Page:Mexico as it was and as it is.djvu/416

Rh unqualified respect of the world, and especially of that portion of it which, par excellence, pretends to be the fostering parent of human rights and liberty throughout the globe. It proves that she possesses a sense of right, a virtue of endurance, a devotion to principle;—and that, with domestic peace, she would assume among the nations of the earth the high place to which she is entitled, by the genius of her children and the magnificence of her Empire.

Let me now invoke your attention to a brief historical outline of the Mexican Revolution, and its consequences.

It was not until the mother country, herself, became temporarily subjected to a foreign Power, that the war of Independence was successfully commenced in her possessions on this Continent. That war had its origin as much in a desire of independence of France, as of Spain; but it was too late to quell entirely the growing love of liberty, after the restoration of Ferdinand VII. in 1814.

When Spain, in the following year, made her chief effort against her rebellious colonies, by the noted expedition from Cadiz under Morillo, those colonies might still have been within her control if proper means had been resorted to by the directors of her councils. And it is the opinion of distinguished statesmen, that had she succeeded in " reducing the coast of Terra Firma and New Grenada, the provinces of La Plata, divided among themselves, and weakened by the Portuguese occupation of Monte Video, would, in all probability, not have held out against her power."

But there were a thousand things to exasperate the war of Independence. It was not only a war of freedom, but of caste; and it is almost impossible to credit the atrocities with which it was prosecuted against the insurgents.

After the first successes of the Mexicans, there was a period of reaction when the Spaniards again obtained a temporary mastery under C, and the annals of the time teem with accounts of the sanguinary vengeance wreaked by that inhuman monster on the victims who fell within his grasp. After he obtained possession of the revolted city of Guanajuato, he caused the inhabitants to be driven into the great Square of the town, and near fourteen thousand men, women and children were butchered like cattle, on the spot. Proclaiming that "powder and ball were too costly to be wasted in their execution," he let loose his soldiery on the defenceless crowd, with an order "to cut their throats,"—and it is related, that the fountains and gutters of the city, literally ran with human blood!

These were things to be remembered and to exasperate. There was no longer any hope for the people. There was no disposition to temporise or conciliate. It was submission or death. And the "una salus victis nullam sperare salutem," nerved their arms and forced them into ardent and continued resistance.

They conquered. I will not go over the whole detail of the Revolution. On the 24th of February, 1821, the Plan of Iguala was declared. Shortly