Morning appeal. [volume] (Carson City, Nev.) 1877-1906, 1877-12-25
A MERRY CHRISTMAS
THE TROUBLE ON THE MEXICAN
BORDER

Your ii says IOuchStOne, is a great
peace-maker" If, then the 50 called ere
public of Mexico were under the influence
of stable laws and fixed principles; if her PEG
pie, protesting to be endowed with the cap
acities for self government, really did possess
such capacities and exercised them as do the
people of the Northern States of the American
Union, the hot broils of the Texas border
might easily be settled, nay, they would be
adjusted through the calmness and wisdom of
of an equitable arbitrament and an honest
cooperation. But unfortunately for all con-
cerned, ''our sister Republic is at the mercy
of passions which, unrestrained, breed petty
revolutions and bring on anarchy, tumult and
instability If the present Presidency of
Mexico rested Gin the hearts of d law-abiding
people instead of upon a volcano of pas
sionate caprice or capricioWs PASSIONS, peace
would be maintained upon the Rio Grande,
rioters would be arrested and punished and
the two countries would continue at peace
with one another as two well-constituted peo-
pie who are ncighbors do, Notwithstanding
the fight which took place in the morning be-
tween the respective bulldogs belonging to
the two houses. Mexico cannot protect it
self, much less protect its neighbors. 1t is i'll a
chronic state of siege-is the government of
that most unhappy country; and revolutions
have as regular periodicity the vomito
or the Asiatic cholera. 1t is evident that the
banks of the Rio Grande are in nowise under
the control of the central authority at the
City of Mexico. The banditti who prowI
through the brakes and willow thckets of the
arroyos there have as thorough a contempt
for the National Authority which, by much
iterated poetical figure ''revels in the Halls of
the Montezumas" as the insurgents of Cuba
have for the raw levies which are pitted
against them by imbecile Captains General
and pension seeking Brigadiers SO the dan |
ger is that between the outlaws of the Mexi- |
can side and the not over scrupulous Texan |
Rangers, war will be fomented whose out
come Will be the acquisition of more l1exican |
territory, more half civilized thousands to
be added to the already too numerous vicious
classes of our own Republic, and the eventual
formation of bakers dozen or so of States
upon the southern side of this Union. The
outlook is not at all an encouraging one.
There are reasons to doubt the pacific inten-
tions of SECRETARY Evarts. He has been
charged with harboring designs which look to
the acquisition of more territory from the
Mexicans. However this may be, the Pres
ident himself is neither trustworthy man nor
a wise or experienced statesman. He will do
anything that he fancies will add to the
strength of his lamentable policy. He seems
to be possessed by the Imp of the Perverse.
With such man at the head of our own
affairs, and no adequate authority in Mexico
to command the peace, the chances of war are
not so remote that we may regard the stu
alton with complacency wholly unmixed with
apprehension Indeed, it will take the most
careful steps and the calnest and most saga
cious efforts of wise and temperate statesman
ship to avert war whose best and and least
hurtful outcome could not be otherwise than ]
leplorable :