Page:Vol 6 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/179

Rh Such measures could not fail to imbitter the party which regarded itself as having exalted Maximilian to the throne. They declared them contrary to the bases on which the empire had been erected, the maintenance of the church being the chief reason for war against the Juarists. To approve their fundamental acts was to proclaim the justice of their cause, and withdraw the main principles for which the national armies of the empire were fighting. It was not duly considered that the empire had been created really by Napoleon, whose views and material interests demanded these enactments. The tolerance decree was denounced as exceeding the most iniquitous reforms of republicans. It would sever the only strong bond between the races of the country, and give an intensity to caste differences that might lead to a war of extermination. While in accord with the general march of progress, the law was deemed needless for a nation so wholly catholic, and this fact in itself demanded that its aim to promote immigration should be restricted to co-religionists. The conservatives chose not to see how irresistible was the advance of liberal ideas, and that their resistance could serve to delay only for a brief term the inevitable.

The clergy were stirred to actual hostility, menacing