Produced by Dianne Bean
MAXIMILIAN IN MEXICO
A WOMAN'S REMINISCENCES OF THE FRENCH INTERVENTION 1862-1867
SARA YORKE STEVENSON, Sc. D.
NEW YORK
copyright 1897, 1898, 1899
THE CENTURY CO.
TO THE MEMORY OF
SENOR DON MATIAS ROMERO
MINISTER OF MEXICO TO WASHINGTON
1882-1898.
One of the latest survivors of the drama, some episodes of which are
herein related.
His approval of five articles on the French Intervention and the reign
of Maximilian, which appeared in the "Century Magazine" in 1897, and his
earnest request that they "be published in a more permanent form, led to
the presentation of this volume to the public.
With deepest appreciation of the important part played by this Mexican
patriot in checking the aggressive policy of Europe upon this continent,
the author here inscribes his name.
CONTENTS
Part I. The Triple Alliance, 1861-62
I. El Dorado . . . . . . . . . 1
II. The New "Napoleonic Idea" . . . . 7
III. M. De Saligny And M. Jecker . . . 17
IV. The Allies In Mexico . . . . . . 24
V. Rupture Between The Allies . . . . 36
Part II. The French: Intervention, 1862-64
I. The Author Leaves Paris For Mexico . . 47
II. Puebla And Mexico--General De Lorencez--General Zaragoza . 66
III. The Siege of Puebla--General Forey--General Ortega . .82
IV. The French In The City Of Mexico--The Regency . . . 93
Part III. The Empire Of Maximilian I, 1864-65
I. Marshal Bazaine . . . . . . . 117
II. A Bed Of Roses In A Gold-Mine . . . .125
III. Thorns . . . . . . . . . 136
Part IV. The Awakening
I. "A Cloud No Bigger Than A Man's Hand" . . . 161
II. La Debacle . . . . . . . 188
III. Comedy And Tragedy . . . . 207
IV. General Castelnau . . . . . 232
V. The End Of The French Intervention . . . 256
Part V. The End
I. Queretaro, 1867 . . . . . . 269
Appendices
A. The Bando Negro (Black Decree) Proclamation Of Emperor Maximilian,
October 3, 1865. . . .309
B. Treaty Of Miramar, Signed On April 10, 1864 . . 315
List Of Illustrations
Frontsview Page
Napoleon III, Eugenie, And Duc De Morny . . 9
Maximilian Gold Coin . . . . . . 19
Agustin De Iturbide . . . . . . . 29
Miguel Miramon . . . . . . 39
President Benito Pablo Juarez . . . . . 49
General Prim . . . . . . . . 59
Porfirio Diaz . . . . . . . . . 69
Matias Romero . . . . . . . . 79
From "Mexico and The United States," by permission of G.P.Putnam's Sons.
Chapultepec, Maximilian's Palace . . . . 89
Empress Charlotte . . . . . . . 99
Colonel Van Der Smissen . . . . . . 109
Marechal Bazaine And Madame La Marechale . 119
Matthew Fontaine Maury . . . . 129
After a Photograph By D. H. Anderson.
Comte De Thun De Hohenstein . . . . . 143
Photographed By Merille.
Count Von Funfkirkchen . . . . . . . 153
From Photograph By Montes De Oca.
Ex-Confederate Generals In Mexico . . . 171
Dr. William M. Gwin . . . . . . . 183
From A Steel-Engraving By A. B. Walter For "The Democratic Review."
General Mejia . . . . 195
Marquis De Gallifet . . . . . . . 211
After Photograph By Nadar.
Colonel Tourre, Third Zouaves . . . . 227
After Photograph By Montes De Oca.
Comte De Bombelles . . . . . . . 239
After Photograph By Aubert & Co.
General Castelnau . . . . . . . 251
Colonel Dupin . . . . . . . . . 263
Surrender of Maximilian, May 15, 1867 . . . 275
Don Pedro Rincon Gallardo . . . . 283
From A Photograph By Cruces y Campa.
Guard And Sergeant Who Shot Maximilian . . 291
Last Day Of Maximilian . . . . . . . 297
The Calvary Of Queretaro, Showing Where Maximilian, Mejia, And Miramon
Were Shot . . . 300
The Last Moments Of Maximilian . . . . 301
The Hack In Which Maximilian Was Taken To The Place Of Execution . . . . .304
Monuments Marking The Place of Execution . . 307
PRELUDE
In offering these pages to the public, my aim is not to write a
historical sketch of the reign of Maximilian of Austria, nor is it to
give a description of the political crisis through which Mexico passed
during that period. My only desire is to furnish the reader with a point
of view the value of which lies in the fact that it is that of an
eyewitness who was somewhat more than an ordinary spectator of a series
of occurrences which developed into one of the most dramatic episodes of
modern times.
Historians too often present their personages to the public and to
posterity as actors upon a stage,--I was about to say as puppets in a
show,--whose acts are quite outside of themselves, and whose voices
express emotions not their own. They appear before the footlights of a
fulfilled destiny; and their doubts, their weaknesses, are concealed,
along with their temptations, beneath the paint and stage drapery lent
them by the historian who, knowing beforehand the denouement toward
which their efforts tended, unconsciously assumes a like knowledge on
their part. They are thus often credited with deep-laid motives and
plans which it may perhaps have been impossible for them to entertain at
the time.
To those who lived with them when they were MAKING history, these actors
are all aglow with life. They are animated by its passions, its
impulses. They are urged onward by personal ambition, or held back by
selfish considerations. They are not characters in a drama; they are men
of the world, whose official acts, like those of the men about us
to-day, are influenced by their affections, their family complications,
their prejudices, their rivalries, their avarice, their vanity. The
circumstances of their private life temporarily excite or depress their
energies, and often give them a new and unlooked-for direction; and the
success or failure of their undertakings may be recognized as having
been the result of their individual limitations, of their personal
ignorance of the special conditions with which they were called upon to
cope, or of their short-sightedness.
In this lies the importance of private recollections. The gossip of one
epoch forms part of the history of the next. It is therefore to be
deplored that those whose more or less obscure lives run their course in
the shadow of some public career are seldom sufficiently aware of the
fact at the time to note accurately their observations and impressions.
These thoughts occurred to me when, at the request of the editor of the
"Century," I one night took up my pen, and gathering about me old
letters, photographs, and small tokens faded and yellow with age,
plunged deep into the recollections of my youthful days, and evoked the
ghosts of brilliant friends, many of whom have since passed away,
leaving but names written in lines of blood upon a page of history. As
they appeared across a chasm of thirty years, the well-remembered faces
familiarly smiled, each flinging a memory. They formed a motley company:
generals now dead, whose names are revered or execrated by their
countrymen; lieutenants and captains who have since made their way in
the world, or have died, broken-hearted heroes, before Metz or Sedan;
women who seemed obscure, but whose names, in the general convulsion of
nations, have risen to newspaper notoriety or to lasting fame; soldiers
who have become historians; guerrilleros now pompously called generals;
adventurers who have grown into personages; personages who have sunk
into adventurers; sovereigns who have become martyrs.
