The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1867-05-25
CHA RI Es TON.
MEXICO.

Il =
! MEXICO.
It is q clever and wise saying that the only
test of success is to succeed. Judged by this,
n more complete and lamentable failure than
MAxIMILIAN's Empire has never been record
ed, unless it is our own. -
From disappointment to defeat, from defeat
to disaster from disaster to utter destruction
the Empire has dwindled into an army, and
that army has become band Of scattered fugl-
tiyes, seeking behind the walls Of the City OF
Mexico short but hopeless respite from their
inevitable fate. It cannot be o pleasant pros.
pect- from the Mexican ramparts. 1t. is true
that CoRrEz faced more odds when he cut his
way out of the same city, and the Liberals who
surround MACMILLAN will not fight with great
er heroism than did the half armed Mexicans
who howled their hate of the stranger INTO
Spanish ears. But MAMMALIAN is evidently
not CoRrEz. Indeed, q greater contrast than
between these two .'.sconquesadores" can
scarcely be imagined, unless it be that between
the times of. their respective achievements,
and, perhaps, the achievements themselves p
And yet, surely the times are not entirely lun-
worthy Of comparison with the days Of great
statesmen and warriors, which have produced
Nicholas and NAPOLEON, CAvoUR and BIS
| MARcK, in which have been fought Alma and
Inkermann, solferino, Magenta and sadowa.
Indeed, full Of romance as is the history of the
Spanish, conquest with its steel-clsd warriors,
IFS implacable faith, its wild and marvellous
stories Of heroic adventure and miraculous
performances, we doubt whether to the philo-
sophie mind it offers as wide field for large
and interesting reflection as does the condition
of Mexico to-day. What is to become Of these
millions of passionate men who cannotnlabor
ior their country with steadiness, or tight for
it with perseverance, to whom the regulari.
ty of civil Law is tradition, whose courage is
only the outburst Of animal ferocity, and whose
patriotism, from the highest to the lowest,
seems. to be only the impulse Of reckless per-
sonsl ambition, people whose chronic condi-
ton is civil war -. go =,
Itdid seem at one time as If MAxIaILIAss 8
advent was the initial point of new history tor
Mexico but whether he wanted, with all his
virtues. that executive ability which knows
how by slow degrees to snbdue such natures
ato the useful and the good, or whether cen
turies of misrule and mixed blood have dragged
them down beyond the hope Of national regen-
- Il l.. hoo Eos 1aI md fha
various leaders Of guerrilla bands, called by
courtesy armies, are now free again to set up
rival constitutions, issue rival pronunciamentos,
rob native churches, plunder foreign merchants,
and cut each others throats, soon stisto." =. i
But, of course, this will not be allowed to last
too long. There is an element of the present
history which did not belong to. tho past The
Mexican question is fast becoming our ques-
tion,, The unfortunate MosTEzuHA had not
Mr.. SEWARD to Ay to as refuge, and in his
political philanthropy that venerable statesman
has been. spinning, the meshes of a diplomatic M
correspondence which has not only succeeded
in "tangling" LOUIS NAPOLEON but which even
J1AREz, venomons as he is, will not be able to
break through. p'=.,.. 7p.. - 7isoseo. aa
We want somethingto divert peoples minds
from irritating domestic issues, we want some
thing 10 do together under the old flag, we want
the Isthmus we want Lower California; we
want all the gold and silver mines Of thsa gas
dilleras, Ye.YAnt .PopOcatapetl to match With
Mount st. Elias all the ice and all the FIRE bo!
tween the Atlantic and the Pacific We want
70 destroyall the savages in the plains md to to
Be- ourselves the "Big Injuns'' Of this continent
We have o restless people, reckless tempern-
ment, any amount Of internal revenue'and q
popblar army. Above all, we have FIVE Gen Gen
erals, Major Generals by bfeyet and statesmen
by instinct, ,<yho have been trainedin the:work
of reconstruction, and have learned practically
how to register voters Of all colors, and whose
military commission would make short work
with Mexican Guerrillas as with Southern
bushwhackers ..,:g.L.
With what we want and what we have,
the, future is very plain, evenif Gen. BANKS
we're not chairman of Foreign affairs in the
House, nor Mr. SUMNER in the Senate. The
only. question is, 8. How long Mr.. SEWARD, how
long. .''ea o. 10 --Ia- -
I'VE hope quickly. AS soon as the freedmen
enter upon the full exercise Of, their suffrage,
they will abolish the Freedmen's Bureau, and
General HOWARD will be ready for new fields
of labor The missionary enterprise Of timer
ant legislators will find widening room, for
active and peaceful employment, and even
Judge KELLY can in Vera Cruz, or Jalappa, or
Orizaba, harrangue against peonage, as safely
as he could denounce the vomito. - /.
We hope therefore to see the political cloud
hich.overhangs the South, drift over the Gulf,
shading the Spanish Islands if it must be,
and having spent its lightnings, float on to
darken other lands beyond the reach Of our
speculation and finally leave the whole hemis-
phere bathed in perpetual sunshine, Allah
Achbar-Great is Brother JONATHAN and MIR.
SEWARD is his prophet.
In the mean time let US hope that JuAREz
will not combine in his policy, Spanish intoler-
ance and Indian ferocity, but under the gentle
influence of the State Department, will permit
the unfortunate Archduke to rejoin his family
and household gods at Miramar He has paid
heavy price for his ambition. In the same
city, centuries ago, CoRTsa holding the
commission of CHARLES the ", the head of that
great Imperial House, from which MACMILLAN
himself is descended, put the last Of the Mon
TEzUMAs to inhuman and Infamous torture,
and when one of his attendants who was suf-
fering with him appealed in his agony to the
unhappy king, he replied to him, "Do you
think that l am lying on bed Of roses?" AT
ter long time this piteous exclamation has
found its echo