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THE MONROE DOCTRINE 397 



appointments, gave to the opening of his reign promises of 

 a most flattering nature. Many influential men among the 

 Liberals, wearied at last with perpetual war, came to his side, 

 believing that possibly, after all, Napoleon had better solved 

 their political problems than they themselves had been able 

 to do. Maximilian in fact became even popular. 



However, all the emperor at first gained in the good-will 

 -of his subjects, was soon lost by a woful lack of judgment in 

 the management of his imperial office. He fell readily into 

 the hands of the Clerical party, and under the influence of 

 their fawning adulation he entered upon a stupidly blind 

 policy of antagonizing the Liberals at every turn, those 

 whom he had at first conciliated, and upon whose friendship 

 he most depended. He finally sealed his own doom by the 

 astonishingly foolish error of recalling from exile the notori- 

 ous generals, Miramon and Marquez, the former leaders of the 

 Conservatives, and whose inhuman and barbarous cruelties 

 on the field of battle had disgusted even their own soldiers. 

 No more flagrant offence could have been offered than the 

 restoration to military power of these two detestable and 

 bloodthirsty men. 



An emphatic warning from the United States in April, 

 1866, caused Napoleon to withdraw the French forces from 

 North America, thereby depriving Maximilian of his only 

 real support. Abandoned to his fate by those who had 

 placed him upon the throne, he carried on a despairing fight 

 against the swelling forces of Juarez, and he finally paid the 

 .supreme price of his life for the glories of a four years' reign 

 in Mexico, a reign that was conceived and conducted in error. 



He was executed June 19, 1867. 



Bearing in mind the readiness with which the various 

 administrations at Washington had invoked the Monroe 

 Doctrine whenever adjacent territory, had been threatened 

 with invasion from abroad, one would naturally expect to 

 find a prompt and decided warning from the United States, 

 when the three allies signed the London Convention, and es- 

 pecially when they appeared a few months later with a demon- 

 stration of force at Vera Cruz. Such, however, was not the case. 