They had all been laid away in my mind, buried in the ashes of the past
along with the old life. The drama in which each had played his part had
for many years seemed as far off and dim as though read in a book a long
time ago; and yet now, how alive it all suddenly became--alive with a
life that no pen can picture!
There were their photographs and their invitations, their old notes and
bits of doggerel sent to accompany small courtesies--flowers, music, a
Havana dog, or the loan of a horse. It was all vivid and real enough
now. Those men were not to me mere historical figures of whom one reads.
They fought historic battles, they founded a historic though ephemeral
empire; their defeats, their triumphs, their "deals," their blunders,
were now matters of history: but for all that, they were of common flesh
and blood, and the strange incidents of a strangely picturesque episode
in the existence of this continent seemed natural enough if one only
knew the men.
Singly or in groups, the procession slowly passed, each one pausing for
a brief space in the flood of light cast by an awakening memory. Many
wore uniforms--French, Austrian, Belgian, Mexican. Some were dancing
gaily, laughing and flirting as they went by. Others looked careworn and
absorbed by the preoccupations of a distracted state, and by the growing
consciousness of the thankless responsibility which the incapacity of
their rulers at home, and the unprincipled deceit of a few official
impostors, had placed upon them. But all, whether thoughtful or
careless, whether clairvoyant or blind, whether calmly yielding to fate
or attempting to breast the storm, were driven along by the irresistible
current of events, each drifting toward the darkness of an inevitable
doom which, we now know, was inexorably awaiting him as he passed from
the ray of light into the gloom in his "dance to death."
PART I.
THE TRIPLE ALLIANCE
1861-62
MAXIMILIAN IN MEXICO
I. EL DORADO
During the winter of 1861-62, my last winter in France, one of the
principal subjects of conversation in Parisian official circles was our
Civil War, and its possible bearing upon the commercial and colonial
interests of Europe, or rather the possible advantage that Europe, and
especially France, might hope to derive from it.
A glance at M. de Lamartine's famous article written in January, 1864,
and reprinted a year or two later in his "Entretiens Litteraires," will
help us to understand how far Frenchmen were from appreciating not only
our point of view, but the true place assigned by fate to the United
States in contemporary history. Nothing could so plainly reveal the
failure of the French to understand the natural drift of events on this
side of the Atlantic, and account for the extraordinary, though
shortlived, success of Napoleon's wild Mexican scheme. In this article,
written with a servile pen, the poet-statesman attacked the character of
the people of the United States, and brought out Napoleon's motives in
his attempt to obtain, not for France alone, but for Europe at large, a
foothold upon the American continent. With a vividness likely to impress
his readers with the greatness of the conception as a theory, he showed
how the establishment of a European monarchy in Mexico must insure to
European nations a share in the commerce of the New World. The new
continent, America, is the property of Europe, he urged. The Old World
should not recognize the right of the United States to control its
wealth and power.
An article by Michel Chevalier, published with the same purpose in view,
threatened Mexico with annexation by the United States unless the
existing government of the country underwent reorganization.
Both authors were frequent visitors at my guardian's house in Paris,
which accounts for the impression made upon my youthful mind by their
written utterances at that time. M. Chevalier was a distinguished
political economist. He had visited Mexico, and knew the value of its
mining and agricultural wealth without sufficiently recognizing the
actual conditions to be dealt with, and he fully indorsed the imperial
conception. "The success of the expedition is infallible," he said. He
explained the resistance of the Mexicans by their hatred of the
Spaniards, and demonstrated to his own satisfaction that the burden of
the venture must fall upon France, who should reap the glory of its
success.
Modern civilization, he urged, includes a distinct branch--the Latin--in
which Catholicism shines. Of this France is the soul as well as the arm.
"Without her, without her energy and her initiative the group of the
Latin races must be reduced to a subordinate rank in the world, and
would have been eclipsed long ago." In comparing upon a map of the world
the space occupied by the Catholic nations two centuries ago with the
present area under their control, "one is dismayed at all that they have
lost and are losing" every day. "The Catholic nations seem threatened to
be swallowed up by an ever-rising flood."*
* "Revue des Deux Mondes," of April, 1862, p. 916. It is interesting
to find him quoting Humboldt's prophecy that "the time will come, be it
a century sooner or later, when the production of silver will have no
other limit than that imposed upon it by its ever-increasing
depreciation as a value." (April, 1862, p. 894).
When the Mexican empire was planned our Civil War had been raging for
nearly two years. From the standpoint of the French rulers, the moment
seemed auspicious for France to interfere in American affairs. The
establishment of a great Latin empire, founded under French protection
and developed in the interest of France, which must necessarily derive
the principal benefit of the stupendous wealth which Mexico held ready
to pour into the lap of French capitalists,--of an empire which in the
West might put a limit to the supremacy of the United States, as well as
counterbalance the British supremacy in the East, thus opposing a
formidable check to the encroachments of the Anglo-Saxon race in the
interest of the Latin nations,--such was Napoleon's plan, and I have
been told by one who was close to the imperial family at that time that
the Emperor himself fondly regarded it as "the conception of his reign."
Napoleon III labored under the disadvantage of reigning beneath the
shadow of a great personality which, consciously or unconsciously, he
ever strove to emulate. But however clever he may be, the man who,
anxious to appear or even to be great, forces fate and creates
impossible situations that he may act a leading part before the world,
is only a schemer. This is the key to the character of Napoleon III and
to his failures. He looked far away and dreamed of universal
achievements, when at home, at his very door, were the threatening
issues he should have mastered. The story is told of him that one
evening, at the Tuileries, when the imperial party were playing games,
chance brought to the Emperor the question, "What is your favorite
occupation?" to which he answered: "To seek the solution of unsolvable
problems." It is also related that in his younger days a favorite axiom
of his was: "Follow the ideas of your time, they carry you along;
struggle against them, they overcome you; precede them, they support
you." True enough; but only upon condition that you will not mistake the
shrill chorus of a few interested courtiers and speculators for the
voice of your time, nor imagine that you precede your generation because
you stand alone. He dreamed of far-away glory, and his flatterers told
him his dreams were prophetic. He saw across the seas the mirage of a
great Latin empire in the West, and beheld the Muse of history
inscribing his name beside that of his great kinsman as the restorer of
the political and commercial equilibrium of the world, as well as the
benefactor who had thrown El Dorado open to civilization. With the faith
of ignorance, he proposed to share with an Austrian archduke these
imaginary possessions, and to lay for him, as was popularly said in
1862-63, "a bed of roses in a gold-mine." Unmindful of warnings, he
pushed onward for two years, apparently incapable of grasping the fact
that the mirage was receding before him; and finally found his fool's
errand saved from ridicule only by the holocaust of many lives, and
raised to dignity only by the tragedy of Queretaro.
