Brownsville herald. [volume] (Brownsville, Tex.) 1910-current, 1912-03-30

state. he gained a good reputation
and proved his ability for public Of
fee during his terms as governor,
senator and representative.
When he had faifhfully served his
country for awhile he was elected
to the place of the highest magis-
trate of the Republic-that of pres
ident. AT the time he was inaug-
urated the country was in a very
critical condition. A great civil
war was going on between those
who wanted the progress Of the
country and those who were opposed
to it.
Besides this, the governments of
| France, England and Spain, seeing
a chance of intervening and headed
by Napoleon III determined to send
| Macmillan OF Austria as Emperor
| Of a proposed empire of Mexico;
| besides French troops who were to
| sustain him in the new throne.
But Juarez and his people were
determined not to tolerate an en-
pire according to the dreams OF
| Napoleon. Amidst this crisis he
united his people as a single MAI to
! fight the daring invaders. The gov
| eminent Of the United States hav-
| ing finished their civil war. offered
| aid to Juarez but he was too proud
| and self confident TO accept, replying
| thus: ''Mexico will be triumphant
| alone or will be destroyed alone"
With such men as Ocampo, Doblado
! and Serdo de Tejada in his cabinet,
! and Zaragoza, Gonzalse, Ortega, Diaz
| and Escobado on the battlefield he
| repulsed the foreigners. thus teach
| ing the powers of Europe that it is
| not easy to establish a throne with
in the boundaries of Mexico. The
sea had cast him a crown but he re-
turns to the sea the crown together
with the head Of its owner.
But this was not all his great
work. He saw that unless the state
was separated from the church OF
Rome it would lead it back to the
same conditions as before, but to
this church he opposed his laws Of
reformation, thus granting his peo-
pie their "Carta Magma" giving
them rights to think for themselves,
which rights they did not have be-
fore this reformation.
Somebody has said that the hero
ism of Lincoln has been great; that
Of Juarez was not less. He could
have repeated the sentence OF Lu-
cana, 'Victorix causa dis, sed victa
Catonio." (The cause of victory is
pleasing to the gods, but that Of the
conquered to Cato.) Heroism in
prosperity is wonderful, but in adj
versity ii is sublime.
Left abandoned by all America;
condemned by a teocracy who
wanted to preserve his possessions;
with the sword Of a great empire ex-
tended before his face; surrounded
by a large army, and chief OF a peo-
pie without hope, Juarez does not
surrender to the wishes of destiny,
but rises in the midst of ruins as
the personification Of the Republic
and of his country.
To be great in a great country like
Washington is very easy, but to be
great where everything is small, can
only be obtained by perseverance
amidst disappointment.
Probably a republican of antiquity
or a man Of Plutarch would not
have understood this greatness.
Brutus, the last of the Romans, dur
ing the republican age, in the me-
morable night Of Phillippi after the
battle which decided the fate of the
liberal laws was fought, when sur
rounded by the soldiers of the Tri-
umverate pleads his death at the
| feet of a slave; but Juarez a man
Of the Nineteenth century, confident
in liberty and the laws of progress,
held until the last the flag of his
| republic, because he knew ever in
his %misfortunes that tyrants perish
and liberty can not be ex%tinguished
since God is directing the movements
| of history.