Maximilian in Mexico | Page 5

treated by the press and the government
sympathizers as emanating from youthful hot-brains, or from the lower
ranks of the people, and therefore as unworthy of attention. But those
hot-brains represented the coming thinkers of France, and the
"common" people represented its strength. On the whole, however, in
1862 the more powerful element had rallied to and upheld the
government. The court and the army were so loud in their admiration of
the profound policy of the Emperor that those who heeded the
croakings of the few clear-sighted men composing the opposition were
in the background.
It so happened that my lines had been cast among these, and it is
interesting now, in looking back upon the expressions of opinion of
those who most strenuously opposed French interference in American
affairs, to see how little even these men, wise as they were in their
generation, appreciated the true conditions prevailing in Mexico. None
seriously doubted the possibility of occupying the country and of
maintaining a French protectorate. The only point discussed was, Was
it worth while? And to this question Jules Favre, Thiers, Picard,
Berryer, Glais-Bizoin, Pelletan, and a few others emphatically said,
"No!"
II. THE NEW "NAPOLEONIC IDEA"

The "Napoleonic idea," however, had not burst forth fully equipped in
all its details from the Caesarean brain in 1862. It would be unfair not
to allow it worthy antecedents and a place in the historic sequence. As
far back as 1821, when the principle of constitutional monarchy was
accepted by the Mexicans under the influence of General Iturbide, a
convention known as the "plan of Iguala" had been drawn by Generals
Iturbide and Santa Anna, and accepted by the new viceroy, O'Donoju,
in which it was agreed that the crown of Mexico should be offered first
to Ferdinand VII, and, in case of his refusal, to the Archduke Charles of
Austria, or to the Infante of Spain, Don Carlos Luis, or to Don
Francisco Paulo.
The Mexican embassy sent to Spain to offer the throne of Mexico to
Ferdinand was ill received. The king had no thought of purchasing a
crown which he regarded as his own by the recognition of the
constitutional principle which he had so long fought; and the Cortes
scorned to authorize any of the Spanish princes to accept the advances
of the Mexicans. The result of Spain's unbending policy was a rupture
which involved the loss of its richest colony.
In 1854 General Santa Anna,* then dictator or president for life, had
given full powers to Senor Gutierrez de Estrada to treat with the courts
of Paris, London, Vienna, and Madrid for the establishment of a
monarchy in Mexico under the scepter of a European prince; and Senor
de Estrada, with the consent of the French government, had offered the
throne of his country to the Duc de Montpensier, who wisely, as it
proved, had declined it.
* Santa Anna raised the flag of revolt against his benefactor in 1823.
Iturbide abdicated, was given a pension of twenty-five thousand dollars,
and, at his own suggestion, was escorted to the sea-coast, a voluntary
exile, by a guard of honor. From this time Santa Anna had a hand in all
the revolutions that followed. He himself subsequently fell before an
insurrection of the Liberal party led by the old Indian governor of
Guerrero, General Alvarez.
The Crimean war and the downfall of General Santa Anna checked the
progress of these negotiations, which were resumed as soon as, peace
having been restored, the European powers could turn their attention to
their commercial interests in America, which Senor de Estrada
represented to them as gravely compromised by the encroachments of

the United States in Mexico, and to the grievances urged by their
subjects against the Mexican government.*
* Compare Abbe Domenech, "Histoire du Mexique," vol. ii, p. 360.
In 1859 General Miramon* confirmed the powers given by General
Santa Anna to the Mexican representative; and then it was that, for the
first time, the Emperor commended to his attention the Archduke
Maximilian.
* General Miramon was barely twenty-six when he rose to the first
rank in Mexican politics. Of Bearnese extraction, his father's family
passed over to Spain in the eighteenth century. His grandfather had
gone to Mexico as aide de-camp to one of the viceroys. Miguel
Miramon had served in the war against the United States. He was a
brilliant officer, bold, vigorous, original. During his term of office he
had on his side the clergy, the army, the capital.
It were also unfair not to admit that the varying success of the conflict
between the two factions struggling for supremacy in Mexico was
likely to deceive the European powers, and made it easy for men whose
personal interests were at stake to misrepresent the respective strength
of the contending