The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1867-07-25
Great struggles In enc United States and 10
MexicO-Tho Contrast.


Twelve more generals shot, Escobedo eie-
waited to the supreme command Of the army
rs the type, doubtless, of q national hero--and
hot scent at the heels Of Marquee and |
O'Horan, that the blood hunger may still be |
fed! Such is the summary Of days news
from the triumphan republic. And these are the |
acts of government especially lauded as the
only one that can give tranquility to the
nation the only one that has the sympathy
of the people the government composed OF
those Mexicans said to be most worthy Of
general respect. In this we see that the
government which Is the choice of the people,
50 far as choice can 90 In that country, and
which all men having knowledge of Mexico
seem to regard as the best government she
can get-this government no sooner feels sale
in its place, possessed Of absolutely supreme
power, than it gives itself up to acts that the
whole reasoning world, outside OF the mme-
dia.e local pools Of passion, regards with dis
may and horror. If in the higher sphere or
Mexican life we find this, what shall we find
lower down? If they whose Office 1t Is TO con-
troll the nation cannot control themselves;
men who are chosen that their wisdom may
moderate The violence of nature in whole
people are only the more conspicuous in frenzy
and leaders in acts that outrage the deccncy of
the world, it would hardly be just to ex-
peot aueht but the extremity of decentralization
in the masses. There is, indeed, no tone in
the nation no high manly character; no
moyq'e 70 sgids i III III 'av nasu sHaath !! has !?
tread, by those instructive perceptions-the
possession Of better endowed races-that tenn
per strict Justice with mercy and regulate abb
stract right by rule Of practical propriety.
Nations are as their units multiplied in other
respects than in numbers Where the ind,-
vidual man ranks high in the race. is bold, in
telliGen. an: an: deeply Conscious Conscious OF a moral
responsibility before his fellows, there the ma
ton commands its position among The great
ones of the world; and, on the contrary,
where people are degraded and depraved,
so t1at they scarcely have individual vitality,
there the nation is barely to be trusted with lis
own desiinies. And Mexico seems, in the light
of her recent history, to be tending in that
direction. gov
Mexico and the United States have each re-
Gently passed through great struggle not UNI
like in some points; and how differently have the
two peoples borne themselves! Mexico fought
for her existence as nation, her constitutional
government sustaining a fight that often
seemed desperate against an opposing party
of Mexicans supported by foreign forces. Her
government adhered to ifs cause with admira-
BILE tenacity. One of the worst features in the
case was the barbarity with which the soldiers
Of the nation were treated by the adverse
party when taken. Yet against oil efforts the
government strove on, succeeded, and at length
saw It's right and authority admitted through
out the land. That hour Of happy triumph
seems to have softened no hearts, but hardened
all. 1t was employed in the choice Of victims;
and in the hour sacred to liberty men were
slaughtered ~ If that fair deity, like an ancient
Moloch, had pleasure only in bloody sacrifices.
Admit that they had the right to kill Maxi
milan, was Il wise to exercise il? Miramon
and Meia had justly forfeited their lives; but
is i discreet 10 teach the people the lew of re-
talation and absolute justice at such time
or must Ii be admitted that instruction less
bloody would be lost? Here in the United
States also the struggle against opposing forces
was for life. It was 80 desperate, so main
tanned on either side that, In point of carnage,
the whole Mexican war might be compre-
Lended in some one of our battle,. Indeed we
had an even deeper cause Of evaporation than
Mexico in the treatment Of our prisoners for
who will say that the murders committed by
the French and imporialists on Mexican pa'ri-
OTIS were not surpassed by the atrocities of
Libby and Andersonvlle. those shambles of
torturing death? But when the struggle was
over, when the last battle was fought the
killing was ended. 1t was the wise Judgment
of the whole people to require no mans life-to
require only that he should acknowledge the
victorious principles and obey the law. Here
the people felt that they had noble cause to
sustain and that inhumanity would weigh
heavier on those who practlsed il than on those
who suffered. Indeed, we followed this so far
thai we even made fools OF ourselves In letting
the head traitor slip through our fingers with
out securing Judicial recognition OF his crime
and fixing fi. banishment, as we should have
done: but this was failing on virtues side,
and the whole case together points clearly the
distinction between a people with and one
without national morale.
The Mootcd Removal Of the Five Com.
mnndcrs.
II is intimated with some persistency that
NJ Iohnsa, ,vilI ral;aya tho commanders of