All this we now know, but in 1861-62 the Napoleonic star shone
brilliantly with the full luster cast upon it by the Crimean war and the
result of the Italian campaign. It is true that occasionally some strong
discordant note issuing from the popular depths would strike the ear and
for the time mar the paeans of applause which always greet successful
power. For instance, at the Odeon one night, during the war with
Austria, I was present when the Empress Eugenie entered. The Odeon is in
the Latin Quarter, and medical and law students filled the upper tiers
of the house. As the sovereign took her seat in a box a mighty chorus
suddenly arose, and hundreds of voices sang, "Corbleu, madame, que
faites vous ici?" quoting the then popular song, "Le Sire de Franboisy."
The incident, so insulting to the poor woman, gave rise to some
disturbance; and although the boys were quieted, the Empress soon left
the theater, choking with mortification. M. Rochefort, who refers to
this incident in his memoirs, adds that as the imperial party came out,
another insult of a still more shocking character was thrown at the
Empress. This, of course, I did not witness.
Such occurrences were usually treated by the press and the government
sympathizers as emanating from youthful hot-brains, or from the lower
ranks of the people, and therefore as unworthy of attention. But those
hot-brains represented the coming thinkers of France, and the "common"
people represented its strength. On the whole, however, in 1862 the more
powerful element had rallied to and upheld the government. The court and
the army were so loud in their admiration of the profound policy of the
Emperor that those who heeded the croakings of the few clear-sighted men
composing the opposition were in the background.
It so happened that my lines had been cast among these, and it is
interesting now, in looking back upon the expressions of opinion of
those who most strenuously opposed French interference in American
affairs, to see how little even these men, wise as they were in their
generation, appreciated the true conditions prevailing in Mexico. None
seriously doubted the possibility of occupying the country and of
maintaining a French protectorate. The only point discussed was, Was it
worth while? And to this question Jules Favre, Thiers, Picard, Berryer,
Glais-Bizoin, Pelletan, and a few others emphatically said, "No!"
II. THE NEW "NAPOLEONIC IDEA"
The "Napoleonic idea," however, had not burst forth fully equipped in
all its details from the Caesarean brain in 1862. It would be unfair not
to allow it worthy antecedents and a place in the historic sequence. As
far back as 1821, when the principle of constitutional monarchy was
accepted by the Mexicans under the influence of General Iturbide, a
convention known as the "plan of Iguala" had been drawn by Generals
Iturbide and Santa Anna, and accepted by the new viceroy, O'Donoju, in
which it was agreed that the crown of Mexico should be offered first to
Ferdinand VII, and, in case of his refusal, to the Archduke Charles of
Austria, or to the Infante of Spain, Don Carlos Luis, or to Don
Francisco Paulo.
The Mexican embassy sent to Spain to offer the throne of Mexico to
Ferdinand was ill received. The king had no thought of purchasing a
crown which he regarded as his own by the recognition of the
constitutional principle which he had so long fought; and the Cortes
scorned to authorize any of the Spanish princes to accept the advances
of the Mexicans. The result of Spain's unbending policy was a rupture
which involved the loss of its richest colony.
In 1854 General Santa Anna,* then dictator or president for life, had
given full powers to Senor Gutierrez de Estrada to treat with the courts
of Paris, London, Vienna, and Madrid for the establishment of a monarchy
in Mexico under the scepter of a European prince; and Senor de Estrada,
with the consent of the French government, had offered the throne of his
country to the Duc de Montpensier, who wisely, as it proved, had
declined it.
* Santa Anna raised the flag of revolt against his benefactor in 1823.
Iturbide abdicated, was given a pension of twenty-five thousand dollars,
and, at his own suggestion, was escorted to the sea-coast, a voluntary
exile, by a guard of honor. From this time Santa Anna had a hand in all
the revolutions that followed. He himself subsequently fell before an
insurrection of the Liberal party led by the old Indian governor of
Guerrero, General Alvarez.
The Crimean war and the downfall of General Santa Anna checked the
progress of these negotiations, which were resumed as soon as, peace
having been restored, the European powers could turn their attention to
their commercial interests in America, which Senor de Estrada
represented to them as gravely compromised by the encroachments of the
United States in Mexico, and to the grievances urged by their subjects
against the Mexican government.*
* Compare Abbe Domenech, "Histoire du Mexique," vol. ii, p. 360.
In 1859 General Miramon* confirmed the powers given by General Santa
Anna to the Mexican representative; and then it was that, for the first
time, the Emperor commended to his attention the Archduke Maximilian.
* General Miramon was barely twenty-six when he rose to the first rank
in Mexican politics. Of Bearnese extraction, his father's family passed
over to Spain in the eighteenth century. His grandfather had gone to
Mexico as aide de-camp to one of the viceroys. Miguel Miramon had served
in the war against the United States. He was a brilliant officer, bold,
vigorous, original. During his term of office he had on his side the
clergy, the army, the capital.
It were also unfair not to admit that the varying success of the
conflict between the two factions struggling for supremacy in Mexico was
likely to deceive the European powers, and made it easy for men whose
personal interests were at stake to misrepresent the respective strength
of the contending parties and the condition of the country. But no
leader of men has, in the eyes of history, a right to be deceived either
by men or by appearances; and granting that Napoleon might at first have
been misled, he had timely warning, and the opportunity to withdraw, as
did the Spaniards and the English, without shame, if without glory.
After Mexico, led by the patriots Hidalgo and Morelos, had thrown off
the Spanish yoke, it became for forty years the scene of a series of
struggles between contending factions which reduced the country to a
state of anarchy. Once rid of their Spanish viceroys, the Mexicans found
themselves little better off than they had been under their rule. For
centuries the Mexican church had played upon the piety of the devout for
the furtherance of its own temporal interests, until one third of the
whole wealth of the nation had found its way into its hands. It was
against the clergy, and against the retrogressive policy for which it
stood, that in 1856 a wide-spread revolutionary movement was
successfully organized, as a result of which, in 1857, a liberal
constitution was drawn up and accepted by the people.
The clerical or reactionary party, although it counted among its
adherents many of the best old Spanish families composing Mexico's
aristocracy, would probably soon have ceased to be a serious practical
obstacle in the way of reform had it not been for the wealth of a
corrupt clergy, by means of which its armies were kept in the field. Be
this as it may, the reign of constitutional order represented by
President Comonfort in 1856 was shortlived, General Comonfort abdicated
in 1858. Benito Juarez, by virtue of his rank of president of the
Supreme Court, then became constitutional president ad interim.
By a pronunciamiento General Zuloaga, with the help of the army, took
possession of the government and of the capital, while Juarez maintained
his rights at Queretaro. War raged between the two parties, with rapidly
varying success. A letter dated November 19,1860, written by my brother,
a young American engineer who had gone to Mexico to take part in the
construction of the first piece of railroad built between Vera Cruz and
Mexico, gives a concise and picturesque account of the situation:
Things look dark--so dark, in fact, that for the present I do not think
it advisable to risk any more money here. There is a fair prospect of
the decree of Juarez being annulled. If so, our bonds go overboard.
There is a prospect of Juarez signing a treaty. If so, our bonds go up
15 or 20. It is rouge et noire--a throw of the dice. The Liberals have
been beaten at Queretaro, where Miramon took from them twenty-one pieces
of artillery and many prisoners, among them an American officer of
artillery, whom he shot the next day, AS USUAL. Oajaca has fallen into
the hands of the clergy. The Liberals under Carbajal attacked
Tulancingo, and were disgracefully beaten by a lot of ragged Indians.
