[1867 A.D.] A conference of eighteen representative Mexicans was summoned, and refused his offer to retire, by ten votes to eight. He yielded on condition that a congress of all parties should be summoned to decide the fate of the empire. Hereupon he returned to the capital; the Juarist dominion extended rapidly; the French troops left (in one body) on February 5th, 1867, ignoring and ignored by the imperial government, and shortly after Maximilian took command of the army at Queretaro. Here, with Miramon, he was besieged by the Juarists under Escobedo, and the garrison, when about to make a last attempt to break out and seek refuge in the fastnesses of the Sierra Gorda, was betrayed by Colonel Lopez to the besiegers (May 15th, 1867). Maximilian, with the Mexican generals Miramon and Mejia, was tried (fairly enough) by court-martial, and, refusing (or neglecting) to avail himself of various opportunities of escape, was convicted on charges which may be summarised as rebellion, murder, and brigandage, on June 14th, and executed with Miramon and Mejia on June 19th, 1867.h BANCROFT ON THE EMPIRE OF MAXIMILIAN The empire was undoubtedly a huge mistake. It can hardly be termed illegal, for all international law is based upon the right of might. The assembly which issued the plan and nomination may be challenged, but the country cannot repudiate the immense vote which lent confirmation, whatever the insincerity and reservation underlying that vote. The plea of compulsion affected only a part. It was but natural to suppose that a nation so long torn by revolutions and attendant maladministration would hail a stable government; and Napoleon and Maximilian hugged the belief only too eagerly, the latter influenced not a little by the glitter of an imperial crown. Unfortunately, their views were framed by European standards, and by the expressions of a comparatively small party in Mexico. The rest of the people they failed to understand or to fully consider. There was little to fear from the passive Indian, but everything from the middle race, the mestizos, that mixture of activity and indolence, of brightness and dreaminess, insincerity and selfishness, in whose ever-growing strength rests the future of the country. Although reckless and improvident by nature, the mestizo had tired for a while of war, and yielded with the substantial classes to the effort for a peaceful rule. But soon his jealousy was roused by the growth of foreign influence and the preference accorded to assuming officials from beyond the ocean. The gleam of foreign bayonets supporting the throne now flashed wider, and his restive independence of spirit took alarm, fostered by conservative discontent. The very strength of the invader became a source of weakness. The liberal policy of Maximilian was based on apparently good grounds, seeking as it did to conciliate factions which formed the worst foe to unity and progress, and making an effort to reach the people itself. If in a sense he turned traitor to the principles of the party to whom he stood bound, and consequently lost a certain support, he did so in search of advancement and in the hope of greater gains. He meant well. Noble ideas ever filled his mind with grand and humanitarian schemes, but he lacked strength and energy to carry them out. He might have done well in a settled country like Lombardy, where he gained so much approval, but Mexico needed a creative reformer, and this he was not.i [Taken with permission from the edition of 1882, copyrighted by H. H. Bancroft.] [1867-1875 A.D.] JUAREZ PRESIDENT Meanwhile Porfirio Diaz had captured Puebla (April 2nd) and besieged Mexico City, which fell June 21st. The republican government behaved with comparative leniency, though Juarez and Diaz were to some extent forced on by their followers, who rejected a general amnesty. The last antiJuarist stronghold submitted on July 20th, 1867. A good deal of discontent was caused among the republican rank and file, partly by the reduction of the army, and partly by a proposal to allow priests to vote, which came to nothing, and in the result Juarez's election in October to the presidency was opposed by Diaz, or rather Diaz's friends, but without success. But so soon as Juarez was elected, insurrections broke out in various states, and brigandage prevailed throughout the following year. There were unsuccessful insurrections also in 1869 (clerical) and 1870 (republican), but an amnesty, passed October 13th, 1870, helped to restore peace; trouble again arose, however, at the 1871 election, at which the candidates were Juarez, Lerdo de Tejada, and Diaz. Juarez's continued re-election was regarded as unconstitutional, and, no party obtaining a clear majority, the matter was thrown into congress, which elected him. Diaz's supporters refused to recognise him, and a revolution broke out which went on sporadically till Juarez's death on July 18th, 1872. Lerdo de Tejada, as president of the supreme court, succeeded him, and amnestied the rebels, but made no further concessions.h Juarez with his death bequeathed to his country the boon of peace. Opponents in arms laid them down and placed themselves under the constitutional flag. He had ever an unfaltering faith in his mission. Old traditions he ignored; petty wrangles and temporising policies he despised. Heeding only the dictates of duty, he opposed an iron will to the torrent of personal ambitions and party strife, to the wicked envoy of a triumphant reaction as well as of a foreign invasion. He saved the constitution of 1857 by taking into his hands the