Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1885-05-11

by corps de d1moe of French troops
to give legal JUNCTION to the authority
of the Pope. And now the contest
was renewed between Maximillian, the
pope's annointed, and Jaurez, the
president of the people. Jaurez
gallantly maintained for time the
unequal contest, but was finally
overcome and took refuge at Ell
Paso, Texas. In this was his only
safety, Maximillian having issued an
order that all officers above the rank
of captain taken fighting against his
authority should be shot as traitors;
and great number were so shot. 1t
was by such means that he stamped
out the Republic and established the
Empire and with it all the ancient
rights and immunities of the church.
The prospect for republican govern
ment in Mexico was dismal enough;
but there came at last rift in the
clouds. AS soon as our own rebellion
was off our hands Secretary Seward
informed Napoleon that the presence
of European troops on American soil
was offensive to the American people,
and gave him sixty days in which to
get out of Mexico.
Napoleon at once withdrew his
troops and Maximillian started to 90
with them under the urgent advice, it
is said, of Marshall Bazaine. But
messengers from the three Arch
bishops of Mexico induced him to re-
main, upon the assurance in the
name Of the Pope, that he should be
furnished the means to support stand
ing army of 1000 men. So soon as the
French left Jaurez returned, raised
again the standard of the Republic,
and took up again his old war cry
'sThe Liberal Constitution. Such
of his old officers as were not shot
under Maximillan's sangninary order
rallied to his support. He came down
slowly from the north with a formid-
able army and Macmillan came up
from the capital, to this, the strong
hold of the church party, to meet
him.
The traveller naturally visits the
convent of Santa Clara, a solid old
building surrounded by high and mas
sive walls in which he was first quar-
tered, and then the less strong, but
more elegantly built La Cruz, to which
he retired as the siege progressed.
In the latter the room is pointed out
where he was held prisoner, and
from which he was led out that bright
June morning to his fate. He died
like man along with his faithful
generals, Miramon and Mejia, only
asking that he be placed to the left
and not between them, where they
at first put him; and that his re-
mains be sent to his "poor Carlotta.'
He passed out well filled purse to
be distributed among the soldiers of
the firing party; then folding his
hands upon his breast for a moment,
he flung open his arms as if to receive
the volley. The word was given and
all was over. That shot ended the
empire, reinstated the republic and
forever stripped the church of her vast
secular possessions, leaving only her
places of public worship and the priv
ilege, equally with all other church
es, of ministering to the spiritual
wants of the people. 1t was turn
ing point in Mexican history.
Upon the spot where these three
men stood, three little stone shafts,
five or six feet high and perhaps three
feet apart. marked with the names
of each, now stand, resting upon a
stone foundation and enclosed with
an iron fence. Exactly when this
permanent memorial took the piece
of the three black crosses, which for
long time marked the spot, and
whether erected by the church or by
the government, was not within the
knowledge of my guide.
The civilized world will always ask,
"What necessity, after Maximillian's
surrender, that his life be taken?"
The answer must always be, ''None
whatever, except in the estimation,
alone, of the Mexican people" With
out blood the affair would not have
been Mexican. The only way to
make a point understood in Mexico
is to shoot somebody. G..