Note 75 — Chapter XII · The Sierra Madre.—Todos Santos.—Evening Prayer (La Oracion).—Indian domestic habits.—Religious devotion.—Goitre.—Jacaltenango.—Indian Festival.—A Temblor.—Indian Idolatry.—Custom of ancient inhabitants to serve the parents whose daughters they wished to marry.—Doubtful fidelity of my guide.—Condition of Mule.—Mexican Frontier.—Comitan.—Note on President Juarez, and the Execution of the Emperor Maximilian.
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When I passed through Mexico, the execution of the Emperor Maximilian and the unhappy fate of the Empress Carlotta, were subjects of discussion. It has often been a matter of surprise, that Juarez should have thought it necessary that the sentence of the court-martial should be carried out. The French troops, upon whom the stability of the empire depended, had been withdrawn, and the success of the National party was assured. An act of forbearance upon this occasion would have met with approval, and have been acknowledged as a wise exercise of superior authority. It was however otherwise determined, and the Emperor was shot outside the walls of Querétaro.
In the American official book upon Mexican affairs, there is a memorandum of the conversation between Mr. Seward, the Foreign Secretary, and Señor Matias Romero, the Mexican Minister, at Washington. Mr. Seward stated, that England, France and Austria, had desired the United States to use their good offices for Maximilian, and further observed, that “Mr. Seward does not fear any contingency possible in virtue whereof any European power may attempt to invade or interfere in future in Mexico, or in any other Republican nation on this continent. For this reason he does not think that Mexico need fear any attempt at reprisals on the part of any European powers, as a consequence of any extreme decision which the Mexican Government may take; but at the same time, Mr. Seward also believes that a feeling universally favourable, conciliatory and friendly towards the Republic of Mexico and the other American Republics, would probably be the result of the act of clemency and magnanimity, which the United States have thought proper to recommend.”
Clemency is not a quality that naturally exists in the mind of a North or Central American Indian.