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Rh joint expedition to Mexico. When he got firmly established there, he threw off the mask and proposed to stay. He put a satellite potentate of Austrian persuasion on the new throne. His partners in the enterprise, being honest in their purposes, withdrew. But there he remained. The army of Northern Virginia and Jubal Early's cavalry rendered impossible the defence of the Monroe Doctrine by Washington.

In their dire extremity the Confederates promised Mexico to Napoleon if they were successful. This, together with the natural desire of a would-be absolute monarch to destroy the power of the foremost democracy in the world, readily persuaded him to champion the Southern cause in Europe. Together with the rest of the world he had issued his declaration of neutrality in the beginning of the struggle.

One of two things was necessary before he dared to commit himself to open war with the United States. One was the assistance of