The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1869-10-20
MIR. Seward In Mexico.

No other foreigner has ever received from
that with which Mr.. Seward, our venerable
ex-Secretary of State, is welcomed to the halls
of the Montezumas President Juarez, In
whose name no was formally welcomed when
he landed on the 7th instant at Manzanilla
amidst roaring salutes from the forts, is mani
testify not ungrateful. It was the policy of
Secretary Seward which inspired the instruc-
lions forwarded in October, 1865, by General
Sheridan to General Sedgwick, and which
determined the destiny of Juarez as well as
that of Emperor Macmillan and other COM
petitors for power in INSTRUMENTATION
which, said General Sheridan, twill be
enforced against the adherents of the imperial
buccaneers representing the so-called imperial
government OF Mexico, and also against Ortcga,
Santa Anna and other factions. President
Juarez is the acknowledged head of the liberal
government in Mexico" This amounted to
virtual recognition of the position which
Juarez still maintains.
Mr. Seward will doubtless have accorded to
oil pO5SlUlc iuCllltltS lOi oVuuJihS VIZ
present political, religious, social and material
condition of Mexico, and for discovering its
future prospects. If he had not already
exhausted all the resources of rhetoric in
his voluminous eulogistic descriptions Of
the glories of Alaska, with its miraculous
climate, its vast supplies Of furs and
seal skins, and its spontaneous growth
of ice creams, sherbets, Roman punches
and other similar vegetables" Mr.. Seward
might be expected to favor the world with
equally voluminous and eulogistic descriptions
of Mexico. In this case, at least, he would
not be compelled to draw on his imagination
for his facts, and General Thomas could not
contradict any statement, however apparently
extravagant, which he might make. Mexico
is one of the finest and richest countries on
which the sun ever shone. Mr.. Seward might
endlessly prolong the report which he could
give, even If he were to restrict himself to the
porphyritc mountains which wall in the plain
of Tenochttlan, whereon stands the capital Of
Mexico. II would be pleasant to learn from
him the remote connections between this vol
canic circle formed by Popocatepetl, Iztacci-
huatl, Toluca and their uniting chain Of
smaller volcanoes, and the other volcanic
wonders in the West Indies and elsewhere in
which he has taken special interest. Nor
could he be suspected of being Indifferent to
the progress of the various railways which are
yet to replace some Of the good old roads laid
out in various directions by the most distin-
guished Of the Mexican viceroys, the Count de
Rivella- Gigedo. Railway enterprises, emigra-
ton schemes and many other Mexican jobs
would offer more practical interest than the
study of Mexican picture writing, or of Mexi-
can history from the times of the Toltecs and
their SUCCESSORS the Chichimecs, the Aztecs
the Tezcucans, the Tepanecs and the Aztccs
under the Montezumas, to the days of Spanish
viceroys, and the revolutionary priests Hidalgo
and Morelos, and the native Mcxi-
can Emperor Iturbide, and the often
broken succession Of republican presi-
dents, and the Franco-Austrian Emperor
Macmillan and President Jaurez The mineral
wealth of Mexico and the fauna and fora of
the three regions into which the country is
naturally divided-tierrds calisntes, tie7wds
templadas and herras .taSos-would supply
abundant topics for book on Mexico, should
Mr.. Seward be tempted to write one. Perhaps
he had better reserve Alaska as subject for
descriptive poem until he can disprove the
testimony of General Thomas that there is
more poetry than truth in the imaginative ex-
Secretary's speeches on that theme. If his
prophecies had not sometimes turned out to be
by no means infallible we should like to have
him predict how soon Mexico will probably
become one of the United States Of America.