Grand River times. [volume] (Grand Haven, Mich.) 1851-18??, 1853-06-01
SANTA ANA AND MEXICO.

ed business on his own account, without part
ners. He coolly talks of the nation "whose
destinies are in his hands" just as If he had OBJ
tanned a warrantee deed of the whole concern
land, population, and all. He has assumed with
out hesitation, and proposes to exercise without
reserve, the powers of Dictator. We publish
herewith in our Havana letter the names of his
new diplomatic staff, and few days since we
gave those Of his Cabinet, and shall have soon,
doubtless, the names of his instruments whom
he digni6es with the title of Councillors. BY
his preliminary edict we learn that a legislative
BODY would only be in the way in his scheme
of government and therefore it is in mild phrase,
TO enter into recess This is modest mode Of
sending those troublesome gentlemen, called
legislators, home. Doubtless Mr.. Santa Ana
thinks they can be better employed there than
in debating his official acts AS for the interests
of the people at large, Mr.. Santa Ana undoubt-
eddy considers himself qualified to take care of
them without the Intervention or aid of loqua-
cious representatives He evidently looks to
the idea of making his government simple ma
chine. Having thus concluded to take affairs
wholly into his own hands, he already begins to
cast about him for allies and supporters from
without. Finding her most Catholic Majesty of
Spain little hard pushed on this side of the
Atlantic on account of the illbustering propen-
sites of Brother Jonathan, our sombre hero of
the wooden leg, who is good deal down in the
mouth lest he shouldn't make things 60 as he
desires, is making overtures to her TO hitch
teams, and so strengthen one another against
the great marauder of the North. This is very
like couple of gobblers forming an alliance to
resist locomotive. What does Mr.. Santa Ana
expect to accomplish by such scheme as this I?
He has the reputation of embodying the brains
- b,,t {, n q
oisdom what upon earth must be its folly 3
Spain, from being nation of extended domin-
ion, vigorous sway, and trenchant temper, has
had all her outposts driven in except those
which the forbearance Of other powers permits
her to hold, has grown gray and gaunt and fee
BILE, and totters in decay and decrepitude upon
the very brink of national ruin. Strip her Of
her American Colonies, and all her existing ma
chinery of Government would collapse and fall
under the burden of a hopeless bankruptcy
There is no power in all Mexico and there is
none in the Spanish Government between which
to form league that would not provoke ridicule
for its imbecity; and such would be the read
lest means to bring about the very result the
league would be established to guard against.
But what can Santa Ana do! This is diff
cult question to answer. 1t is easier to see and
TO say what he cannot do. We doubt if the
whole fabric of Mexican nationality and charac-
ter be not so hollow and rotten that nothing SUBJ
santial can rest upon it. 1t seems to US that
Mexico is in a state Of hopeless decay. Her
population is of the meanest conglomerate. 1t
is mentally, morally and physically diseased to
an extent that appears to forbid all reasonable
hope that it can ever be raised to the level of a
self-sustaining civilization. 1t seems to be the
doom of all our mixed races to disappear. The
TnI; hof ,pb;f
even without amalgamaton. The Mexican has
far less of solid, enduring base of character,
less genuine manhood to oppose to the perpet-
ual attrition Of the great Northern American
race than the pure savage. He is effeminate
and feeble in his physical characteristics, and des-
titute of every ennobling quality, of every man.
ly virtue There is no true grit, none of the
genuine fire of the flint in him. Still, would
Santa Ana do all that his position admits of, it
might yet turn out that beneath the apparently
totally demoralZed state of the nation, there is
core, germ of manhood left upon which to
found anew the safe superstructure of firm Gov
eminent. But everything being done, it would
be chance then at best Ii the power of the
priesthood could be subverted in Mexico, and
the people emancipated from their spiritual
bondage. if the wealth that has been torn from
the poor and wrung from the victims of the in
ternal commissions of that unhappy country,
which has found its way into the Golfers of the
ecclesiastics, could be wrested from their pos
session and applied to the discharge Of the ma
tional debt, if solid system Of finance and an
economical Government could be established if
diversified industry were heartily encouraged,
and if the country were thrown open to enter
prise having assurance of protection a vast i'm
provement might take place, and Mexico rise by
degrees to the dignity of a really independent,
selfsustained nationality. But who can hope
that these necessary conditions to her release
from her present abasement and degradation can
all be complied with? From Santa Ana we can
expect no such thing His scheme evidently is
to draw even tighten the cords of spiritual bond
age, and to forge new letters for the political
slavement of the miserable masses he essays to
govern. We observe that he has appointed the
very Rev. Bishop Of Michoacan the President Of
his new Council of Twenty-one, which he has
established in lieu of the two defunct branches
of Congress. And our latest intelligence
which we publish this MORNINGS, that he has
been receiving petitions for the abolition of the
federal system, which is simply convenient
mode of intimating that it is his purpose to de-
stroy this system. Choked anew by the tyran-
ny of both spiritual and temporal power what is
left for Mexico! In her next throes for relief