They are losing ground everywhere; and if the United States does not
take hold of this unhappy country it will certainly go to the dogs.
There is a possibility of compromise between Juarez and Miramon, the
effect of which is this: the constitution of '57 to be revised; the sale
of clergy property to their profit; the revocation of Juarez's decree of
July about the confiscation of clergy property to the profit of the
state; religious liberty, civil marriage, etc.
A gloomy picture, and true enough, save in one respect. The Liberals
might be beaten everywhere, but they were not losing ground; on the
contrary, their cause rested upon too solid a foundation of right and
progress, and the last brilliant exploits of General Miramon were
insufficient to galvanize the reactionary party into a living force.
On December 22, 1860, Miramon was finally defeated at Calpulalpan by
General Ortega, and shortly after left the country. On December 28 the
reforms prepared in Vera Cruz by Juarez, proclaiming the principles of
religious toleration, and decreeing the confiscation of clergy property,
the abolition of all 13 religious orders, and the institution of civil
marriage, etc., were promulgated in the capital by General Ortega; and
on January 11,1861, Juarez* himself took possession of the city of
Mexico. The Liberals were triumphant, and the civil war was virtually at
an end.
* Benito Pablo Juarez was of Indian birth, and as a boy began life as a
mozo, or servant, in a wealthy family. His ability was such as to draw
upon him the attention of his employer, who had him educated. He soon
rose to greatness as a lawyer, and then as a member of the National
Congress, governor of Oajaca, secretary to the executive, and president
of the republic.
The defeated army, as was invariably the case in Mexico, dissolved and
disappeared, leaving only a residuum of small bands of guerrillas. These
preyed impartially upon the people and upon travelers of both parties.
Leonardo Marquez almost alone remained in the field and seriously
continued the conflict. The principal leaders fled abroad, especially to
Paris, where they made friends, and planned a revenge upon the
victorious oppressors of the church, whose outrages upon God and man
were vividly colored by religious and party hatred. Among these were men
of refinement and good address, scions of old Spanish families, who,
like M. Gutierrez de Estrada, found ready sympathy among the Emperor's
entourage. As a rule, none but "hopelessly defeated parties seek the
help of foreign invasion of their own land"; but the Empress Eugenie,
who, a Spaniard herself, was a devout churchwoman, lent a willing ear to
the stories of the refugees, impressively told in her own native tongue.
To reinstate the church, and to oppose the strong Catholicism of a Latin
monarchy to the Protestant influence of the Northern republic, seemed to
her the most attractive aspect of the projected scheme.
The struggle that had been carried on for so many years in Mexico with
varying vicissitudes was not purely one of partizan interest based upon
a different view of political government: it was the struggle of the
spirit of the nineteenth century against the survival of Spanish
medievalism; it was the contest of American republicanism against the
old order of things, religious and social as well as political; of
progressive liberalism against conservatism and reaction.
The French intervention as planned by Napoleon III was, therefore, a
glaring paradox, and betrays his absolute ignorance of the conditions
with which he was undertaking to cope. As a matter of fact, the party
upon whose support he relied for the purpose of developing the natural
resources of Mexico, and of bringing that country into line with
European intellectual and industrial progress, was pledged by all its
traditions to moral and political retrogression.
The enterprise, undertaken under these conditions, bore in itself such
elements of failure that nothing save the force of arms and a vast
expenditure of life and money could, even for a time, make it a success.
Unless the French assumed direct and absolute control of Mexican affairs
irrespective of party--and this contingency was specifically set aside
by the most solemn declarations--they must sooner or later come into
direct antagonism with allies who were pledged to the most benighted
form of clericalism, and into real, though perhaps unconscious, sympathy
with their opponents who stood arrayed upon the side of progress.
It was not long before the pretensions of the church and party
complications caused a breach between the Corps Expeditionnaire and its
original supporters, which placed the French in the unlooked-for, and by
them much deprecated, attitude of invaders and conquerors of the land,
equally hated by ally and foe. And yet at the outset one aspect of the
situation was favorable to the success of the French undertaking.
The sweeping reforms carried out by Juarez during his brief undisturbed
occupation of the country had greatly smoothed the way for the French in
their self-imposed task of Mexican regeneration. The new laws had
already been enforced regulating the relations of church and state. The
confiscation of clergy property, the breaking up of the powerful
religious orders, and religious tolerance, all had been proclaimed, as
well as the freedom of the press.
Spanish, influence, which in these struggles had been exercised strongly
against reform, had been abruptly brought to an end by the summary
dismissal of Senor Pacheco, the Spanish minister, and the Archbishop of
Mexico had been exiled.
III. M. DE SALIGNY AND M. JECKER
One of the first problems, and quite the most important, to be faced by
President Juarez, upon his establishment in the capital, had been the
raising of funds with which to carry on the expense of the Liberal
government. As a measure the throwing upon the market of the
nationalized church property recommended itself. There was, however, but
little confidence, and still less ready money, in the country after many
years of civil strife. So much real estate suddenly thrown upon the
market depreciated property. The easy terms of sale--a third cash, the
balance to be paid in pagares--tempted speculators and gave rise to many
fraudulent transactions, and the measure brought little relief to the
government.
Although in March, 1861, President Juarez had signed a convention
adjusting anew the pecuniary claims of the French residents, on July 17
Congress found itself compelled to suspend payment on all agreements
hitherto entered into with foreign powers. The very next day the
representatives of France and Great Britain entered a formal protest on
behalf of their governments. On July 25, having obtained no
satisfaction, they suspended all diplomatic relations with the Mexican
government.
Feeling ran high between Mexicans and foreigners. The speculators in
Mexican bonds, as well as more innocent sufferers, were loud in their
denunciations. The Swiss banker Jecker,* who had cleverly managed to
enlist the interest of powerful supporters at the court of Napoleon III,
and who had become naturalized in order to add weight to his claim to
French support, spared no pains in exciting the resentment of the French
with regard to this violation of its pledges by the Mexican
government.**
* The French claims against the Mexican government amounted to
50,000,000 francs. Jecker's interests suffered most by the decree of
President Juarez of July 17,1861. Under Miramon he had negotiated, on
behalf of the clerical party, the new issue of six-per-cent. bonds of
75,000,000 francs, destined to take up the old discredited government
bonds, twenty-five per cent. being paid in silver by the holders, and
the interest being guaranteed partly by the state, and partly by the
house of Jecker. The latter was to receive a commission of five per
cent. upon the transaction--3,750,000 francs. The profit to the
government should have been 15,000,000 francs, had not a clause been
inserted enabling Jecker to deduct his commission in advance, as well as
half of the interest for five years,--11,250,000 francs,--which, as we
have seen, was guaranteed by the state; so that, as a matter of fact,
the government received only 3,570,000 francs. When, in May, 1860, and
without the slightest warning, the house of Jecker failed, the interests
of a large number of Frenchmen whose funds were intrusted to it were
jeopardized; and as their only hope rested upon the profit to be derived
from the issue of the bonds referred to, the decree of January 1, 1861,
annulling the contract under which they had been issued, not only ruined
the house of Jecker beyond recovery, but deprived its creditors of all
remaining hope. Jecker then went to France. There he skilfully managed
to win over to his cause some personages influential at the court of
France. The Duc de Morny, whose speculative spirit was easily seduced by
the golden visions of large financial enterprises in a land the wealth
of which was alluringly held up to his cupidity, took him under his
powerful protection. There is little doubt that this was an important
factor in the Mexican imbroglio. It is interesting to know that a just
Nemesis overtook Jecker, whose unworthy intrigues had brought about such
incalculable mischief. He was shot by order of the Commune in 1871. See
Prince Bibesco, "Au Mexique: Combats et Retraite des Six Mille" (Paris,
1887), p. 42.
