The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1869-01-14
DAILY PRESS.
Thursday Morning, January "A, 1869.
Mexico under Guardiau~hip.
PORTLAND.

1t is customary to have guardian appoint
ed to look after the affairs of infants and
those grown people who are incapable of TAX
ing care of themselves. The policy of placing
nations under guardianship is more ques-
tionable because there is generally no recog-
nized tribunal to call the guardians to an ac-
count for an abuse OF trust A project, it
seems,is on foot to have the United States es-
tabish a protectorate over Mexico, to be fol-
flowed in the end, Though for obvious reasons
this is not now limited att by annexation
II such a scheme is actually carried out it is
not difficult TO predict some of the results
One thing annexation will not be likely to
accomplish. 1t will not be likely to fuse the
two peoples into common nationality. Diff
fering in origin, in language, in laws, in So
cal institutions, and what is more, in the
type OF national character, they do not pos
ssss the common elements necessary to form
an organic unity. These differences
yield slowly to the pressure of sur
rounding circumstances and until they
are obliterated, the principle of national
vitality is continually asserting itself. 1t was
this principle which for centuries after the
Norman conquest kept the two races, the
Saxons and Normans, as distinct as if they
had occupied different sides of the channel.
1t is this that makes the Austrian empire an
illcompacted conglomeration of fragments
instead of an organic whole. From the same
cause Turkey is constantly threatened with
dismemberment and only succeeds by force
In repressing the discontents resulting from
the vain attempt to fuse uncongenial ele-
ments. The insurrection of Poland and the
fires of Fenanism still further attest the
almost deathess tenacity with which ma
tion clings to its identity. Mexico is not
likely to prove an exceptional case. Even il
las is not probabe) sthe Mexicans should
offer no forcible opposition to this attempt to
place them under the supervision of foreign
power, there is no reason to suppose they
would not for long time at least remain a
distinct people.
1t seems more probable that civil war would
be the consequence sooner or later. At first
emigration from the United States would in
'nASS q hSW OlCuuCut luLO D1tAlCdu
Mexican slothfulness could not long main
tain competition with Anglo-Saxon vigor
and skill. Hence from economic if not DO
litical causes, the new element would slowly
but surely displace the old. The example OF
California would teach the inhabitants of
Mexico what to expect il they waited. With
their we'll known jealousy of foreigners, is it
to be expected that they would quietly await
the operation of causes tending eventually to
make them strangers in their own country?
Would they submit even to an industrial con
quest? Their past history does not encour-
age the belief Jealousy in connection with
1dleness would give fresh impetus to those
habits OF predatory warfare so long tradition
al with the Mexicans. As the result, we
should probably see an antagonism of races
similar to that so long existing between Eu-
ropeans and their descendants on the one
side and the Aborigines OF this country on
the other. If such a contest should end in
any other way than by the determination OF
the weaker race, it would prove happy ex-
ception to past experience. The evidence of
so radical a reform in human nature does not
seem sufficient to act upon.
We owe it to Mexico to leave her to work
out her own destiny if she will. From the
baptism of blood ard suffering through which
she is now passing she may yet rise regen-
Grated nation. Suffering is the school in
which nations, like individuals, are educated.
The way to develop sound national charac-
ter is not to diminish the responsibility of the
people in conducting their affairs. A feeling
OF responsibility is one of the crowning ele-
ments OF true manhood. 1t can be developed
only by exercise. There can scarcely be a
greater curse to the people of any nation or
any portion of them, than to take away their
responsibility by taking away their power of
self-government. Yankee energy and thrift
would be great improvement upon Mexican
shlftlessness in developing the resources of
the country. But the highest aim of a wise
policy is not to produce corn and IRON but TO
produce men. The Yankee might redeem
the soil OF Mexico but he could not redeem
her people. That must be essentially their
own work. "You can lead a horse to water
but you cannot make him drink" The DOW
er OF the United States might plant civiliza-
tion OF the Anglo Saxon, not of the Latin
race. While so many fertile acres in our own
country remain unoccupied and unimproyed.
we have little excuse for coveting, much less
for appropriating the territories of a neigh
boring nation.