was Indian, a still
larger portion consisted of half-breeds; pure-blooded Spaniards
were a small minority. The feeling that stood Mexico in lieu of
patriotism was a keen hatred and jealousy of foreigners. Their
very pride still keeps the Mexicans from believing that there can
be anything better than what they possess. Perpetual revolutions
had educated the people into habits of lawlessness; and as to
dishonesty, rank itself was no guarantee against petty larceny,
while in the larger rascalities of peculation, bribe-taking, and
political treachery, no nation had ever such opportunities for
exercising its national capacity, nor, apparently, did many Mexicans
have conscientious scruples as to its display.

Under these circumstances it is no wonder that foreign bondholders
complained loudly to their Governments, or that in the general
confusion all manner of wrongs to Englishmen, Frenchmen, Austrians,
and Spaniards called loudly for redress. That cry reached the French
emperor's ears. He proposed to England and Spain that as Mexico had
at last got a government under Juarez, an interventionary force
should appear off her coast, composed of English, French, and Spanish
ships-of-war, and that Mexico should be summoned to redress their
common wrongs.

All this was harmless. The expedition was commanded by the Spanish
General Prim; but under the avowed object of demanding a redress of
grievances, the Emperor Napoleon concealed a more ambitious aim.
The United States were at war; all their resources were absorbed
in civil strife. The most sagacious statesmen could not foresee that
the end of that strife would be to make the country more great,
more rich, more formidable; and Napoleon thought it was the very
moment for attacking the Monroe doctrine, and for making, as he
said, "the Latin race hold equal sway with the Anglo-Saxon over the
New World." If he meant by the "Latin race" the effete half-Indian,
Mexican and South American peoples, which were to be set as rivals
against the Anglo-Saxon race, represented by Yankees, Southerners,
men of the West, and the English in Canada, he was widely wrong in
his calculation; but it is probable that "Latin" was his synonym
for "French" in this connection.

The Monroe doctrine, as all Americans know, took its rise from
certain words in a Presidential message of Mr. Monroe in 1822,
though they were inserted in the message by Mr. Adams. They were
to the effect that the United States wou