** See "Revue des Deux Mondes," January, 1862, p. 766: "L'intervention
des puissances avait pour avoue d'exiger une protection plus efficace
pour les personnes et les proprietes de leurs sujets ainsi que
l'execution des obligations contractees envers elles par la republique
du Mexique."
Had France been sincere, the expedition might have seized a Mexican port
as a security for the payment of such obligations, instead of spending
ten times the amount of its claims in attempting to interfere with the
political affairs of the country under the flimsy pretext of seeking to
enforce payment thereof.
M. de Gabriac had been replaced by M. de Saligny, a creature of the Duc
de Morny, whose personal interest in the Jecker bonds was freely
discussed. The new minister arrived in June, 1861. His orders were to
enforce recognition of the validity of the Jecker bonds. Juarez and his
minister, Senor Lerdo de Tejada, peremptorily declined to "acknowledge a
contract entered upon with an illegal government." There was no redress,
if redress there must be, save in assuming a belligerent attitude. M. de
Saligny avowedly did his utmost to aggravate the situation. Later,
during the brief period of 1863-64, when the intervention seemed to hold
out false promises of success, he boasted to a friend of mine that his
great merit "was to have understood the wishes of the Emperor, and to
have precipitated events so as to make the intervention a necessity."
This he accomplished, thanks to an incident insignificant in itself, but
which he duly magnified into an unbearable insult to the French nation.
On the night of August 14, 1861, a torch-light procession to celebrate
the news of a victory of the government troops under General Ortega over
Marquez halted before the French legation, and some voices shouted:
"Down with the French! Down with the French minister!" M. de Saligny
added that a shot had been fired at him from one of the neighboring
azoteas, and he produced a flattened bullet in evidence. Although an
investigation was immediately instituted, the result of which was to
show the lack of substance of the minister's charges, the French
government, then anxiously hoping for such an opportunity, supported its
agent. The incident was magnified by the French papers into an "attaque
a main armee contre Saligny," and at the instigation of France a triple
alliance was concluded with England and Spain. On October 31, 1861, a
convention was signed in London, whereby the contracting parties pledged
themselves to enforce the execution of former treaties with Mexico, and
to protect the interests of their citizens.* To this, as a pure matter
of form, the United States was invited to subscribe. Our government, of
course, declined the invitation to take advantage of the disturbed
condition of the Mexican republic to enforce its claim. Mr. Seward was
not then in a position to show more fully his disapproval of the action
of the allied powers.
* For the correspondence upon the whole subject and the terms of the
London convention, see Abbe Domenech's "Histoire du Mexique," vol. ii,
p. 375 et seq.
It soon became evident that, in entering upon this treaty, the three
allies had not the same end in view. As early as May 31, 1862, the
French papers blamed the government for its lack of foresight in
entering into a cooperation with powers whose ultimate objects so widely
differed from its own.*
* See "Revue des Deux Mondes," 1862, vol. iii, p. 743.
This mistake became apparent when, on January 9, 1862, the French, under
Admiral Jurien de la Graviere, and the English, under Admiral Milnes,
arrived at Vera Cruz and found the Spanish division, under General Prim
and Admiral Tubalco, already landed.* The conduct of their joint mission
must now be determined. Already diplomacy had been brought into play by
Napoleon III to induce his allies to acquiesce in his views and to
consider the elevation of Maximilian to the throne of Mexico. Spain had
willingly listened to the idea of establishing a monarchy, but on the
condition that the monarch should belong or be closely allied to the
house of Bourbon; and it stood firm upon this condition.
* The haste of Spain was regarded as an attempt to take a selfish
advantage of the situation, and gave rise to some correspondence. See
Domenech, loc. cit., pp. 384, 392.
IV. THE ALLIES IN MEXICO
The sound common sense of John Bull, his clearer appreciation of foreign
possibilities, or perhaps the superior intelligence and honesty of his
agent in Mexico, shine out brilliantly in a letter of Lord John Russell,
written to the representative of England at the court of Vienna,
previous to the armed demonstration made by the triple alliance.* The
letter was in truth prophetic, and showed a statesmanlike grasp of the
situation. He pointed out that the project of placing the Archduke
Maximilian upon the throne of Mexico had been conceived by Mexican
refugees in Paris; that such people were notorious for overrating the
strength of their partizans in their native land, and for the
extravagance of their hopes of success; that her Majesty's government
would grant no support to such a project; that a long time would be
necessary to consolidate a throne in Mexico, as well as to make the
sovereign independent of foreign support; and that, should this foreign
support be withdrawn, the sovereign might easily be expelled by the
Mexican republicans. The Spanish general Prim, when later, upon the
spot, he was able to appreciate the difficulties of the situation and
had decided to withdraw, wrote to the Emperor a strong letter in which
his views to the same effect were powerfully expressed.**
* See "La Verite sur l'Expedition du Mexique, d'apres les Documents
Inedits de Ernest Louet, Payeur-en-Chef du Corps Expeditionnaire,"
edited by Paul Gaulot. Part I, "Reve d'Empire" p. 37, 4th ed. (Paris,
Ollendorff, 1890).
** Ibid, p. 47.
This letter was dated "Orizaba, March 17, 1862." It is sufficiently
remarkable to be given here:
"Sire: Your Imperial Majesty has deigned to write me an autograph letter
which, because of the kindly expressions it contains, will become a
title of honor for my posterity. . . .
"On the ground of just claims there can be no differences between the
commissioners of the allied powers, and still less between the chiefs of
your Majesty's forces and those of his Catholic Majesty. But the arrival
at Vera Cruz of General Almonte, of the former minister Haro, of Father
Miranda, and of other Mexican exiles who set forward the idea of a
monarchy in favor of Prince Maximilian of Austria,--a project which,
according to them, is to be backed and supported by the forces of your
Imperial Majesty,-- tends to create a difficult situation for all
concerned, especially for the general-in-chief of the Spanish army, who,
under instructions from his government based upon the convention of
London, and almost the same as those given by your Majesty's government
to your worthy and noble Vice-Admiral La Graviere, would find himself in
the painful position of being unable to contribute to the realization of
the views of your Imperial Majesty, should these look to raising a
throne in this country for the purpose of placing upon it an Austrian
archduke.
