 December, 1861, under the auspices of such alliance, an Anglo-French- 

 Spanish military force landed and took possession of Vera Cruz. 

 From this alliance the English and Spanish forces early withdrew ; 

 but the French remained, and soon made no secret of their intent 