reins of government at the time that the allied clergy and army were endeavouring to destroy it. Without him the liberal party would have found itself without a leader, or even a cause to fight for. What would have been the fate of the republic, we might ask, if Juarez, the chief magistrate, without soldiers or resources, had faltered? Who would have taken up the struggle had he abandoned it? Indeed, in vain may we search history for a more wonderful example of human greatness and successa poor ignorant Indian boy, emerging from the wild mountains of Oajaca to link his name to some of the most radical reforms the American continent ever witnessed.i In the next year, however, laws were passed repeating in a stronger form the attacks of 1857 on the supremacy of the church, and prohibiting the monastic orders or monastic life. The first day of 1873 was marked by the opening of the Vera Cruz and Mexico railway. For the next two years there were only local disturbances, chiefly in Yucatan, and an Indian rising in Michoacan. Protestant missions established themselves (with some opposition) in the country, and diplomatic relations were renewed with France and Spain (1874). But towards the close of Lerdo de Tejada's term as president he was suspected of aiming at a dictatorship, and Diaz made preparations for a rising, then retiring to Brownsville. At the beginning of 1875 the revolution broke out in Oajaca, with the Plan of Tuxtepec, which was adopted by Diaz and proclaimed as the Plan of Palo Alto (March 22nd). Diaz's attempt to raise the north, however, failed, and, trying to reach Vera Cruz by sea, he was recognised on the steamer, recaptured while attempting a four-mile [1875-1896 A.D.] swim ashore, concealed by the purser for some days, generally inside one of the saloon sofas, and helped to get ashore in disguise at Vera Cruz. Lerdo was declared re-elected, but was overthrown and forced into exile (January, 1877), and Diaz, who had assumed the provisional presidency, was declared constitutional president on May 2nd, 1877. A law forbidding the re-election of a president till four years had elapsed from his retirement from office, the outcome of the republican opposition to Juarez and Lerdo, was passed in the autumn of that year (but so modified as to enable Diaz to be re-elected indefinitely in 1887 and 1892). Diaz's first presidency (1877-1880) was marked by some unsuccessful attempts at revolution, notably by Escobedo from Texas; by the resumption of diplomatic relations with Spain, Germany, Italy, and some South American states (1877), and France (1880); by some frontier difficulties with the United States, whose soldiery had occasionally followed brigands into Mexican territory, and with Guatemala, which revived a claim, dropped since 1858, to a portion of the state of Chiapas; and by considerable internal progress, aided by a too liberal policy of subsidies to railways. The boundary questions were settled under President Gonzales (1880-1884); relations with Great Britain were renewed in 1883. The claims of the railways, however, necessitated retrenchment on official salaries, and the president's plan for conversion of the debt roused unexpected opposition in an ordinarily subservient congress. It was attacked with great force and eloquence by the youngest member of the house, Señor Miron; Señor Guillermo Prieto, a noted poet and ex-minister, added the weight of his authority to the attack; the students demonstrated against the bill in the streets; and finally it was rejected, on the ground that the expenses of conversion were too heavy and the burden on Mexico too great. At the end of 1884 Porfirio Diaz was again elected president, and was continually re-elected, the constitution being twice modified expressly to allow him to continue in office (1887, 1892). The history of Mexico from 1884 to 1902 is almost void of political strife. President Diaz's policy was to keep down disorder with a strong hand; to enforce the law; to foster railway development and economic progress; to develop native manufactures by protective tariffs; to introduce new industries, e.g., the production of silk and wine, of coca and quinine; to promote forestry; to improve elementary and higher education-for all which purposes the Ministerio del Fomento is a potent engine; to encourage colonisation, and, above all, to place the national credit on a sound basis. The first step in this process was a settlement of the British debt by direct arrangement with the bondholders, who were induced to exchange their outstanding bonds (at a discount of about 85 per cent.) for 6 per cent. bonds secured on one-fifth of the import and export duties and the product of certain direct taxes (18871888). In 1890 the Spanish bondholders' claims were satisfactorily arranged also. In 1891 the tariff was made more protectionist. In 1893 the depreciation of silver, Mexico's currency and principal article of export, necessitated stringent retrenchment in the diplomatic service and reduction of official salaries; but the budget balanced for the first time during many years, the floating debt was converted, and a loan raised for the completion of the Tehuantepec railway. After 1896 there were substantial annual surpluses, which were spent in reducing taxation and in the extinction of debt. In 1895 the 6 per cent. external debt was converted into a 5 per cent. debt, the bonds of which were in 1902 at a premium; in 1896 the alcabalas or interstate customs and municipal octrois were abolished, and replaced in part by direct taxation and increased stamp duties. |