New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1876-05-14
The Destiny of Mexico.


General w. 3. Hazen, Colonel of the Sixth
United States Infantry, who has recently
returned from visit to the Mexican CAPT
tai:
In closing this series of hurriedly- ritter
letters, in " hich the writer has endeavoreC
to give comprehensively few g.impses Of
our near neighbor, Mexico, he will EN-
dsavOr, in q summary way, to give fain
view OF its relative place among nations
and what appears to be its future destiny
New Spain, as it was formerly known, il
but d branch of the parent tree, old Spain
In it to-day one may read the history OF
the mother country for the past 300 years
and although the Spaniards were formal
driven from the country fifty five years
ago, yet al there is in Mexico. except the
crushed aboriginal Indian, is Spanish. In
the days of Spanish pre-eminence, Mexico
was royal, and everywhere, from California
to Guatemala, are evidences of it, in
ruined roads, churches, haciendas, auue.
ducts, local monuments, bridges and lr1i-
cation bitches. New Spain resembles old
Spain in general arldity, and only for the
regular periods of raina would be no better
than our interior country west Of the hun
dredth meridian. The Spaniards, due to
the instruction of the Moors, were excellent
workers in stone, and as a result most of
these early works in Mexico stand out con-
spicuously. while much that surrounded
and embellished them has passed away,
giving to Mexican scenery bare and
CHASTITY appearance. But few of the early
settlers of the country were really emf
grants, who, in the sense that New England
was settled, came to stay, but while keep.
ing up their sympathies with Spain, be-
came rich here, and transferred their for
tunes to the mother country. Thus, the
viceroys, of whom sixty-one ruled, up to
independence of 1921, upon an average of
four years each, found this long enough
to acquire all the home fortune they
coveted. These are but examples of how
Mexico has been. for three hundred
years raked, culled and cleaned of almost
every thing valuable for the benefit of a
foreign country. What little remained was
put into churches and used for luxuries of
the church establishment, which in Mexico
had discarded most of the rigors observed
by the home church. In the height of
Spanish power, and even later the immense
India trade, which reshipped at Vera Cruz
and Acapulco, meeting and exchanging in
the City of Mexico, gave that city, and, in
fact, much of Mexico, wealth and luxury,
the traces of which only are visible now.
The Spanish people would not progress,
and nature will not tolerate rest. Motion
ID d Id al Vi tulUSb-ll HUI
forward, backward, and if neither rest is
relative backward motion. In Mexico,
as in Spain, one sees the houses
built on the precise pattern of those
in Arabia and Egypt before the Christian
era, and is the felos the hnsban Imam plow-
ing the ground with the one-handled wood
en- pillow of the same period. The fast sail
ing merchant vessel, with a thousand other
useful inventions. coming from the general
knowledge that grew out Of the Reforma-
ton which Spain rejected, destroyed the
portage upon the backs of
mules across the viceroyalty Of Mexico,
and with it came the steady decline, which
was but a necessary sequence of her re-
fusal to move forward. Spain preferred the
JnGuisition to the Reformation. She pre-
ferred to destroy the wheels of political
motion, which are free thought and univer-
sal culture, to giving hem the utmost en-
which was done when the
was accepted. The result is
plain. Spain, and all that belongs to her.
is left go far behind IN the political race
that, from this and other causes, the hand
OF death can be seen as plainly as, at a
Egg pit. Greece and Rome, it could be seen
upon them.
After the loss of this trade, the country
and the people conceived the
idea that all their misfortunes were due to
the rule of Spain, and they cast her out in
1921. Being no better on than before, she
borrowed in London, in 1921, some forty
million dollars, which has never been paid,
and which kept Mexico along with the
y orld for ten or twelve years, when this
" as expended. Good fortune then stepped
IN, and the English again, by strange in.
for mines, took up Mexico, spend
in h paarlu
a. she first loaned her. This was exhausted
about the time of the Mexican war, when
we contributed by expenses in Mexico,
and as purchase money. some thirty millions
more, which lasted till Macmillan made
them {, like deposit. This is now exhausted,
and we see the famished, bankrupt, polit-
cal harpies Of Mexico at revolution again
for the single aim of personal aggrandizs-
nent Since her independence in 1921 Mex
90 has had thirty-six successful revolu-
lions. These are the death struggles Of an
amount Of literature of the past.fifty years
1pon the subject !of Mexico and its future
is curiously lacking in this par
ocular: that it fails to place the real cause
IF Mexican impotence where it properly be-
ongs-innately with the people themselves
rhe result is that the plans and theories of
Ill these writers have in every case failed.
The people Themselves, although dOcile
and easily controlled, are largely Indian,
here being of the 5000 DGO Of population
lbout 3,0OO,0 900 of pure Indian blood. that
10 not speak Spanish, and never wear
clothing above the waist, with nearly
J, 100000 of mixed races, many of whom are
nut q little better than the full Indians,
eaving but little over 100000 of pure
whites in the country. OF taese there are
'ut about 5000 property holders or owners
4 real estate, who really constitute the |
,ody polite OF the State.
To compare the two countries, Mexico |
nd the United States, will preface by |
aging that at the beginning of this century
lexico possessed population of 5000, 900, |
10000 morest than the United States. In |
evenly five years the population of the |
While that of Mexico has increased fifty per |
emit or one-sixteenth as much. If we offset |
he Indians and other low orders in Mexico |
gainst an equal number of our poorest |
opuiatior, including Indians and negroes, /
1 which we give much the best of the bar
ain, it leaves the intelligent, thinking |
opulatiOn as eighteen to one. If we take |
10 actual, independent land owners in the
wo countries, We find them to compare as
DO to one. Taking the actual wealth of
9th. it is as twenty to one. The annual
ldustrial product Of the country bears
bout the same proportion as the actual
ealth. The exports Of these countries
,mpare as sixteen to one. The proportion
the population in schools in Mexico is
ne in tifty-two, and in the States one in
'ur, comparing Is one to thirteen, while
he industrial produce of two years in the
nited States is equal to the entire produce
the world-renOwned mines of Mexico
nee their discovery, $50 years ago.
FtOm these comparisons faint idea may
, had of the relative place of Mexico
nong the nations. The soil of the country
unsurpassed, and the climate, with few
Eceptions, compares favorsbly with the
'st in the world. The purity Of the atmos-
lere on the table lands, from the altitude,