Page:Juarez and Cesar Cantú (1885).djvu/21

 What is strange, what is incomprehensible, is that the man who unceasingly struggled against three European powers, always defending the integrity and the autonomy of his country, is precisely the man who is accused of having entered into unworthy treaties, whether with a foreign government, or whether with private colonization companies, to sell to them the honor and the territory of Mexico. There are accusations so absurd, that, frankly, they do not deserve the honors of refutation.

In order to judge, as justice demands, of the public life of Juarez, it must be borne in mind that, sanguinary and fierce as was the struggle sustained by Mexico against the French army, and against the Church partisans who joined the foreign invaders, thanks to the energy of Juarez, worthily supported by the liberal party, that war terminated without the loss of one single inch of our territory, without recognizing on our part, any indemnity or debt to the enemy in the event of signing with him a treaty of peace.

As a contrast, we can cite what occurred after the colossal war between France and Germany. France lost Alsace and Lorraine, and was obliged to pay to Germany an indemnity of five thousand millions of francs. Italy, in her war with Austria, had to cede Nice and Savoy to France.

And this has happened not alone in Europe. We have seen in America what Peru has lost in her war with Chili.

Mexico alone, without signing a treaty, without granting away any right, without even listening to the terms of the invader, saw the war ended without