Page:Vol 6 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/649

Rh best known, and lately the North Americans, as citizens of the United States are called.

While tacitly recognizing the danger of foreigners monopolizing industries and usurping territory, yet the benefit of their presence to the people in other respects is admitted by the most intelligent Mexicans in their teachings and example; by developing agriculture, mining, trade, and industries generally; by checking civil wars and increasing general security; by promoting better political and judicial administration; and by invigorating the race, particularly the Indian, both physically and mentally, with an infusion of fresh blood. The preference is naturally for European immigration, with which to counteract the ever-threatening encroachments of the United States; but what avail mere wishes and projects against the force of circumstances, as foreshadowed by the railroads now extending from the north into the very heart of the country? Indeed, many men of deep patriotism seek in the United States the only regeneration for Mexico. The failure of European colonies indicate that the sudden transition to strange soil and climate is a serious obstacle, and one that disappears before the advance from the north, acclimatized as it were in the approximate environments of the border regions.