Page:Vol 6 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/486

 

independence was achieved by the revolution of Hidalgo, but it was not the ideal freedom pictured by the patriot leaders. Still present were of the chains riveted by centuries of oppression. One war over, another began, the fight being between the old order of things and the new; between champions of popular rights and sticklers for class privileges and tradition. But they played the game with dangerous weapons. Most of them were blind with ignorance, and inefficient from lack of experience, acting sometimes perhaps too rashly in discarding their leading-strings. Some, dazzled by military display, overlooked the dictates of duty and the blessings of peace, and betook themselves to war for personal aggrandizement. The division of a united country into semi-independent states loosened the bond which had hitherto united them, and fostered anarchy; so that the liberty of which they boasted was too often a debasing license.

Hence for a long time the tendency of political affairs was to foster a bitter party spirit, and still hold to caste distinctions, tribal differences, and the

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