Daily union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1865-1866, 1866-01-03
Renublieapisn In Mexico.
From the New Orleans Picayune.l

| GNcT VET cAlStCQ tuCIC. xNOt NllNlH OHr
: memory has there ever occurred a fair and
peaceful election for its chief magistrates
or members of Congress. Mr. Juarez is
spoken of BY his partisans as the constitu-
tionally elected President ofthe country but
his election was a revolutionary one, and
the constitution under which he acts was
adopted in the midst of revolutionary pro-
ceedings. 1t owes whatever temporary au-
thority it has possessed, to the ability of its
friends to beat down with arms its oppo-
nents, and the elections held under il have
been free only to those who were adherents
of the faction in power.
Juarez owes his election to the forcible
exclusion of the previously elected Presi-
dent Comonfort. Now that his term of Of
4 fee has expired. and that the constitution
under which he has acted, there having been
no election, makes the President Of the Su-
preme Court and ex-oficio Vice President
his successor, he issues decree, in the style
Of an Emperor, in which he sets aside the
claims Of the latter, cverrules the constitu-
ton, and declares that he will remain Presi-
dent until peaceable election can be had
throughout his Republic which may not
be, and, judging by the past, win not be for
life time
! What difference is there in its essential
characteristics, between his government and
that Of Macmillan which makes the former
a republic more than the latter Each gov
ems by DEGREES under bis own sign manlial,
and to which his ministers Of state or Of war
give only their attesting signatures. He
| makes and unmakes Governors of States; he
| imposes duties and exaction ON commerce
he levies forced loans on cities and indivi-
| duals; he strikes off heads without trial,
and he winds up by setting aside his consti-
tuition and deposing and usurping the place
| Of his own successor. Certainly those who
desire to see republican government prevail
| IN Mexico will fail to find its represent
| alive in one who governs only as does a
despot.
| We do not regard Mr.. Juarez as in this
respect specially to blame. He is only re-
| preventative ofrepublicanism, as it is under
stood in Spanish America; perhaps he is
the mildest, most liberal and generous of all
its representatives. Republicanism, there
means to overturn any government or adj
ministration whatsoever by force; and an
| election is never ordered in such republics
until all who differ with the conquering fac
| ton have been driven into Punishment
Generally he stands highest who robs the
country the most but Mr. Juarez has the
I pSIuAleAA ACputettAOH vi DChu@ uOlCSt man,
one who has never filed his private purse
out Of that of his country, and his assump-
| lions of power have seemed intended only to
retain it for his style of ahsolutism; though
his recent refusal to yield his seat to his
constitutional successor, may lead to a some
| what different conclusion.
The following processes to give, in certain
Washington correspondence, the Mexican
| Liberal view of this act of his:
That part Of the population Of Mexico,
which, until recently, formed the Liberal
party, or the Republicans, or those attached
to the republican form Of government, were
looking forward with interest, IA the end of
the term for which Juarez was elected APP
preached, to see what steps he would take
in the matter. BY far the largest proportion
of this party, won by the justice and moder-
'ati0n of the Government as administered by
Macmillan, and by the prosperity of Mex
leo under the Empire, have long since given
in their adhesion to the Imperial Govern
ment. But there is no difference between
their views, and the views of those who still
call themselves Republicans, as relates to
Juarez. They all hold that he was elected
President for certain definite period Of
time. They would not blame him for con-
tinuing the struggle, if he had any hope to
warrant him in doing so. But there is no
warrant in the Mexican Constitution, and no
sanction in the Mexican law, for his assunl-
ing to hold the Office of President a single
day after the expiration of his legal term of
office. Those who thought best of him, ex-
pected that when the period arrived, he
would lay down his Office and state to his |
countrymen that he did so in obedience to
the spirit Of the Mexican Constitution, al
though theunhappy dissentions that prevail |
ed had rendered it impossible for stranger |
to be elected. At the time the above news /
left Mexico, the decree of Juarez, re-electing |
himself for another term, had not been pro-
mulgated. The personal enemies of Juarez |
had circulated a report to the effect that he
would take some such step. But the friends
Of Juarez Indignantly denied the imputation,
and declared that Juarez would not take a
step so openly in violation of Mexican law.
All the lawyers in Mexico, and all the
judges Of the courts, whose attention has
naturally been directed to the subject, as the
end of Juarez's term approached, are unani-
nous of the opinion that if Juarez persisted
in holding the office Of President for single /
day after the end of his term, he would be |
guilty of an act of illegll usurpation which
would ALLEVIATE from him the support and
good wishes of all who had hitherto upheld |
him. There is no doubt that the act Of
Juarez therefore, of the Sth of November
will be disapproved of by the Mexican peo-
pie generally, and will have a bad effect
upon the fortunes of the republic
1t is altogether doubtful whether, with
the present population of Mexico, there ever
will be republican institutions there. That
which makes a government republican is
not its form, but its substance. The govern
ment of Carrera, in Guatemala, was republi-
can in form; but no monarch in Europe
not even the Gar Of Russia-ruled more
despoticaily in fact.
Dr. Francia, who governed Paraguay, as
its sole law giver, and the sole administrator
of the laws he made, precluded his people
from any intercourse with the outside word,
yet claimed his realmto be a republic. Both
these men derived their original authority
from the popular choice, and to this they
professed to owe their continuance in it but
who will candidly declare their government
to be republican in spirit or practice?
We have said that the present population
of Mexico was not likely ever 10 possess a
republican government; but we would not
intimate thereby desire either TO impose
upon that people the form Of one, which
would be initiating their own malpractice,
nor 10 utSptdcc tfleIIl IOf dDOlHcT pOpufdtfOU |
whom such government would better befit.
II is much easier task to educate people
for monarchical than for republican rule;
and much more readily under the former
than under the latter can they be made to
apply themselves so to industry and habits
Of order and submission to law, ~ 10 become
fitted for selfgovernment under more demo
cratic institutions.
A portion OF the people, whether a major
ity or not it is hard to discover, have chosen
for themselves such course Of discipline.
Many think il the government best suited Of
all others to their use. II it is not their
choice. and has not been willingly accepted
by them, the blame of imposing it on them
does not lie at our door. e we let it alone,
and it fail to furnish them with stable gov
and good character as a nation, the
fault will not be ours. |,
IL on the other hand, we interpose to give
hem a further opportunity TO live in aBar-
Inv for another half century, and to show
1nly the more clearly that they cannot gov
srn themselves under a republican constitu
ion, we shall only succeed in more thorough !
y running them and in bringing greater dis
:redit on republican institutions.
A FIERCE NEW ENGLAND PARsoS on !
rHE STATE OF THE South, AND THE Phys
C 1T REQUIREs.-In lecture before so
.iety, in Boston, last week, the Rev. Mr.. ]