of Church property, and wellnigh crushed
out organized resistance.

Not only, then, did this sorely tried Republic begin its precarious
existence with a people wholly unapt for freedom and embittered by
caste-feeling, but, from the outset, it was so divided by a broad gulf
of political dissension, that the whole body politic has ever since been
in reality cloven asunder.

* * * * *

We have omitted from their proper place the Texan War and its
consequences, which in their turn have done more than any one cause to
weaken and dishonor Mexico,--not so much because they took away from her
valuable districts as because they advertised to the whole world what
feebleness was behind great apparent power. We tread now upon the embers
of an extinguished controversy. And while around us blaze the lurid
flames of a mightier conflagration, which it helped to kindle, we could
not wish to stir again its ashes. But seeking the causes of the downfall
of Mexico, we can hardly omit the weightiest cause.

The Texans were, as we all know, a people who came for the most part
from the United States, and who were drawn southward by the combined
influence of a genial climate and liberal gifts of land. These
attractions had but one drawback, and that was of a religious nature. By
the very terms of the gift, all emigrants were, or became, or professed
to become, Roman Catholics. In many cases marriages of long standing
were reconsecrated with Catholic ceremonies, while the children were
baptized at Catholic altars. Until the year 1835 the Texans had been
citizens of Mexico,--the district which they inhabited, together with
Coahuila, making a sovereign state and constituent part of that federal
republic. Though the Texans had thus lived for many years under the
protection of Mexican law, it would not be true to say that they had
done so always cheerfully or even peaceably. There had been much
smothered discontent, and some open violence. The reasons were various.
The vexations, and perhaps oppression, incident to the rapid and violent
changes of the Mexican government, led to much ill feeling, and
engendered controversies not easily put to sleep. The natural
averseness, too, of a people of Anglo-Saxon origin to yield obedience,
however legitimate, to a mixed race like the Mexicans, created
bitterness, which was intensified by the arrogant and reckless temper
characteristic of no small part of the Texan people. La