Page:Vol 6 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/342

322 The effect of the execution in the republic varied greatly in various quarters. The boisterous manifestations attending the capture had reduced the pressure on public feeling, and now a certain sympathy and respect tended to render more subdued the upholding of Juarez' conduct. Nevertheless, we find strong demonstrations in the ultra-liberal provinces, where the memory of cherished leaders fallen in battle received too pronounced a revival. Among the conservatives, on the other hand, protestations of grief were freely made, especially by the women at Querétaro and in the capital, masses being held and emblems distributed. Conservative journals were naturally restrained by fear. In Europe, as may be imagined, monarchist devotion joined with partisan spirit, race feeling, and pretensions to humanity, to condemn the deed, some denouncing it as an assassination, others qualifying it as a useless and deplorable excess. In the United States opinion ranged between the latter view and one of reluctant approval, as a sad necessity.

The empire was undoubtedly a huge mistake. It can hardly be termed illegal, for all international law