The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1874-02-17
SANTA ANNA NIhI.L.


SANTA ANNA STILL.
Tho dispatches announce that the
once famed Antonio Lopez de Santa
Anna had left his exile in ST. Thomas,
and arrived at Havana, ca route to his
native country, under the late amnesty
proclamation of the president Of Mex
leo. He has been in exile about eigh-
teen years, In the meantime having
thrice cndeavored, but unsuccessfully,
TO return home.
General Santa Anna Is now about
eighty-one years of age, having been
born In the same year with Sam Hous-
ton--l703, He Is u native OF the State
of Vera Cruz, and by descent is almost
II full-blooded Spaniard. He Is too old
ever again to disturb the march of
events In his country, and the time is
approaching when his character and
conduct may be criticised by impartial
pens. That he has been n remarkable
man, of powerful mind and tremcnd-
Gus force of will, will be conceded by
history. His march of nearly seven
hundred miles upon Bucna Vista
against General TaylOr-liis bloody de-
feat, leaving his army shattered to
fragments--lls almost miraculous APP
pearance at Cerro Gordo, nine hundred
milesn away, over plains and mountains,
and borne on horseback, with n new
army in so short II time, to dispute the
passage of Scott to his capitol, to be
again deieatcd-followed by his hercu-
lean efforts TO defend the great city
these events mark him as great cap
tain, and one of the remarkable men
Of the new world. Had he possessed
trained troops, well armed, clothed and
fed, General Scott would have required
a great army to cut his way to the halls
Of the Montezumas.
Santa Annals first distinguished
claim to national renown was won at
Tampico in 1929, in defeating and bod
lily capturing the last invading army of
Spain. That death blow to the powerof
the mother Countrywide Yorktown of
MeXieo-made Santa Anna the "bene-
merito," the well-deservinGof his coun-
try; and, TO his credit, be iGsaid he won
his baton in fighting for the liberties
ofhis country, before his name was
furnished by the bloody scenes of civil
strife against his own people.
Again, following his defeat and sub
sequent release by Texas, in 1886 and
1887, while his sun was in an eclipse,
fortune smiled to rekindle in the ma
tional heart the glorious memories of
1929 towards him. This opportunity
was furnished by the landing at Vera
Cruz of powerful French force under
the gallant Prince de Joinville, son of
Louis PHILIPPE. With the impetuosity
of desperation Santa Anna hurled his
columns against the invader and drove
him headlong back to his fleet under
the wall of San Juan de Ulloa. He
exposed his person at the head of his
troops with the most admirable daring
and had leg carried away by can
non ball. Here two decisive epochs
in his career, each in turn, gave him a
strong hold on his people, to be after
wards loosened and broken by his inn
perious and despotic management of
domestic affairs.
His tremendous struggle, under i'm
mense cmharrassments, having just re-
turned from his first exile, to defend
the interior of the country from
the American army in 1917
proved fruitless, and his star again
went down, followed by voluntary ex-
lie. In the succeeding eight or ten
years he was alternately in power and
under the ban till his final fall in
1866.
He will now, doubtless, quietly end
his days in his great estate of MANI o
lie Clavo, consisting of three hundred
thousand acres, in his native State.
The stains on his name, stamped with
he blood of murdered prisoners, can
never be eilaced nor apologised for
rom an Anglo Saxon view of his ca
eer. But with those stains, impartial
history, in due time, will group those
acts which pertain to the better side
+ his nature-and thus posterity will
'eigh his reputotion In the scale of at
EAST disinterested justice, ii