Page:Notes of the Mexican war 1846-47-48.djvu/642

636 as it then existed, was introduced so far as the conflicting interests of contending chieftains would admit; but the instability of government forbade advancement. The history of Mexico is a continued recital of feudal warfare and bloodshed. Cortez held sway only by the influence of the sword, and from his time it was the only credential to power. Revolution succeeded revolution, and anarchy held sway; there was constant discord, revolt and internecine war, and the land was drenched with human blood. Every section had its ruined castle and the legend of its slaughtered chieftain.

Art, science and agriculture were at a standstill, and had been for generations. The architecture of the feudal ages was still in vogue, and every house was a citadel, with massive walls and battlements, with ponderous doors, with bars and bolts, not to protect from foreign, but domestic foes. The same jog-wheels were used for their carts, a pointed stick for a plow, the volante their pleasure vehicle.

The husbandman had no courage to plant, for he knew not what day his harvest would be trampled by contending armies. Art had no inspiration, for the people were watching the movements of opposing factions. Mind had no field of labor, for it was fettered by the chains of bigotry. Science and education lay dormant; there was no incentive to advance. Thus all the energies of the people lay stagnant, and, as a natural consequence, vice and immorality held high carnival.

The government held nominal sway over avast domain, but a small portion of which had been wrested from the hand of the savage, and fully half her possessions were overrun by bands of wild and barbarous Indians; while slavery, as absolute and debasing as the slavery of the African, existed in her system of peonage.

God had a work here, too, to be accomplished. This great nation, so susceptible of advancement; this vast domain, so rich in agricultural and mineral wealth, so needed by the producing classes; a coast abounding in such capacious and commodious harbors, so needed by the commerce of the