"Moreover, it is, sire, my profound conviction that in this country
monarchical ideas find few supporters. This is logical, as this land has
never known the monarchy in the persons of the Spanish sovereigns, but
only in those of viceroys who governed each according to his bad or good
judgment and his own lights, and all following the customs and manner of
governing proper to a period which is already remote.
"Then, also, monarchy has not left here the immense interests of an
ancient nobility, as was the case in Europe when, under the impulse of
revolutionary storms, thrones at times were pulled down. Neither has it
left high moral interests behind it, nor, indeed, anything that might
induce the present generation to wish for the reestablishment of a
regime which it has not known and which no one has taught it to long for
or revere.
"The neighborhood of the United States, and the severe strictures of
those republicans against monarchical institutions, have greatly
contributed to create here a positive hatred against these. Despite
disorder and constant agitation, the establishment of the republic,
which took place more than forty years ago, has created habits, customs,
and even a certain republican expression of thought which it cannot be
easy to destroy.
"For these and other reasons which cannot escape your Imperial Majesty's
high penetration, you will understand that the immense preponderance of
opinion in this country is not and cannot be monarchical. If logic were
not sufficient to demonstrate this, it would receive proof from the fact
that, in the two months since the allied flags wave over Vera Cruz, and
now that we occupy the important points of Cordoba, Orizaba, and
Tohuacan, in which no other Mexican authority remains save that of the
municipality, neither the conservatives nor the partizans of monarchy
have made the slightest demonstration which might lead the allies to
"believe" that such partisans exist.
"Be it far from me, sire, to even suppose that the might of your
Imperial Majesty is not sufficient to raise in Mexico a throne for the
house of Austria, Your Majesty directs the destinies of a great nation,
rich in brave and intelligent men, rich in resources, and ready to
manifest its enthusiasm whenever called upon to carry out your Imperial
Majesty's views. It will be easy for your Majesty to conduct Prince
Maximilian to the capital and to have him crowned a king; but that king
will meet in the country with no other support than that of the
conservative leaders, who never thought of establishing a monarchy when
they were in power, and only think of it now that they are defeated,
dispersed, and in exile. A few rich men will also admit a foreign
monarch, if supported by your Majesty's soldiers; but that monarch will
find no one to support him should your help fail him, and he would fall
from the throne raised by your Majesty, as other powerful men must fall
on the day when your Majesty's imperial cloak will cease to cover and
protect them. I know that your Imperial Majesty, guided by your high
sentiment of justice, will not force upon this nation so radical a
change in its institutions if the nation does not demand it. But the
leaders of the conservative party just landed at Vera Cruz say that it
will be sufficient to consult the upper classes, and this excites
apprehensions and inspires a dread lest violence may be done to the
national will.
"The English contingent, which was to come to Orizaba, and had already
prepared its means of transportation, reembarked as soon as it was
known that a number of French troops larger than that stipulated in the
treaty were coming. Your Majesty will appreciate the importance of
their retreat.
"I beg your Imperial Majesty one thousand times pardon for having dared
to submit to your attention so long a letter. But I thought that the
truest way worthily to respond to the kindness of your Majesty toward me
was to tell the truth, and all the truth, as I see it, upon the
political conditions here. In so doing I feel that I not only fulfil a
duty, but that I obey the great, noble, and respectful attachment which
I feel for the person of your Imperial Majesty.
"Comte de Reus,
"General Prim."
Such warnings, however, were lost amid the glittering possibilities of
so glorious an achievement. Napoleon, following his own thought, had
already approached the Austrian archduke and his imperial brother with
regard to the former's candidacy, and had trusted to chance as to the
complications that might arise with his allies. It was not long before
these became clearly defined.
The first meeting of the allies had taken place on January 10 at La
Tejeria, a short distance from Vera Cruz. A proclamation to the Mexican
people was issued at the instigation of General Prim. In this
extraordinary document the representatives of the three great powers who
had sent a combined fleet and army to obtain satisfaction for outrages
committed against their flags and the life and property of their
subjects, claimed to have come as friends to the support of the Mexican
government.*
* See the official correspondence published by Domenech,
loc. cit., vol. iii, p. 8, etc.
On the 14th the fourth conference was held. The plenipotentiaries drew
up a collective note in the same tone as that of the proclamation. This
was taken to the Mexican government by three commissioners. The answer
to this communication was a demand for the withdrawal of the expedition.
These steps had not been taken without arousing serious differences of
opinion among the representatives of the powers. Moreover, the financial
claims advanced by each were of such magnitude that their joint
enforcement was impossible.
M. de Saligny, faithful to his premeditated plan of forcing and
precipitating the catastrophe, had drawn up an ultimatum to be presented
to the Mexican government, so preposterous in its pretensions that the
allies could not countenance it. It could no longer be doubted that the
French and the Spaniards were each playing their own game. Only the
great tact and dignity of the French Commander-in-chief, Admiral Jurien
de la Graviere, then prevented an open rupture.*
* Louet, loc. cit., vol. i, p. 41.
The situation had already become strained. It was soon obvious that
General Prim--whether, as was alleged by the French, from personal
motives,* or from a clearer insight into the true condition of the
country--would side with Sir Charles Wyke, the English representative,
and would help him to overrule the French leaders in their aggressive
policy. He requested a conference with Senor Doblado, minister of
foreign affairs, who with great shrewdness accepted the invitation. By
prolonging the negotiations, the Mexican government gave a chance to the
unfavorable conditions under which the expedition labored to do their
very worst. Every day lost was a gain to the Mexicans. The rainy season
was approaching, sickness was already decimating this army of
unacclimated foreigners, and the lack of harmony between the allies was
fast reaching the point of dissension. This situation was seriously
aggravated by the landing in Vera Cruz (January 27) of a number of the
most conspicuous among the exiles of the clerical party--General
Miramon, Father Miranda, etc. These, regardless of the serious
complications which their premature arrival must create for their
supporters, placed themselves directly under the protection of the
French.
* General Prim's wife was a rich Mexican, niece of Juarez's minister of
finance, and the French minister saw in this circumstance cause to doubt
the general's motives. He even accused him publicly of coveting for
himself the throne of Mexico. However this may be, it seems to be a fact
that when in Havana, on his way to Vera Cruz, General Prim, upon being
approached by the clerical leaders, had declined in no compromising
tones to recognize them, and had shown himself inclined to deal with the
Liberals openly. See correspondence published by Domenech, loc. cit.,
vol. ii, p. 407, etc.
