The Cadiz sentinel. [volume] (Cadiz, Ohio) 1864-1911, 1867-06-05
The Mexican Catastrophe.

The Mexican Catastrophe.
The France Austrian Mexican Empire is
at an end Maximilian is captured and his
army has surrendered. He will probably
be pronounced traitor and executed for
the logic of the victor is irresistible in the
settlement of legal propositions; and if the
patriots of Mexico can not find the Aus
trian usurper guilty Of treason, they are
good way behind their brethren in the
United States. 1t will be said that the
Empire terminated 'ingloriously;" and that
will be enough, in the minds of most, to
deliver it over to brief and contemptuous
disposal. 1t has certainly been brief in its
duration. Asan enterprise it has not heen
successful. 1t offers, therefore, a fit sub
.iect for mean little men to expatiate rpon
in mean little way. To the politically
and theologicllly orthodox, the failure Of
the enterprise will prove its wickedness;
providence interposed to forbid result
whice divine justice did not approve. They
who are the most vigorously at work to ex-
tinguish not merely political but personal
liberty among ten millions Of their own
fellow, citizens will be very loud in their ex-
ultation at the breaking down of what they
will call an expedition to overthrow a re-
public and establish a despotism They
who in their own experience only conceive
politician as party thimblerigger, play
ing mean games for small stakes and only
knowing sincerity as thing to be professed
for purposes of deception, will find in the
Mexican disaster a fresh opportunity to
abuse ruler whose ambition is as noble as
thar own 10 oontcnptibiv, aud whose great
ness Is hateful because it suggests in their
envIous souls perpetual recollection OF
their own littleness.
1t is not probable that Maximillian was
very well adapted either to the civil or the
military requirements of the work for which
he was selected. He appears to have been
an amlaSle man, of moderate ambition, with
small political wisdom and little experience
In practical affairs. For the carrying ont of
such plan, there was needed hand to
execute the thoughts of the master mind
as they were conceived; and it is not often
In human combinations that these two
things fall together. Whether, had the
Franco Austrian adventure been successful
the final result would have been favorable
to the Mexican people and to the world, is
a question upon which it would be pre-
sumptuous to pronounce; but that the i'm
mediate effect of its failure will be civi,
peace and political unity in Mexico is a
point upon which there are moro grounds
apprehension than reasons for confidence.
1t Is nearly half century since Mexico has
known the blessings of civil tranquility and
a settled government. To speak of Mex
leo as Republic, in any sence which jndi-
Gates popular rule, or government of law,
argues either fragrant dishonesty or total
ignorance of her actual condition. Since
the present generation came upon the stage. |
her regimen has been an annual revolution. |
She has been the sport of parties headed |
by profigate men, each proclaiming Ii oerty, |
each, during his brief period of domination,
ruling with a despotic hand, and sustaining
himself by robbing the people. Her party
wars have been intensified and rendered !
bloody by the irrepressible conflicts of anita
gonist races; uader the influence of which
her people have been decimated, her wealth
her industry destroyed, and
her. name erased from the catalogue of ma.
tions.
We do not remember to have seen any
evidence that single public man or jour-
naist has ever thought it essential to in
luire what were the real interests of the
people Of Mexico in the French enterprise,
assuming that a settled national govern
nent is a thing valuable and to be desired.
The question what were the interests of the
ple has to all appearance, never been con-
idered an element in the problem of French
Those of our politicians and
journalists who have been most Jealous for
he establishment Of a purely military des-
potism in the South, while they have been
,ery angry at the occupation, have over |
ooked the people altogether, and placed t
heir opposition upon higher ground-the
great interests Of humanity--the demands I
If universal liberty-of which they are the I
peciaf apostles. They want liberty pro- !
laimed TO all the world to all the inhabi-
ants thereof. Absorbed in the contempla- e
ion generarprinciples, their genius is of
IN order too exalted to stcop to the consid. t
ration Of particular conditions. All men
re created equal, and all people and per- /
ons are exactly alike; and If it happens
hat the white people of the South are con-
iderably below the standard fixed by the v
inc Of absolute equality, and the negroes !
above, it does not follow, in &
heir minds, that there are any other ex- a
options. G
Nov, we suppose that in order. to Judge I
..:a.ail,, what 1ooiu,au ie n,ast "a a