The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-07-26

can get-this Government no sooner feels safa
in its place. possessed Of absolutely snnrey,o
power, than IL gives itself up 10 acts that tbo
whole reasoning world, outside of tba inrno
olate local pools OF passion, regards with dis
may and horror! IL in the higher snIere of
Mexican life we find this, what sb All We And
lOWeE, ,o9"h ~ they whose Office IL ia 10
control the nation cannot control themseIvas.
If men who are chosen that their wisdoro r,o,,
moderate the violence of nature i'm n ,vboio
people are only the more conspieuous in fra,,,
and leaders in acts that outrage tho IJsco,,o, ~
the world, II would hardly be- iust to ev1oot
aught but the extremity of demoralizationp ~
the masses. There is, indeed, no tone in the
nation; no high manly character: no s5o,ays to
guide it in the hard path it has to tread nv
those instructive perceptons-the possession
of better endowed races-that temper strict
justice with mercy and regulate abstract right
by q rule of practical propriety. Nations are
as their units multiplied in other respects than
in numbers. Where the individual man ranks
high in the race, is bold intelligent, and deeply
conscious of moral responsibility before his
fellows, there the nation commands its position
among the great ones of the world; and, on
the contrary, where people are degraded and
depraved, so that they scarcely have indi-
vidual vitality, there the nation is barely to be
trusted with its own destinies. And Mexico
seems, in the light of her recent history, to be
tending in that direction. ~. 4.
. Mexico and the United States have each re-
Gently passed through a great struggle not
unlike in some points; and how differently
have the two people borne themselves Mexico
fought for her existence as a nation, her con-
sttutienal Government sustaining fight that
often seemed desperate against an opposing
party OF Mexicans supported by foreign forces
Her Government adhered to its cause with
admirable tenacity. One of the worst features
in the case was the barbarity with which the
soldiers of the nation were treated by the adj
verse party when taken. Yet against all
efforts the Government strove on, succeeded,
and at length saw its right and authority
admitted throughout 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
10 hperty men were slaughtered as if that
falr deity, like an ancient Moloch had plea
sure only in bloody sacrifices. Admit that
they had the right to kill Maximilian, was it
wise to exercise iti Miramon and Meiia had
justly forfeited their lives; but is it discreet
10 Teach the people the law of retaliation and
absolute justice at such a time or
must it be admitted that instruction less
bloody would be lost? Here in the United
states also the struggle against opposing forces
was for life. 1t was so desperate, so main
tanned on either side that in point of carnage,
the whole Mexican war might be cOmpre-
hended in some one of our battles. 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 imperialsts on Mexican pa
trots were not surpassed by the atrocities of
Libby and Andersonville, 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 man. life-to
require only that he should acknowledge the
victorious principles and obey the law. Here
the people felt that they had a noble cause to
sustain, and that inhumanity would weigh
heavier on those who practised it than on those
who suffered Indeed we followed this so far
that we even made fools of ourselves in letting
the head traitor slip through our fingers with
out securing ajudicial recognition of his crime
and hXlng his 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 ...