Litchfield enquirer., 1873-01-30
MEXICO,


 written letter to Mir. J. H. Oglessy, president of ths New Orleans Chamber of Commerce, giving some useful facts and
 opinions about Mexico, the substance Of which We are allowed to print for the first 1 time.
 ''Rothing is more common" writes. AIr. Nelson, s'among persons who possess but
 a superficial knowledge of Mexico, than the opinion that it's present condition is l infinitely less prosperous than before it's
 emancipation from the yoke of Spain. ] This statement, which first acquired cur rency in the United States about the time of the Mexican war, and which at that l time was based upon upon plausible if not upon correct reasoning, has attained such strength by constant repetition, as | to have become one of the commonplaces of the American press and one of the firm ly-rooted convictions of the people. And l yet, to those wlG0 know in what consists the real strength and prosperity of peo- pie, to those who can distinguish between the interests of limited class and those of nation at large, to those who under stand that the tawdry fnery of score of aristocrats and the deceptive ostentation of 8 church endowed with the spells of centuries does not constitute national prosperity those, ill short, who have
 instituted an intelligent comparison be- tween the Mexico of to-day and the Mex leo of the preceding generation, and with New Spain under it's latest viceroys, it Is apparent not only that Mexico has made notable progress, but that she has passed
 through the furnace of political regener-
 ation, has secured the great conquests of
 civil and religious liberty, and has opened
 wide her doors to the regenerating infu- erces which will make her a participant of the wonderful blessings which Prpvi- dence has so lavishly bestowed upon the | United States.
 THE MEXICAN REVOLUTIONS AND CHANGES. ''At the beginning of the present centu- ry, and for many years thereafter, Mexico
 was the most populous country in the l New World, and its capital was the larg- est city in America. Since that time Mex ico has nearly doubled in population, while it has lost two-thirds of its territory; but the miraculous rapidity with which the United States has advanced, leaving Mex ico far behind, caused us to regard her slower growth as a retrogression.
 'The long series of revolutions of which
 Mexico has been the prey has given rise
 to the opinion in foreign countries that the Mexican people are essentially tnrbu- lent and impossible to govern. Those who hold this opinion are not aware of the causes which have laid at the founda- tion of Mexican commotions, and conse- quently of the reasons which may be ad- duced to show that the revolutionary
 epoch in Mexico is substantially closed.
 ''Mexico, at the time of achieving her independence, had absolutely no educa- tion in sef-government. The movement of independence begun in 1910 by the l priest Hidalgo was drowned in blood, af- ter eight years of irregular warfare, dur ing which the insurgents never succeeded
 in establishing q regular government The movement of 1guala, which in 1921 effected the separation from Spain, under the guidance of Augustine Iturbide, had
 in view merely her independence from the Spanish yoke, but without a thought of efecting any change in the form of gov ernment. That Mexico is to-day a repub- lie is primarily owing to refusal Of the royal family of Spain to send one of It's princes as the monarch of Mexico; and secondarily, to the reaction brought about by the Spanish party in Mexico, who were unwilling te eco native of the country seated upon the throne which they had
 destined for Spanish prince. The re- public was founded in 1924, after the fall of the ephemeral empire of Iturbide, not because there was any republican party in Mexico, but because that was the only possible form of government in the ab- sence of a monarchy. The first genera tion of Mexican presidents and cabinet ministers Nas composed almost exclusive ly of persons who were at heart monarch
 ists, aud it is easy to divine the confusion which this fact introduced into all branch es of the administration. Personal ambi- ton took the place of administrative tal- ent, and as armed force was the only cer- tain means of satisfying such ambition, none but military leaders for nearly forty years ever occupied the presidency of Mexico. The first constitution, q hastily devised imitation of our our own, could not flourish in such soil. The American constitution had for it's mission to unite colonies previously separated; the Mexi- can constitution erected semi-independ- ent states in a country previously ruled by centraliZing system. It was natural that the first generation of the independ- ent existence of Mexico should be filled with the complex strife between despotic and liberal institutions, between central ism and federalism; and that the strife should be the more bloody because large ly made in the interest of personal ambi- tion.
 SANTA ASNA'S CAREER.
 'The most representative man whom Mexico has produced, General Santa An ma, ,aptly symbolizes in his singular career the war of ideas from which Mexico has but just emerged. Beginning life as a &Io war upon the early insurgents, We see him in 1921 acquire the rank of general Af- ter cooperating in the monarchical revo- lution of Iturbide, he was the first to pro- nounce' against that unhappy Emperor in 1922. During the series of nearly fifty rulers who have held sway in Mexico since then, Santa Anna has waged war fer or against almost every administration. Santa Anna was elected President as 8 federalist, and overthrow the federal con- stitution. In his second term he again overthrow the existing institutions in fa- vor of another plan of government. In his third term he restored the Constitu- ton of 1924, and in his last administra- tion made himself dictator, with the title of His Serene highness.'
 THE CONSTITUTION IN 1857, AND WHAT IT HAS WROUGHT.
 "What Santa Anna did upon 8 grand
 scale many other military chieftains did upon the lesser theatre of the state gov ernments. The question of the form of government could never be said to be definitely solEed for Mexico until the adoption in 1857 of her present constitu- tion; and that event, as Is we'll known, became the signal for the essentially re- igious contest known as the War of Re- form, which, in it's turn, led to foreign in- tervention and to the evanescent empire of Maximilian,
 ''rhe facts upon which the precedingre-
 sumo are founded fill the melancholy his- tory of Mexico for half century, and, it must be confessed, are quite sufficient to justify the popular impression of Mexico as an essentially turbulent country. Can
 it be wondered at that it has cost half a century of blood and suffering to conquer
 the assurance of prosperous future un-
 der genuinely republican system of gov | orUYnouf