The force of circumstances in compelling the French to enter into
negotiations with a government which they refused to recognize had
already placed them in a more than awkward position. By this new
complication they found themselves in the ambiguous attitude of treating
with this government while shielding with their flag the outlawed
representatives of a defeated rival party who had fought it as
illegitimate. Not only did this exasperate the Liberals and arouse the
bitterest antagonism in the country, but it gave rise to serious
difficulties between the French and the English. Among the returned
exiles was General Miramon, who, disregarding the inviolability of the
British legation, had, while president, unlawfully taken possession of
certain moneys belonging to the British government.* Sir Charles Wyke
immediately requested his arrest. An angry discussion followed, the
outcome of which was that Miramon, instead of being arrested on land
under the shadow of the French flag, was prevented from landing and sent
back to Havana.**
* This outrage was one of the main reasons for England's active
cooperation in the attack upon Mexico. As far as I can ascertain the
facts, $600,000 had been sent to the British legation to pay the
interest upon the English bonds. At this time the foreign agents in
Mexico were accused of taking advantage of their privilege to handle
gold and silver without paying the circulation duty of two per cent. and
the export duty of six per cent., thus illegally realizing a
considerable profit. The Mexican government was much incensed thereby,
and an ugly feeling was aroused. President to Miramon, in need of funds,
declared that the amount then deposited at the British legation was a
commercial value liable to duties imposed by law. After some controversy
upon the subject he ordered General Marquez to call upon the British
government and to demand the surrender of the $600,000, to be used in
the defense of the capital, at the same time declaring his willingness
to recognize the debt. The minister refused. General Marquez seized the
treasure, and had it taken to the palace by his soldiers. The British
envoy there upon lowered his flag and retired Jalapa.
** Bibesco, loc. cit., p. 64.
On February 19 the preliminary treaty of La Soledad was signed by the
allies and by Senor Doblado for the Mexican government, and on February
23 it was ratified by President Juarez. By its terms the allies were
allowed, pending the negotiations having for object the adjustment of
their claims, to take up their quarters beyond the limits of the
unhealthful district, and to occupy the road of Mexico as far as
Tehuacan and Orizaba. On the other hand, "the allies pledged themselves,
should the negotiations not result in a final understanding, to vacate
the territory occupied by them, and to return on the road to Vera Cruz
to a point beyond the Chiquihuite, near Paso Ancho,"* i.e., in the
pestilential coast region.
* Ibid., p. 49.
President Juarez only agreed to the terms, it is stated, upon the formal
declaration on the part of the commissioners that "the allies had no
intention to threaten the independence, the sovereignty, and the
integrity of the territory of the Mexican republic."
The French contingent originally sent by Napoleon III numbered, all
told, only three thousand men. As soon as the Emperor was notified of
the doubtful attitude of General Prim, reinforcements numbering some
forty-five hundred men had been ordered, and on March 6, 1862, General
Count de Lorencez arrived at Vera Cruz to take command of the Corps
Expeditionnaire.*
* Ibid., p. 36. The Spanish corps, under General Prim, numbered seven
thousand. England, besides a contingent of one hundred men, furnished a
fleet under Commodore Dunlap, which was to support the joint expedition.
This ended all prospect of concerted action on the part of the combined
forces. The landing of these troops, which brought the French contingent
to a figure far exceeding that originally agreed upon, gave umbrage to
the allies* and proved, beyond the possibility of a doubt, that,
notwithstanding the most explicit assurances given by the French
minister of foreign affairs to the British ambassador in Paris,** it was
the intention of the French government to carry out its policy at all
hazards. Moreover, the new military commander did not possess the tact
and wisdom of the French admiral, whose policy had not been approved in
Prance, where his signing of the convention of La Soledad had been
received with dismay and disapproval.
* Compare General Prim's letter to Napoleon III, foot-note to pp. 25-27.
** "No government shall be imposed upon the Mexican people" (despatch
of Lord Cowley to Lord Russell, May 2, 1862). See "L'Empereur
Maximilien," etc., par le Comte Emile de Keratry, p. 11 (Leipsic, 1867).
Another time the minister, M. de Thouvenel, assured Lord Cowley that
negotiations had been opened by the Mexicans alone, who had gone to
Vienna for the purpose (ibid.).
General de Lorencez came as the representative of the most aggressive
policy, with orders to march without delay upon the capital; and there
is no doubt that a worse man could not have been chosen to take the
leading part in an enterprise where cool judgment was the most important
requisite. Hotheaded, brave to rashness, and, if one may judge by his
acts, wholly incapable of discrimination in his appreciation of the
problems involved, General de Lorencez, when he arrived on the field of
action, allowed himself to be misled by M. de Saligny's
misrepresentations of fact. Only a bitter experience showed him his
error--too late. Meantime he added to the difficulties in the way of the
admiral by feeding the illusions of the French government with sanguine
despatches in which he spoke in glowing terms of the "march of the
French upon the capital," and of the "acclamation of Maximilian as
sovereign of Mexico."
The lack of knowledge of existing conditions that characterized the
French leaders in the conduct of this wretched affair was conspicuous
from the very beginning of the expedition. Prince Georges Bibesco, an
accomplished young Wallachian nobleman whom I knew well, and who was
then on the staff of General de Lorencez's brigade, has, in his spirited
account of these early events,* furnished ample evidence of the manner
in which the general and his chief of staff, Colonel Valaze, were
deceived as to the strength of the Liberal party by the French minister,
and how they were induced by him to misrepresent the caution and
judgment which the French admiral alone seems to have in some measure
possessed, as an evidence of weakness and of procrastination.
* "Au Mexique, 1862: Combats et Retraite des Six Mille, par le Prince
Georges Bibesco. Ouvrage couronne par l'Academie Francaise" (Paris, G.
Plon, Nourrit et Cie.). Prince Bibesco was intrusted with drawing up the
monthly official reports sent by the Corps Expeditionnaire to the War
Office in 1862, and is therefore a trustworthy guide for that period.
In a letter addressed to the French minister of war, Marshal Randon,
dated March 30, Colonel Valaze asserts his conviction that "an armed
force, however small it may be, could take possession of the capital
without any other difficulty than might be encountered by the
commissariat to supply the army on its way." The admiral had written
with a truer appreciation of the situation, and for his pains had lost
the confidence of his sovereign.
V. RUPTURE BETWEEN THE ALLIES
The situation was fast reaching a crisis. An explosion was imminent. The
arrival of General Almonte,* who was destined by Napoleon to be the
chief executive during the regency, only hastened the rupture between
the allies and precipitated the final declaration of hostilities between
France and Mexico.
* March 1, 1862.
The irritation of the Mexican government knew no bounds. A decree
condemning to death all traitors and reactionaries had been passed, and
on March 23 it was officially communicated to the allies. On March 26
General de Lorencez joined the admiral at Tehuacan, and the latter
pushed on to Orizaba, where the allies were to hold a final conference
on April 9. Here General Prim and Sir Charles Wyke insisted upon the
departure of the exiles, urging that their presence placed the
intervention of the powers in an absolutely false light before the
world.
Their secret relation to the exiles imposed upon the French the
responsibility of their safety; the admiral flatly refused, at the same
time announcing his intention to carry out at once the provisions of the
convention of La Soledad, and to retreat with his contingent toward the
coast, thereby recovering his freedom of action and the right to march
upon Mexico without further delay.
It was obvious that the Mexican government was only gaining time in
order to give the climate a chance to do its work. General de Lorencez,
disapproving of the preliminary treaty which circumstances had forced
the admiral to sign, was strongly inclined to break through its
provisions and push on to the capital. He was overruled by the admiral's
high sense of honor.
