The weekly Butte record., 1861-12-28
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The Decay of Mexico,

Ine Decay OF mexico.
Less than three years ago the rapid decay
of Mexico, and the difficulty either of letting
it alone, or conquering it, was a far greater
perplexity to the Government of the United
States than slavery, which nearly everybody
tolerated, and Secession, in which no one be-
lieved 1t seemed to be the inevitable fate OF
that beautiful country to be gradually annexed
to the overgrown dominion of Brother Jona-
than, and the wisest statesman in Washington,
whether Democrat or Republican, in specula-
ting upon the probability of its conquests, con-
Cured in the earnest hope that it might be
delayed as long as possible, for fear of the
evil consequence which it might entail upon
the Union, and that no rash hand would expe-
dite catastrophe which, come when it might,
would come too soon for the comfort OF the
existing generation. But three years have
operated great und unexpected change in
the mutual relations of the parties. The huge
American Union mas broken at its weakest
point and lies, like the great ship, rudderless
and helpless in the trough of raging sea !;
while Mexico, relieved from all fear of aggres-
sion from that quarter, has been left to the
decay and disintegration consequent upon her
own inherent rottenness. Instead Of gaining
relief from the removal of source of such
imminent peril as the enmity of a too powerful
neighbor she has but grown weaker and more
distracted by the operation of time. Life is
insecure, property is not respected, and liberty
is destroyed in Mexico. Her fields are untitled
her roads are infested by armed banditti; !;
law is powerless or non-existent; and one ruf.
fan after another grasps the fast fading rem
nant Of authority, and uses it for plunder and
extortion for few weeks, or it may be months,
when he is superseded in his turn, and per-
haps murdered by another ruffian, as base and
brutal as himself and destined to run course
as short and detestable. Nature, that has
done so much for Mexico, has denied her the
one thing needful to make her great and
prosperous country. 1t has given her lovely
climate and a fertile soil broad and deep
AA'SASi lSNAthS WIN IiibCt al w
gold, silver, iron, lead and copper plains of
a fertility sufficient to feed continent But
all these, with their beauty and richness are of
no avail without true-hearted men. And men
capable Of turning these unparalleled resources
to account are wanting in a land that, for nat
ural beauties and capacities, has no superior
under the sun. The European races which,
after the first discovery of America, took pos
session. have gradually died out. Their
numbers have not been replenished by immi-
grafton from the parent stock, and the few
who remained in the country at the time when
Mexico threw off the yoke of Spain, and who
in proportion to the aboriginal races and half
breeds, were as one in eight, have since that
time become fewer and fewer. Their children
have intermarried with the Indians, and the
progeny have intermarried with mulattoes, and
even with negroes, so that mongrel race pre-
dominates, having all the Incidence and ferocity
of the aboriginal Indians, and all the vices of
the African, with scarcely any of the virtues
of the European, and certainly not that great
virtue of selfcontrol which is as essential to
true civilization as it is to liberty. Men of
purely Anglo or English blood are to be
counted in the United States and the Confed-
crate States, by millions. In Mexico the men
of pure Spanish or European blood can scarce
ly be counted by hundreds and the persons
who assume or grasp such power as remains of
the inferior, not of the superior race. General
Alvarez whose father was an Indian, whose
mother was a mulatto, and who long ruled
over great portion of Southern Mexico, with
despotic sway, and set at defiance the Central
Government was a specimen of the class of
men to whom Mexico has lately been subject
ed With such population and with such
asprants for authority, it is not half as won
derful as it is deplorable that anarchy in its
worst forms should be the normal condition of
the country and that the few foreigners who
nre attracted to its chief cities in the hope Of
successful trade, are plundered or murdered
with impunity by every faction that comes in-
to power. London Review.
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