Page:Margaret Shipman - Mexico's Struggle Towards Democracy (1927).pdf/16

 of Mexico, was a full-blooded Zapotec Indian, who had risen from poverty to positions as judge, state governor and public administrator. Under his leadership, the radical and racial character of the revolution deepened.

Despite the utmost efforts of the clerical party to create the issue of a "holy war," the soldiers of both sides continued throughout the whole struggle to fight with religious zeal in the name of the holy Catholic church. In 1859, the Reform Laws of Juarez confiscated the remainder of the church property, real and personal, and completed the separation of church and state. The sale of church lands brought funds to the liberals and "greatly contributed towards ending civil war."

President James Buchanan, in 1859, recognized the government of Juarez and recommended to Congress military intervention in Mexico, with or without the co-operation of the revolutionists, for the purpose of redressing United States citizens for damage to property rights, and protection of immediate and future commercial interests. The problem of transit across the Isthmus between the two oceans had been under consideration for many years, and its importance to the United States had been greatly increased by the acquisition of Mexican territory and the discovery of gold in California in 1848. Since 1850 negotiations had been going on with England concerning joint control of a proposed canal across Nicuaragua. Under Buchanan a treaty was negotiated with Juarez for a loan of four million dollars from the United States in return for the privilege of perpetual unlimited tran-