The Mexican Empire.
So we are to have an Empire and are to have an Emperor living and being in
North America and event forbidden long ago by the "greatest nation in all creation," and interdicted by both the "Eagle" and the "Stars and Stripes!" Were the
Yankee nation free from the war which now absorbs all their means and exercises all their ingenuity, they would beyond doubt essay to defeat the
Empire and the
Emperor; but the moment of their close occupation in our subjugation is selected by the
French Emperor as the most fitting for the introduction of his policy — Napoleonic ideas — into
Mexico!
They will be indignant at the event, and may well discern in it that which is most unfavorable to their barring and domineering over this continent.
They will profess to be horrified at the imperial character of the new Government, while they are themselves the slaves of the vilest and most degraded tyranny that ever cursed the earth.
The South is content, nay, pleased, with the change of affairs in
Mexico — with the prospect of order and security in that country, and its control, at least during pupilage, by a Power altogether friendly to us. Under it the industry of the nation will improve and the tide of commerce and of power in the
Gulf be immensely swelled in volume.
This will be beneficial to the
South and, of course, detrimental to the
North, which must the more certainly cease to be the point of settlement for the continent.
It will no longer ship everything, import everything, buy everything, sell everything, and have all the money in its own hands.
To maintain this position it is now fighting and expending all its means.
It would freely sell out and spend every dollar it is worth to-day to accomplish this and think it had made a grand speculation.
But secession has deprived them of it, and the elevation of
Mexico in the scale of nations will help still further to keep them forever from recovering it.
With a strong and steady Government, and security to person and property,
Mexico will become a great producing country — her productions, too, being of that character most important to commerce.
It is a most remarkable country, covering an era of eight hundred and twenty nine thousand nine hundred and sixteen English square miles, being one fourth as large as
Europe!
Traversed through its whole length by the immense mountain range of the Cordilleras, it embraces within its limits every degree of temperature from the torried to the frigid.
The sea coast to an interior elevation of two thousand feet above the sea is the
tierras calientes or hot region, with a mean temperature of 77 degrees.
The region above that to five thousand feet above the sea is the
ras templadas, or temperate region, with a mean temperature of 68 degrees; and the third elevation to the line of perpetual snow is the
tierras frias, or cold region.
The city of
Mexico is within this last, 7,400 feet above the ocean.
Humboldt says that in the ascent from
Mexico the climates succeed each other in layers, and the traveller passes in review in the course of two days the tropical plants and the princess of the
Arctic regions.
A country with so diversified a temperature and soil as
Mexico will produce everything known to the agriculturist.
Her productions, however, may be considered chiefly cotton, coffee, tobacco, indigo, flax, hemp, vanilla, jalap, and cochineal.
Sugar might also be produced.
Dye-woods, mahogany, and other products of the forests, are very valuable.
Of these productions
Mexico has exported considerably; but owing to the disturbed condition of the country no fair estimate of its capacity can be formed from its statistics.
It is beyond doubt one of the most fruitful countries on the globe.
The chief source of wealth of
Mexico to this time has been its mines.
The silver mines, said to be over forty in number, yield and average of near $40,000,000 per annum.
Gold is also found in considerable quantity.
Quicksilver is abundant, the yield being near three hundred thousand pounds per annum.
Mexico has done something in the way of manufacturing — having 72 cotton factories, 6 woolen factories, 8 paper mills, 4 glass factories, &c.
The population numbers 7,661,520, only one million of which is pure white.
Four million are
Indians, and the remainder negroes and mixed breeds.
Here is indeed a vast country with vast resources.
The Emperor of
France is farseeing enough to appreciate its advantages and know what may be achieved with them in time to come.
With order and security, enterprise, industry, and capital will flock to
Mexico, and it will assume a position as a producing and commercial nation that will surpass the largest calculations.
The
Yankees will be made to deplore the day when their folly and malignity combined brought about the events which placed
Mexico in the hands of an European power, and thus lost to themselves the opportunity and the means of controlling that country and its commerce to their own advantage.
Had they respected the rights of the
South, and been true to the
American Constitution, it is hardly probable that
Mexico would have found a ruler in
Europe.
Since they have broken up the
Union, it is all the better for the
South that
Mexico is placed beyond their grasp, and is under the direction of a power whose character and interests assures us of peace, security, and friendship on our Southern border, Therefore the
South may well exclaim, "Long live the
Mexican Empire!"
