As long as the French forces remained his throne was secure. The prompt and decisive action of Secretary Seward sounded the death knell of Maximilian’s ambitions. Napoleon withdrew his troops, and Maximilian might have easily escaped had he not wavered between ambition and discretion,—the former eventually winning. He met death with dignity and said “May my blood be the last spilt for the welfare of the country.”
During all of these years Juarez maintained a semblance of authority and kept a cabinet under appointment although he was finally driven to the American border. Yet he could wait, for he had inherited from his dusky ancestors the qualities of patience, endurance and imperturbability. He also had executive ability and an abundance of good sense. After the execution of Maximilian he made a triumphal entry into Mexico. The country was impoverished. The short empire had added a national debt of $187,000,000. More than one thousand battles and skirmishes had occurred between 1863 and 1867, and a hundred thousand Mexicans had been killed or disabled. The people were still restless and an increasing element began to say that he had been president long enough. He was unmoved, but kept steadily on his way trying to better the condition of the people, improve the finances and bring prosperity to his country. The iron constitution finally gave way and he died on the 19th of July, 1872, beloved and honoured by his country. He deserves to be called the Washington of Mexico, for the real liberty of a republican form of government began with him. He had prepared the way for his successors to bring peace, prosperity and liberty to a country that for centuries had been groping and striving after such a condition. Juarez lies buried beneath a magnificent monument in the Panteon de San Fernando, in the City of Mexico.
Upon the death of Juarez the constitutional succession to the chief magistracy fell upon Lerdo de Tejada, who occupied that office for four years. The subsequent history of Mexico, however, centres around the personality of Porfirio Diaz, and the events of his long administration and final downfall are treated in the two following chapters.
CHAPTER XX
THE GUIDING HAND
“I should like to live fifty years to see the result of the seed I have planted,” said Porfirio Diaz a number of years ago. It is not within the limit of human possibility that such a boon could be granted this amiable “republican despot” but he had lived long enough to see the good results of the policies established by him for the upbuilding of his country.
Succeeding to a government that had been in the throes of revolution ever since the patriot-priest Hidalgo first proclaimed independence on the 16th of September, 1810, President Diaz at once restored peace to the country that has lasted for thirty years. Inheriting a bankrupt treasury from his predecessors, and a large foreign debt that had on several occasions brought about foreign intervention, he succeeded in placing the finances of the country in a prosperous condition and has accomplished more for Mexico than had been done in three centuries of Spanish rule. He organized the army along modern lines and established the rurales which insured the safety of life and property. Railroads under the wise system of encouragement inaugurated by him have increased from three hundred and fifty miles to thirteen thousand five hundred miles; telegraph lines from four thousand five hundred miles to thirty-five thousand miles; the number of post-offices now number two thousand three hundred and fifty instead of seven hundred and twenty as it was in 1876. Imports and exports have doubled several times, and the annual balance sheet now shows a comfortable surplus instead of a deficit as in former days. All this has been done and old obligations met in spite of the serious loss in exchange due to the depreciation in silver, and the fact that the heavy foreign obligations had to be met in gold purchased with silver at a low and constantly varying valuation.
A COMPANY OF RURALES