522 



MEXICO. 



danger and overthrow our nationality, and I, who by 

 my principles and my oaths am the one called to sus- 

 tain the national integrity, its sovereignty, and its 

 independence, have to labor actively, multiplying 

 my efforts to respond to the sacred trusts which the 

 nation, in the exercise of its sovereign faculties, has 

 imposed upon me. Nevertheless, I propose, however 

 briefly, to reply to the most important points con- 

 tained in your letter. 



You tell me that, "abandoning the succession of a 

 throne in Europe, abandoning your family, your 

 friends, your property, and the dearest thing to a 

 man your country you and your wife, Donna Car- 

 lota, have come to distant and unknown lands only 

 in obedience to the spontaneous call of a nation 

 which fixes in you the happiness of its future." I 

 certainly admire in one sense all your generosity ; 

 but, on the other, my surprise has been truly great in 

 finding in your letter the phrase " spontaneous call ;" 

 for I had seen before that when the traitors of my 

 country presented themselves, on their own author- 

 ity, at iliramar, to offer you the crown of Mexico, 

 with a few acts of nine or ten towns of the nation, 

 you did not perceive in it any thing but a ridiculous 

 farce, unworthy to be seriously considered by an 

 honest and decent man. In reply to such an absurd- 

 ity, you demanded a free expression of the national 

 will, as the result of universal suffrage. This was to 

 demand an impossibility ; but it was the proper duty 

 of an honorable man to do so. How great, then, must 

 be my wonder to see you coming to the Mexican ter- 

 rity, without any of the conditions demanded having 

 been fulfilled ! How must I not wonder at seeing you 

 now accepting the same farce of the traitors, adopt- 

 ing their language, decorating and taking into your 

 service bandits like Marquez and Herran, and sur- 

 rounding your person with this dangerous class of 

 Mexican society ! Frankly speaking, I have been 

 greatly deceived ; for I believed and hoped that you 

 ivere one of those pure organizations which ambition 

 could not succeed in corrupting. 



Tou cordially invite me to go to Mexico, a city 

 whither you yourself are about to proceed, to the end 

 that we may there have a conference, in conjunction 

 with other Mexican chiefs who are now in arms, 

 promising us all the forces necessary for our escort 

 in the transit, and pledging as security and guarantee 

 vour public faith, your word, and your honor. It is 

 impossible for me, sir, to accede to this call ; my 

 ofhcial occupations will not admit of it. But if, in 

 the exercise of my public functions, I could accept 

 such an invitation, the public faith, the word and 

 honor of an agent of Napoleon the perjured would 

 not be sufficient ; of a man whose safety reposes in 

 the hands of Mexican traitors ; and of the man who 

 at this moment represents the cause of one of the 

 parties who signed the treaty of Soledad. We know 

 too well in America the worth of that public faith, 

 that word and honor, just as the French people 

 know how much the oaths and promises of a Napo- 

 leon are worth. 



You say also that from the conference which we 

 might have (in case of my acceptance) you do not 

 doubt that peace will result, and with it the felicity of 

 the Mexican nation, and that in the future the empire, 

 placing me in a post of distinguished honor, would 

 count upon my talents and the aid of my patriotism 

 for the general good. It is certain, sir, that the his- 

 tory of our own times records the names of great 

 traitors, who have betrayed their oaths, their word, 

 and their promises ; who have been false to their own 

 party and principles, and even to their antecedents, 

 nnd all that is most sacred to the man of honor ; true, 

 also, that in all these cases of treason, the traitor has 

 been guided by the vile ambition of command and the 

 miserable desire of satisfying his own passions, and 

 even his own vices ; but he who is at present charged 

 with the trust of President of the republic, emerging 

 as he has from the obscure masses of the people, will 

 succumb, if in the wisdom of Providence he must 



succumb, fulfilling his own to the last, corresponding 

 to the hope of the nation over which he presides, ana 

 satisfying the inspirations of his own conscience. 



The want of time compels me to conclude, and 1 

 will add but one observation. It is given to man 

 sometimes to attack the rights of others, to seize 

 their property, to threaten the lives of those who 

 dare defend their nationality, to make the highest 

 virtues appear like crimes, and their own vices to 

 shine with the lustre of true virtue. But there is one 

 thing that is beyond the reach of the false and per- 

 verse, and that is, the tremendous sentence of his- 

 tory. It will judge us. 



I am &c., &c., BENITO JUAKEZ. 



In contrast with the dignified and compara- 

 tively temperate tone of this document, was 

 the reply of Porfirio Diaz, commanding the 

 national Army of the South in Oajaca, of which 

 the following is an extract : 



When the French Convention in 1793 condemned 

 Louis the XVI. to be beheaded, they desired by such 

 a measure to concentrate and unite their own forces 

 and power, and to throw down a defiance of death to 

 the cause of the past, and proving to Europe that 

 they had full confidence in their means of defence. 

 * '# * * j n t ne ac tual circumstances in which 

 the Mexican republic is placed, measures of equal 

 sternness and decision are imperiously necessary in 

 the attitude which ought to be assumed by those who 

 govern. And for these reasons, without any one 

 pretending to see in them an act of barbarism or a 

 cruel and inhuman deed, but simply a determination 

 in consonance with the political exigencies of the 



moment, this general command disposes that , 



an emissary of the pretended Emperor of the Mexi- 

 cans, be put to death within the space of twenty-four 

 hours. 



Communicate this order for its prompt execu- 

 tion, Ac. POKFIRIO DIAZ, General-in-Chief. 



HEADQUARTERS, STATE OF OAJACA, June 27, 1864. 



It is but proper to say that the sanguinary 

 order was not carried into effect upon the emis- 

 sary of the emperor, although he was subjected 

 to a temporary imprisonment. 



With the exception of a number of new di- 

 plomatic appointments, Maximilian availed him- 

 self at first of the services of those officials al- 

 ready in charge of administrative functions. 

 No minister was appointed to the United States, 

 and during the greater part of the year that 

 government was represented at the Mexican 

 capital by "W. H. Corwin, Secretary of Lega- 

 tion and acting Charge in the absence of Hon. 

 Thomas Corwin, who returned home in the 

 latter part of April. Owing to a want of accu- 

 rate information on economical subjects, and 

 also to an inability to deal with practical ques- 

 tions which seems inherent in the Mexican 

 character, little progress was made by the com- 

 mittee on finances. Much time was expended 

 on discussions extraneous to the subject under 

 consideration ; personal claims were introduced, 

 and in the examination of general principles, to 

 the exclusion of the immediate, vital questions 

 before the committee, session after session was 

 frittered away. The difficulty of instituting a 

 sound system of finance, in a country where no 

 regular system of taxation or revenue had been 

 in existence for upward of ten years, and where 

 all branches of agriculture, industry, and trade 

 were nearly paralyzed, migKt it is true, have 



