1877.] ^ 60J [Kane. 



ably a good deal in Don Agustin before his head was turned. He had 

 some excellent and faithful men, too ; and under him, or some of these, his 

 nation, I think, might have hammered its music out. In my judgment, the 

 Mexicans have always acted foolishly in imitating ourselves and the French. 

 Their establishment of a Federal Government, October 4, 1824, with a 

 constitution affecting to be more or less a copy of our own inconsistent bi- 

 nate one, was a mistake. But in the end, under it, or something like it, they 

 could possibly have made things work. But they have never had a fair 

 chance. Tlieir country was too rich to be let alone. 



Before they could set their first government in running order, foreign 

 invasion, and threats of foreign invasion, compelled them to pay exclusive 

 attention to their foreign instead of their domestic affairs. It threw into 

 the background men of learning and men of moral worth, and brought 

 forward the more brutal sort — the hombres de armas — men of the horse 

 and of the sword — the curses of Mexico. These men were required to de- 

 fend the people from those who should have given them common interests, 

 but only gave them a common enemy. 



Indulge me, if you please, in a little more chronology. 



The gravest of Mexican errors, the expulsion of the Gachupinas, was 

 brought on directly by the threat of Spanish invasion. 



Not a year after the last Spanish troops embarked from Vera Cruz, No- 

 vember 18, 1825, the Padre Arenas conspiracy was under weigh. 



Barradas' expedition actually landed in 1829. 



Our colonization of Texas, under Stephen Austin, had begun early in 

 1828. Edwards' effort at revolution came off there, if I remember, the 

 year before. 



In 1832 our Texaus united with Santa Anna in pronouncing against the 

 government of Bustamante, and defeated the Mexican troops with loss. In 

 1833 they separated from Coahuila. 



In 1835 and 1836 they— I had better say ice — fought the Mexicans in 

 Texas. We — our Government — formally acknowledged Texan iudepeud- 

 ence in 1837. 



1840 is the date of Ben McCulloch's Texan Ranger fight. 



1841, 1842, 1843 are the dates of our expeditions against Santa Fe and 

 Mier. 



In 1844 President Tyler concluded his Treaty of Annexation with the 

 Texan Commissioners. We admitted Texas into the Union December 27, 

 1845 ; fought our battles south of the Rio Grande in 1846-1847 ; patched 

 up our so-called peace in 1848. 



We were hardly done with the Mexicans then before the French were 

 at them a second time with their Redamacion de los Pasteles — "their Pie 

 Claims," as the Mexicans call them. I omitted to mention that in 1837, at 

 the time when we acknowledged the independence of Texas, France was 

 bullying Mexico about these Pasteles — claiming damages for pastry-cook's 

 trays and the like, to the tune of $600,000. In 1838 she had shown us, 

 with a fleet of eleven vessels, how easy it was to humble Mexican national 



