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Rh Saligny, on the contrary, resorted to no subterfuges. He said plainly that the object of the intervention was not to find out the opinion of the Mexicans on the form of government, but to fix in the family — that is to say, among the conservatives — the basis of the establishment that Mexico anxiously expected from the friendly interposition of the third Napoleon. The official newspapers received orders to prepare public opinion for this much-desired monarchy, and Almonte, on his return from Vienna, sailed for Vera Cruz, where he arrived early in March 1862. We have already seen what he did.

While the aforesaid proceedings were going on in Europe, which culminated in Mexico as I have detailed, the government of the United States, being occupied with its internal war, was simply a looker-on, pursuing a prudent course. Secretary Seward, on the 15th of December, 1862, wrote Matías Romero, Mexican representative at Washington, that as war existed between France and Mexico, the United States must "act in regard to it only on the principles which have always governed their conduct in similar cases." Upon Juarez abandonment of the capital, the minister of the United States, Corwin, declined his invitation to follow him to San Luis Potosí. This course was approved by Seward. On the 26th of September, 1863, the French being in possession of the capital, and a crown having been tendered to Maximilian, Seward wrote the ministers of the United States at Vienna and Paris, and on the 23d of October to the minister at the British court, that the American government would pursue a policy of strict neutrality. From the words and spirit of the