Page:Mexico, Aztec, Spanish and Republican, Vol 1.djvu/351

Rh These military demonstrations denoted the unquestionable design and will of Paredes, who had acquired supreme power by a revolution founded upon the solemn pledge of hostility against the United States and reconquest of Texas. His military life in Mexico made him a despot. He had no confidence in the ability of his fellow-citizens to govern themselves. He believed republicanism an Utopian dream of his visionary countrymen. Free discussion through the press was prohibited, during his short rule, and his satellites advocated the establishment of a throne to be occupied by an European prince. These circumstances induced our government to believe, that any counter-revolution in Mexico, which might destroy the ambitious and unpatriotic projects of Paredes, would promote the cause of peace, and accordingly, it saw with pleasure, the prospect of a new outbreak which might result in the downfall, and total destruction of the greatest enemy we possessed on the soil of our sister republic.