Measures were immediately taken to execute the articles of the
convention by bringing back the French forces beyond the Chiquihuite,
and on April 7 General Almonte, officially recognized by the French,
endeavored to rally the scattered remnants of the clerical party by
issuing a proclamation signed by ninety-two Mexican notables, in which
he declared himself provisionally the supreme chief of the nation. To
this President Juarez responded by a decree establishing martial law and
declaring all cities occupied by the French in a state of siege. War
with Mexico was declared.*
* "Where was the solemn assurance that there existed no intention to
threaten the independence, the sovereignty, and the integrity of the
territory of the Mexican republic? And yet, even after the repulse of
the French at Puebla, Napoleon, in a letter to General Forey, dated July
3, 1862, still kept up the flimsy farce. "The end to be attained," he
wrote, "is not to force upon the Mexicans a form of government which
would be disagreeable to them, but to aid them in their efforts to
establish, according to their own wish, a government which may have some
chance of stability and "which can insure to France redress for the
wrongs of which she complains" (Memorial Diplomatique, March 12, 1865).
Was this blindness or duplicity?
The rupture between the allies was final, though peaceable. On April 15
Sir Charles Wyke and General Prim* concluded a separate treaty with the
government of Juarez, and, having thus skilfully extricated themselves
from a perilous situation, they prepared to leave the French to their
own destiny.
* The instructions given to General Prim by the Spanish government were
as follows: (1) A public and solemnly given satisfaction for the violent
expulsion of her Majesty the Queen's ambassador (the terms of which were
prescribed minutely), in the absence of which hostilities must be
declared. (2) The rigorous execution of the Mon-Almonte treaty, and the
payment of the Spanish claims unduly suspended by the Mexican
government, and the payment in specie of 10,000,000 reals, this being
the amount of unpaid interest. (3) An indemnity to the Spaniards
entitled to damages in connection with the crimes committed at San
Vicente, Chiconcuagua, and at the mine of San Dimas, and the punishment
of the culprits and of the authorities who had failed, to punish said
crimes. (4) The payment of the cost of the three-masted schooner
Concepcion, captured by a ship of Juarez.
The instructions close with the following: "Such are the conditions to
be presented by your Excellency, but never peace; and without their
complete acceptance by the government of the republic, it will not be
possible to suspend hostilities." Compare French text given by Domenech,
loc. cit., p. 383.
Meantime the rainy season was approaching, at which time the
difficulties, already so great, must become multiplied in a land where
roads were only so called by courtesy and were little more than
beaten-down tracks. The return of the French army to the coast, where
the vomito was now raging, meant death to many, and possible disaster to
the army. But the terms of the treaty were formal, and the admiral was
not one to break his word. M. de Saligny and General de Lorencez were
less punctilious; they reluctantly obeyed the order of the
commander-in-chief, but watched for an opportunity to break through the
impalpable barrier raised--as they thought, by honor alone--between them
and the Mexican capital.
The opportunity soon presented itself, and General Zaragoza,
commander-in-chief of the Liberal army, unwarily furnished General de
Lorencez with the excuse for which he so anxiously longed, by addressing
to him a communication concerning four hundred soldiers disabled by
sickness, who had been left behind in the hospital at Orizaba under the
protection of the treaty of La Soledad. In the wording of this
communication the French general saw, or chose to see, a threat to the
life of his soldiers.
It is but fair to say, however, that the sanguinary decrees issued one
after the other by the Mexican government, the feeling against
foreigners now rapidly growing among the people, the close proximity of
numerous guerrillas standing ready to take advantage of the first moment
of weakness or distress, the murder of French soldiers whenever they
strayed from the camp,--all these symptoms of a fast fermenting spirit
in the invaded land seemed to warrant the apprehensions of the general
with regard to the safety of his trust.
At all events, he boldly assumed the whole responsibility of the step he
was taking. Leaving Cordoba with the army, he immediately pushed on to
Orizaba (April 19), where he arrived (April 20) just as General Prim,
with the Spanish contingent (and the newspaper staff which, gossip
related, had traveled in his suite to herald his exploits--truly a
sinecure!), were leaving by the same garita on their way to the coast.
General Zaragoza, with the Liberal army, retreated from the city by one
gate as the French entered by the other, with all the bells of the city
ringing in token of popular rejoicing--under compulsion. General
Zaragoza fell back upon Puebla. Having secured Orizaba as a basis of
operation, General de Lorencez, with some five thousand men, started in
pursuit of the Mexican army (April 27).
In the meantime a courier from France had brought the recall of Admiral
Jurien de la Graviere, whose fall from the favor of his imperial master
was kept no secret. The same courier that brought the admiral the
disapproval of his government brought General de Lorencez his promotion
to the command of the army. Napoleon, deceived by his minister's
statements, now corroborated by General de Lorencez, only later did
tardy justice to the admiral, to whom he strove to make amends by
attaching him to his imperial staff.
Thus the clearing up of a situation already precarious was left to a man
of narrow views and small capacity, who, according to the verdict of his
own officers, had little to recommend him save the soldierly qualities
of bravery and energy. That General de Lorencez, under instructions from
his government and relying upon the statements of its agent at Mexico,
should have arrived imbued with erroneous ideas with regard to the
popularity of the intervention and the relative strength of the Liberal
and clerical parties, seems natural. But enough had taken place since
his arrival in Mexico to open the eyes of one less wilfully blind. Any
military chief of average capacity must have seen that the whole Mexican
population was not rising to "greet the French army as liberators," and
that the popular enthusiasm that was to open to them the doors of every
town, turning their progress to the capital into a triumphal march
marked at every point by ovations, showers of flowers, and the
spontaneous vivas of a hitherto oppressed and now grateful multitude,
was but a fast disappearing mirage luring them on to destruction.
Instead of the promised enthusiastic welcome a sullen acquiescence in
the inevitable everywhere greeted the foreign invaders. This, whenever
compatible with personal safety, turned into active enmity on the part
of the nation, and often into open and revengeful cruelty. Instead of
the great reactionary army, numbering at least ten thousand men, which,
rallying under General Marquez, was to hurry to his support on his march
upon the capital, a few stray guerrillas had joined his forces,
ill-armed, ill-fed, undisciplined bands, upon which small reliance could
be placed, and whose presence under the French flag only helped to
irritate the feelings of the people. And far from the Liberal party
losing its partizans upon the landing of the French, some of the
reactionary leaders,--as, for instance, General Zuloaga,--forgetting
their former feuds at the first sound of a foreign invasion of their
native land, had rallied around the Mexican government, whose cause now
seemed linked with that of the national honor.
When reverses and difficulties of all kinds assailed the army, it was
remembered that General de Lorencez's violation of the sacredness of a
treaty had taken place on Good Friday at half-past three o'clock, and I
was told that this coincidence had been looked upon by many among the
soldiers as a bad omen.
The Mexican government, however, had made good use of the time gained by
the skilful negotiations of its representatives; it had earnestly
prepared for resistance, and now concentrated its whole strength upon
the defense of Puebla.
Such was the condition of affairs when unforeseen circumstances brought
me to Mexico.