Page:Vol 6 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/29

Rh had shown their preference for Ortega. It seemed as if fate had ordered that Juarez should have in his hands for some years longer the destinies of his country. Lerdo was taken ill at Tacubaya in March, and died on the 22d, the republic thus losing one of her most valuable men, who had zealously labored for political reforms.

The republic had also the misfortune to lose at the same time — on the 21st of March — Governor Gutierrez Zamora of Vera Cruz, who had been in the last five years a pillar of strength to the constitutional party.

Juarez was not well satisfied with Zarco, his minister of relations in Ogazon's absence. He was an excellent journalist, but he seemed to lack the qualifications of a statesman. He settled some international questions in a way that did not suit the public. He acknowledged national responsibility for the affair in the calle de Capuchinas, and tacitly recognized Jecker's claim to $15,000,000. He was unsuccessful in his efforts to arrange affairs in the interior, and differed with the president on some points. As for Prieto, the financial minister, he declared his inability to find means for relieving the pecuniary distress, and admitted that bankruptcy was impending.

The lack of pecuniary means was not the only trouble. There was, besides, a lack of morality and justice, a lack of austere republicanism in many of